Are there PWC special regulations for riding personal watercraft? Personal Watercraft (PWC) are small, jet-propelled boats designed to carry one to three people to sit on top rather than inside a vessel. Often referred to as “jet skis,” these watercraft are considered motorboats and are subject to the same regulations as motorboats, including equipment and responsible handling. Additionally, for a life jacket to be considered “readily accessible” on a PWC, it must be worn. All riders must wear their life jackets at all times while the PWC is under way. There are no additional rules addressing PWCs, except when renting them. Idaho law requires those who rent PWCs to deliver education. Afterwards, each rider must carry the state’s verification of education card whenever operating (driving) a rented PWC. If one person out of a large group pays for the rental, he or she is legally responsible to make sure everyone else who rides also views the educational video and carries their own wallet card when they drive. Contact the Boating Program Specialist if you are a PWC rental business needing information. Idaho counties have the authority to enact restrictions for personal watercraft that are more strict than state law. Examples of counties that have stricter laws than the state regarding PWC operation include Bonner and Kootenai Counties. It is your responsibility to know the rules for the county in which you plan to recreate. Idaho and PWC manufacturers recommend that all drivers be at least 16 years old, and that all riders wear a helmet, protective shoes and life jacket. Special concerns for PWC Operators: ¦There is a statewide no-wake zone. Slow to 5 mph within 100 feet of a dock, structure or person in the water. ¦Wake jumping, when the craft is “airborne” close behind another boat is restricted. A safe distance is 100 feet. ¦Towing a skier or tuber requires a manufacturer’s capacity rating for three people. ¦It takes three to ski. The driver must have a passenger serve as the spotter and operate the skier-down flag. The PWC must have three-person seating for the operator, observer, and skier. ¦Operating at night is prohibited without the proper combination of lights installed by the manufacturer. ¦Yield the right-of-way to other powerboats and skiers.

This sub-chapter is in no way to be construed as giving license or permission to cross or go on the property of another. Any person operating an airmobile upon the land of another shall stop and identify himself upon the request of the landowner or the landowner’s duly authorized representative. Any person in violation shall be held accountable to the owner under existing law. If restrictions on operation are posted on the land of another, the person operating the airmobile shall observe those restrictions.

Any boat 16 feet or more in length or any boat carrying six or less passengers for hire on coastal waters must carry U.S. Coast Guard approved visual distress signals (which must be readily available and in good serviceable condition). Devices suitable for day use and devices suitable for night use, or devices suitable for both day and night use must be carried.

Between sunset and sunrise, no person may use a boat less than 16 feet in length on coastal waters unless U.S. Coast Guard approved visual distress signals suitable for night use are on board.

No person may use a boat unless the required U.S. Coast Guard approved visual distress signals are readily available and in good and serviceable condition.

Exceptions. The following persons are exempt from carrying visual distress devices suitable for day use, however, they must carry on board U.S. Coast Guard approved visual distress signals suitable for night use when operating between sunset and sunrise.

a. A person competing in any organized marine parade, regatta, race or similar event;

b. A person using a manually propelled boat; or

c. A person using a sailboat of completely open construction, not equipped with propulsion machinery, under 26′ in length.

In 2007, the Virginia General Assembly enacted a law to establish a boating safety education compliance requirement. This requirement will be phased in over the next several years and by 2016, all operators of PWCs (Personal Watercraft such as jet skis, Sea Doos, Wave Runners) and operators of Motorboats with a 10 hp or greater motor, will be required to have a boating safety education course completion card on board when operating a PWC or Motorboat.

As of July 1, 2010, all PWC operators 35 years old and younger must complete a boating safety course. This is the next phase-in of the Education Compliance Requirement for all Virginia boaters. Beginning July 1, 2011, all PWC operators 50 and younger must take a boating safety course and Boat operators ages 20 and younger need to take a boating safety course.

PWC Age Restriction: No person under the age of 14 may operate a PWC. Those operators 14 and 15 MUST show proof of completing an approved and accepted boating safety course either in a classroom or online. The challenge exam or other provisions of the Education Compliance Requirement do not meet the requirements of the age restriction law.

A Personal Watercraft or PWC, more commonly known as a Sea-Doo® (Bombardier Recreational Products), Waverunner® (Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA), and JET SKI® (Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA), is defined as a motorboat less than 16 feet in length that are powered by jet pumps, not propellers, where the persons stand, kneel, or sit on, rather than inside the boat. Classroom and Internet courses that are NASBLA approved and accepted by VDGIF to meet these requirements are listed at the links below. If you are an experienced boater, you may choose to take an equivalency/challenge exam rather than take a boating safety course.

You may order The California Boating Safety Course or you can download a PDF version (2.9 MB) of the course which can be read offline. You can take the test by contacting the department to obtain a Scantron form that must be completed and mailed to the department for processing. You can obtain a Scantron form by e-mailing a request to sbetzler@dbw.ca.gov or by calling (916) 263-8183. Scantron forms are not available via fax or e-mail. In exchange for successfully completing the course, we will mail you a certificate of completion (please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery).

The California Boating Safety Course: Produced and copyrighted by the Department of Boating and Waterways, this correspondence course allows boaters to study at home at their own pace and covers state and federal boating law, rules of the road, boat handling, required equipment, navigational aids, accident reporting, and special topics.

Approved by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators and recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard, this course includes an optional exam with two answer sheets. The exam consists of 50 questions. Once completed, the answer sheet can be forwarded to the department for grading. Those who successfully complete the course are awarded Certificates of Completion which are recognized by many insurance companies for discounts on boat insurance policies.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. It is produced when carbon-based fuel, such as gasoline, propane, charcoal, or oil, burns. Sources on your boat may include engines, gas generators, cooking ranges, grills, space and water heaters.

Yes, Age Required To Wear: AZ: A person, age 12 or younger, must wear a Type I, II, III, life jacket while the vessel is underway. When wearing a life jacket, all closures must be secured according to the manufacturer’s design. CA: 13 and under must wear Type I, II, III, or V life jacket when on vessel of 26’ or less while underway. NV: Children under 13 must wear a life jacket when the watercraft is underway, except when inside an enclosed cabin. PWC: AZ: Each person on board must wear a life jacket. CA: Each person on board must wear a Type I, II, III or V life jacket. NV: The operator and all passengers must wear a life jacket. Towed Devices: AZ: Each person being towed must wear a life jacket, buoyant belt, or other flotation aid. If a buoyant belt or flotation aid is used, a life jacket must be on board the towing vessel for each person being towed. CA: Each person being towed must wear a Type I, II, III, V life jacket. NV: Each person being towed must wear a life jacket.

Physical damage and liability encompass the two major sections of a yacht insurance policy. The physical damage covers accidental loss or damage to the boat and its machinery. It covers the engine, hull, sails, and other equipment on board required for boat operation. The liability portion covers your legal obligations to third parties arising from bodily injury or loss of life, or damage to another’s property, as resulting from the ownership or operation of your boat. It also helps pay for your legal defense if you are sued for a liability covered under your yacht insurance policy.

Yacht insurance typically usually covers loss and damage of the vessel from several perils such as wind, rain, hail, lightning, wave action, fires and explosions, sinking, stranding, collision, and jettison. Some policies also include latent defect clauses that cover ships from resulting damages. For example, an error in the vessel hull lamination results in it breaking open and causes it to sink. Latent defects include faulty materials, design, and workmanship, but exclude the cost of repairing or replacing defective parts. They do not cover the actual defect itself and thus such responsibility falls on the manufacturer to provide warranties for their own products.

Both direct loss from fire and fire as a result of some other catastrophe, as well as explosions occurring on- and off-board are covered. Protection includes yacht sinking due to reefs, sunken hulks, and floating debris and stranding against filled channels and sand bars. Yacht insurance can also safeguard the owner from collisions that cause damages to other vessels. Captains voluntarily sacrificing their ship’s cargo to lighten loads during a time of distress, such as rapid sinking, can order a last-ditch jettison and obtain compensation from their yacht insurance company. You may also want to consider additional coverage of personal property for clothing, personal effects, and sports and fishing equipment, and reimbursement for any towing or delivery assistance of fuel or parts.

Are you prepared for hurricane season? Protecting your marine investment consists of more than just having sufficient yacht insurance, although comprehensive coverage is very important.

The East Coast of the United States has been battered by hurricanes and super-storms in recent years, and experts predict that hurricane activity is going to increase. While the last thing recreational and commercial boaters and marine-related businesses want to hear about is more storm activity, especially in the Atlantic, we need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best, as they say.

Here’s what our yacht insurance specialists would like you to know about hurricane preparedness for your boat or yacht:

• Create a hurricane plan.
• Review your marina, dock, or storage facility contract to determine what steps you are obliged to take in the event of a hurricane warning. Take the opportunity to also find out what the facility’s hurricane plan entails. Ensure these details are recorded in your plan.
• Protecting your yacht requires thought about the damaging forces of a hurricane: driving winds, lashing waves, and high water (also known as surge). Consider how you will secure your yacht at a dock or in storage. To guard against high tides inland, longer dock lines correctly positioned can protect your vessel.
• If your boat is on water with a hurricane en route, find a safe harbor. Somewhere sheltered from the open seas and protected by trees is best, and a sandy shore is even better – much gentler for a yacht to be washed up here than on rocks.
• If you need to leave your yacht at a fixed dock, the odds of your vessel surviving a hurricane are greatly improved when you use longer dock lines and chafe guards carefully arranged around your boat—almost like a spider web. Boat U.S. and other marine resources have fantastic illustrations to demonstrate this method.
• If your yacht is stored inland, secure the vessel and trailer with strong ropes or chains to something like pad eyes. It is also a good idea to remove some air from the trailer tires and secure them with cement blocks.
• Make a list of all the items that should be removed from your yacht if a hurricane is predicted. This might include electronic items, sails, and other expensive equipment.
• Check where your yacht insurance policy is stored and review your coverage.
• Get the supplies you will need in advance to secure your yacht. It is better to have items such as dock lines, chafe guards, fenders, and duct tape before a big storm hits than having to fight crowds of last-minute panicked boat owners.
• Ensure that someone trustworthy and capable knows your plan in case you aren’t able to take appropriate action. It is always wise to have a backup – or extra help – when disaster strikes.
• Execute a mock run through of your plan to test how long it takes. A test run is valuable for timing and practice.
• Monitor weather conditions and be ready to take action. Ideally, you will have between 48 and 72 hours to prepare.
  

The other very important step for hurricane preparedness is to review your yacht insurance coverage before hurricane season starts. Aside from benefiting from adequate coverage and extras like hurricane haul-out protection or marine salvage, it is essential to have the basics in place. Insurance companies will not take new insurance applications or requests for increased coverage once a hurricane or super storm is predicted to hit an area.

One of the largest and most trusted boating sites on the internet, YachtWorld.com, and Global Marine Insurance Agency are excited to announce a unique opportunity for those applying for a loan on the Yacht World website.

Just as Yatch World is a trusted name in the yacht industry, Global Marine Insurance is the trusted name in yacht insurance, boat insurance and commercial marine insurance. Our reputation for superior customer service is what has lead to the unique opportunity we would like to highlight.

Yacht World’s website provides a service allowing those seeking to finance a boat purchase to apply for boat loans. Individuals who have completed an application will be given the opportunity to also receive information on boat insurance from Global Marine Insurance. All they have to do is check the “opt in” box on the application. From there a Global Marine Insurance representative will contact them to discuss boat insurance options.

So if you’re looking to purchase a boat from the largest selection of brokerage boats for sale and purchase insurance from the trusted name in boating insurance, you can now do it from one location!

Of course, if you already own a boat and are looking for boat insurance options, check out our website GlobalMarineInsurance.com, or get an online quote!

The Safety Board initiated the current study to more closely examine fatalities and injury in addition to accident characteristics associated with PWC accidents. The study was not designed to estimate how often PWC accidents occur. For PWC accidents that occurred between January and June 1997, the Safety Board requested that State marine accident investigators provide the Safety Board with copies of their accident reports and complete a supplemental questionnaire prepared by the Safety Board specifically for this study.

The goal of the supplemental questionnaire was to obtain additional information concerning the accident characteristics and details concerning personal injury that have not previously been available from State boating accident reports. State accident reports and supplemental information were the sources of the Safety Board’s accident information.

The Safety Board also reviewed State reports of PWC accidents that occurred in 1996. A total of 49 States and Territories provided either copies of their boating accident report forms, automated boating accident report database files, or summary information for 1996 and/or 1997. Because the States voluntarily provided the Safety Board with accident reports and supplemental questionnaire information, and because of the incomplete nature of much of the information, the Safety Board does not claim that the results of the study are representative of all PWC accidents.

The Safety Board analyzed 814 (one-third) of the 1997 reported accidents and examined all of the data for the 1996 reported accidents. Consequently, the Board believes that a substantial number of accidents was available to identify the most important safety issues associated with PWC accidents. Further, the Safety Board’s analysis did not show any biases in the types of accidents in the half-year of 1997 accidents compared to the full year of 1996 accidents.

The Safety Board’s interest in truncating the 1997 data collection period to 6 months was based on a goal of providing the results of this study prior to the 1998 summer boating season. Based on the analysis of the data reviewed, the safety issues discussed in this report include the following: · protecting personal watercraft riders from injury, · operator experience and training, and · boating safety standards. The study also addressed the need for recreational boating exposure data. As a result of this study, recommendations were issued to the manufacturers of personal watercraft, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the U.S. Power Squadrons, BOAT/U.S., the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, the Personal Watercraft Industry Association, and the States and Territories. The recommendations focus on the safe operation of personal watercraft.Personal watercraft (PWC) are a type of recreational boat that has become increasingly popular in recent years.

Manufacturers estimate that about 200,000 PWC are sold each year and that more than 1 million are in current operation. Although the overall number of recreational boating fatalities has been declining in recent years, the number of personal watercraft-related fatalities has been increasing. PWC are the only type of recreational vessel for which the leading cause of fatalities is not drowning; in PWC fatalities, more persons die from blunt force trauma than from drowning. The National Transportation Safety Board initiated this study to more closely examine fatalities and injury in addition to accident characteristics associated with PWC accidents.

The study was not designed to estimate how often PWC accidents occur, nor are the results of the study necessarily representative of all PWC accidents. The Safety Board analyzed 814 (one-third) of the 1997 reported accidents and examined all of the data for the 1996 reported accidents, which the Board believes provided a substantial number of accidents to identify the most important safety issues associated with PWC accidents. The safety issues discussed in the report include (a) protecting PWC riders from injury; (b) PWC operator experience and training; and (c) boating safety standards.

The study also addressed the need for recreational boating exposure data. Safety recommendations concerning these issues were made to the manufacturers of PWC, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the U.S. Power Squadrons, BOAT/U.S., the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, the Personal Watercraft Industry Association, and the States and Territories.

Generally, every sail-powered vessel over eight feet in length and every motor-driven vessel (regardless of length) that is not documented by the U.S. Coast Guard which is used or on the waters of this state are subject to registration by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The vessel must be located in California.

Vessels previously registered in other states must be registered in California within 120 days of being brought into the state, if it will be used upon California waterways the majority of the time.

The term vessel applies to every description of water-craft used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water, except the following:

A seaplane on the water.
A watercraft specifically designed to operate on a permanently fixed course and guided by a mechanical device that restricts the watercraft’s movement to the fixed course.
A floating structure that is designed and built to be used as a stationary waterborne residential dwelling, which, (a) does not have and is not designed to have a mode of power of its own, (b) is dependent for utilities upon a continuous utility linkage to a source originating on shore, and (c) has a permanent, continuous hookup to a shore side sewage system.

It is illegal to discharge waste, oil, or trash into any state or federally controlled waters. It is important to take care of our water and planet:

Sewage carries disease and is harmful to people, aquatic plants, and animals.

Trash thrown into the water can injure swimmers and wildlife alike. It also can plug engine-cooling water intakes.

Pollution is unsightly and takes away from your enjoyment of the water.

Vessel operators need to be aware of the regulations for waste, oil, and trash disposal that apply to both federally controlled and state waters. The Refuse Act prohibits throwing, discharging, or depositing any refuse matter of any kind (including trash, garbage, oil, and other liquid pollutants) into the waters of the United States.