Chapter 4: The Legal Requirements of Boating
Requirements Specific to Personal Watercraft (PWCs)
In addition to adhering to all boating laws, personal watercraft
(PWC) operators have requirements specific to their vessel.
- Every person on board a PWC must wear a U.S.
Coast Guard–approved personal flotation
device (life jacket).
- An operator of a PWC equipped with a lanyard-type ignition
safety switch must attach the lanyard to
his or her person, clothing, or PFD.
- PWCs may be operated only between one-half hour before sunrise
and one-half hour after sunset.
- There are age restrictions
on operators of personal watercraft.
- It is illegal to operate a personal watercraft in an unsafe
or reckless manner. Examples of unsafe PWC operation include:
- Becoming airborne or completely leaving the water while
crossing the wake of another
vessel within 100 feet of the vessel creating the wake
- Weaving through congested traffic
- Operating at greater than “slow,
no wake” speed within 100 feet of an anchored
or moored vessel, shoreline, dock, pier, swim float, marked
swim area, swimmer, surfer, person fishing, or any manually
propelled vessel
- Failing to observe the navigation
rules or following too close to another vessel, including
another personal watercraft (Note: Following too close
means moving in the same direction and operating at a speed
greater than 10 miles per hour when approaching within
100 feet to the rear or 50 feet to the side of another
vessel that is underway, unless the vessel is in a channel
too narrow to keep the required distance, in which case
a PWC may be operated at a speed that is reasonable and
prudent.
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Towing a Person with a Vessel
Legally
Vessel operators towing a person(s) on water skis, an aquaplane,
or any other device also must obey these laws.
- Every vessel towing a person(s) on water skis, an aquaplane,
or other device must have on board, in addition to the operator,
an observer at least 12 years old and in a position to observe
the progress of the person(s) being towed. Boats equipped with
a wide-angle, convex, marine rear-view mirror in a position to
observe the skiers being towed are exempt from this requirement;
however, PWC operators may not substitute a mirror for an observer
(that is, a PWC must have an observer at least 12 years old).
- All persons being towed behind a motorboat or
motorized device on water skis, an aquaplane, or other device
must wear a USCG–approved PFD (life jacket).
- It is illegal for vessels to tow a person(s) on water skis,
an aquaplane, or other device between one-half hour after sunset
and one-half hour before sunrise. This restriction does not apply
to night water-skiing or aquaplaning on controlled areas designated
for those purposes where adequate lighting is provided.
- It is illegal to operate or manipulate any towing vessel,
tow rope, or other device in such a way as to cause the towed
device or towed person(s) to collide with or strike any object
or person(s).
- If towing a person on skis or other device with a PWC, the
PWC must be rated to carry at least three people—the operator,
the observer, and the retrieved skier. You may not exceed the
specified number of passengers identified by the PWC manufacturer
as the maximum safe load for the vessel.
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