Maine lakes with motorboat horsepower restrictions.
Depending on your age and way you enjoy your waterfront in Maine, it’s important to know which lakes allow power boats. And the Maine lakes that limit the power attached to the back end of your boat. This blog post covers the A-Z of motorboat horsepower limits. Also the lakes in Maine that don’t allow power besides what you produce with a pair of paddles. Or harnessing the wind with a sail and tightening / loosening ropes.
For starters, in Maine there are do’s and don’t to protect the waterfront. In Maine lakes are protected by shoreland zoning regulations.
Any community can enact stricter Maine shoreland zoning rules and regulations too. So check for the latest on any new lake in Maine you want to fish, jet ski, slide your pontoon boat into on a hot summer day.
I listed and sold an Oakfield Maine lake cottage on Timoney Lake in Aroostook County where under ten horsepower is the rule then and today for motor size.
The owner included in the Maine waterfront property sale the cutest, smallest pontoon boat with a 9.9 horsepower motor for propulsion strapped to the back.
The questions comes up a lot on a Maine real estate call when a buyer wants to know is there a limit to the size of your boat motor.
Sometimes they have a pair of jet skis and want to pull tubes behind whatever brand they put in at the boat launch. Or no no, the cottage or lake lot buyers is not so cranked about jet skis or fast moving power boats. They want to paddle a kayak or have a small say 7.5 horsepower or smaller motor to push the craft around the Maine lake.
The Maine lake survey list is here for depths, types of fish species, temperature, everything about each waterfront jewel.
Where is the list of Maine lakes with motorboat horsepower size limits or that ban anything beyond the paddle power?
Maine lakes with horsepower restrictions, it all depends where you plan to float your boat.
Peace and quiet, no harm to the wildlife or shoreline happens when no motor is pushing you around a Maine lake or pond.
No motor boat lakes or ponds in Maine list.
- Cushman Pond, Lovell,
- Horseshoe Pond, Denmark
- Boston Pond, Denmark
- Bradley Pond, Lovell
- Trout Pond, 13R5
- Wylie Pond, Boothbay
- Little Kennebago Lake, T3R4
- Upper Dam Pool, T4R1 (from gates of dam, downstream or westerly 150 yards)
- Durgin Pond, T2RG BKP WKR
- Little Berry Pond, T2R6 BKP WKR
- Lone Jack Pond, 12RS BKP WKR
- Round Pond, T1 R6 BKP WKR
- Fry Pan Pond, T2R5 BKP EKR
- Blood Pond, T2R13 WELS
- Loon Lake, Rangeley and Dallas Townships
- Martin and/or Long Pond, The Forks Pit
- Big Brook from Burt Garrity Road in T13 R1O WELS to and including Big Brook Lake in T14R1O WELS
- Simpson Pond, Roque Bluff
- Southern most part of Thompson Lake separated from the main body by a causeway known as The Heath, Casco
- Little Pond, Damariscotta
- Moxie Long Bog, Bald Mountain twp.
- Clay Pond, Fryeburg
- Watson Pond, Rome Twp.
- Walton’s Mill Pond, West Farmington
- Sand Pond, Limington Twp.
- Saddleback Lake, Dallas Plt.
- Hooper Pond (Little Sabattus), Greene
- Adams Pond, Boothbay
- Levenseller Pond, Searsrnont
- Portage Lake, T13R6 WELS, that portion known as the Floating Island Area, north and westerly of a line beginning at the eastern edge of the marshy peninsula running out from Hutchinson Ridge, running 50 yards outside of the floating islands in a northerly direction to the mouth of Mosquito Brook
- Quimby Pond, Rangeley
- Jerry Pond, so called, situated within the boundaries, or having a shoreline abutting, the incorporated municipality of Millinocket and the unincorporated Townships being TlR7 and TAR7
- Upper and Lower Ox Brook Lakes in the towns of T6ND, T6R1 and Talmadge
- Snow’s Pond (as referred to in the Dunham-Daves Work Plan) situated west of Rt. 7, Dover-Foxcroft
- Lily Pond, Edgecomb
- Nesowadnehunk (Sourdnahunk) Little, T5R11
This link has the list of Maine lakes not allowing 10 horsepower or larger boat motors.
Here is your list below of Maine lakes or ponds that prohibit larger than 6 horsepower propelling your boat.
- Perley’s Pond, Denmark
- Little Pond, Denmark
- Ell and/or L Pond, Sanford and Wells
- Black Lake, Fort Kent
- Farrington Pond, Lovell
- Heald Pond, Lovell
- Horseshoe Pond, Stoneham and Lovell
- Haley Pond, Rangeley Twp. and dllas Plt.
- Rich Mill Pond, Standish
- Boyd Pond, Bristoll
- Harriman Pond, Dedham
- Long Pond, Denmark
This legislation covered 500 or more horsepower boat limitations on Portage Lake.
Maybe wind power and sailing is more your speed plying back and forth tacking on a Maine lake.
Depends on the day and the strength of the breeze on what type of sailing you will have on any lake in Maine. Check with the town or state regulator. Avoid a game warden giving you a warning or maybe a fine. Think of the loons nesting on that island over there. That the big waves created by round and round too close to shore can cause erosion. Mess up water fowl nesting areas, create sound pollution, etc. Plenty of Maine lakes for recreational boating but know before you go.
Erosion hurts the Maine lake, everything in swimming in it or around the precious body of water.
The lake camp and home owners on a Maine lake work hard to protect it.
Check with the local Maine lake association to learn more about each particular protected waterfront resource.
Some Maine lakes allow a certain horsepower for a period of months but not the entire season. Baxter State Park rules say no motorboats allowed except on Webster and Matagamon Lakes.
The next town over from where I live in Aroostook County Maine is Hodgdon. In the Lt. G. Manuel Wildlife Area in Hodgdon, Cary, Linneus Maine, no motorboats allowed at all. You can have a boat you hand paddle or slide in a kayak, a canoe powered the same way by hand. Why? Bald Eagles, other wildlife like the no motor interruption and others enjoying the natural resource area do too. These are not the place to jet ski and motorboat in Maine and are protected.
Sometimes a retainer wall needs repair and less wave action from large boats that are not 200 feet or more from shoreline.
Respect whatever Maine lake you plan to enjoy any season of the year. Maine is the way life should be. But it does not just happen. Common sense is not enough. Study your lakes in Maine for the do’s and don’ts and respect it please. Be a good steward of the waterfront and protect it, pass it on in as good or better condition than you received it. That’s Maine, the way life should be.
Here is the fee structure for motor boat horsepower size of your watercraft.
Learn the cost of registration whatever you power your boat with on a Mine lake before heading to the launch landing.
Know before you go. Maine lakes and ponds, what size horsepower is allowed can be limited or totally restricted or anything goes.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton Maine 04730 USA