How we launch

Kentucky lets a 12-year-old operate a motorboat over 10 horsepower if they carry a Safe Boating Certificate. Kids under 12 can't operate one at all. Our demo sheet is stricter on purpose.

The person who signs and drives is 18 or older, with a valid driver's license. We don't hand the helm to a minor, card or not. On the twin package, each ski needs its own operator who meets that bar.

A Coast Guard–approved jacket for every person on board, sized at the desk, not grabbed off a nail on the way by. Kids under 12 wear theirs on the open deck while the boat is moving. That's state law, and it's how we leave the slip.

Everyone on a jet ski wears one the whole time. So does anyone on a tube. The ski operator clips the kill-switch lanyard before the engine starts. Personal watercraft come in before sunset. Kentucky doesn't allow them after dark, and neither do we.

You own your wake. Idle through the cove, past the fuel dock, and anywhere a houseboat is tied or somebody's fishing a bank. Once you're clear of the point and the water's open, you can bring it up. We point at the gap during the briefing. That's the speech.

A gray sky is still a lake day. Thunder you can hear, lightning, or a small-craft advisory before you cast off, and we do not launch. The demo hold comes back. If you're already out and the sky turns, you come in. No debate from the desk. We've seen what the channel does.

Glass stays in the car. Cans and a soft cooler. The person at the wheel is sober. Passengers can have a beer on the pontoon. The ski operator does not drink. Not a drop.

Don't jump off limestone you don't know. This lake has shelves, and timber from before Wolf Creek Dam backed the river up. Swim off the ladder, boat stopped, traffic clear.