Since then,they’ve grown frustrated with the damage they say wake boats cause to their shoreline and thelake that is about 35 miles northeast of Muskegon. Michigan overall has about 830,000 registered boats, according to industry records, but it’sunknown how many are wake boats because the Michigan Secretary of State categorizes allinboard boats together. She pointed toan industry-funded study that concluded wake boat waves require only 200 feet to dissipate tonormal levels. That would put many smaller lakes in Michigan off-limits to wake boats, including the one onwhich Cain and Bradcoski live. Last year, they purchased a$14,000 boat lift to protect their pontoon from getting banged up when wake boats pass.