Improper Speed or Distance

Colorado law designates the following dangerous operating practices as illegal.

Improper Speed or Distance is not maintaining a proper speed and/or distance while operating a vessel. Specifically, the following acts are illegal.

• Operating a vessel at a distance from other vessels or at a speed that exceeds safe and reasonable limits given the waterway traffic, marked speed limits, weather, and other boating conditions
• Operating a vessel at greater than 40 miles per hour, except during authorized marine events
• Operating a vessel at greater than “slow, no wake speed” in any posted “no wake” zone
• Operating a vessel at greater than “slow, no wake speed” within 150 feet of:
  • Any swimming area
  • A moored vessel
  • A person in a vessel engaged in servicing buoys or markers
• Operating or anchoring a vessel within 150 feet of any person fishing on shore, except where narrow passages or coves make keeping this distance from shore impractical
• Operating a vessel so that the vessel or its wake endangers or interferes with any person or property