TITLE 67

STATE GOVERNMENT AND STATE AFFAIRS

CHAPTER 70

IDAHO SAFE BOATING ACT

67-7003.  Definitions. In this chapter:

(1)  "Actual physical control" means being in the operator’s position of the vessel with the motor running or with the vessel moving.

(2)  "Aids to navigation" means such buoys, batons, markers or other fixed objects in the water that are established and used to mark obstructions or to direct navigation through separate channels.

(3)  "Authorized vendor" means a retail/commercial enterprise or government office authorized by the department to sell certificates of number as provided in section 67-7008, Idaho Code.

(4)  "Boating law administrator" means the staff person of the Idaho department of parks and recreation appointed by the director and who supervises the boating program.

(5)  "Commercial vessel" means any vessel used in the carriage of any person or persons or property for a valuable consideration, whether directly or indirectly flowing to the owner, partner, agent or any other person interested in the vessel.

(6)  "Department" means the Idaho department of parks and recreation.

(7)  "Director" means the director of the Idaho department of parks and recreation.

(8)  "Duly constituted water ski school" means a profit-making business that files Idaho income tax returns in accordance with chapter 30, title 63, Idaho Code, substantiating that instruction of water ski students for the making of a profit is or was being performed by the instructor.

(9)  "Float house" means a floating structure which is designed and built to be used, or is modified to be used, as a stationary waterborne residential dwelling, has no mode of power of its own, is dependent for utilities upon a continuous utility linkage to a source originating onshore, and has a permanent continuous connection to a sewage system on shore.

(10)  "Float tube" means any vessel constructed of canvas, nylon or other material encasing an inflatable inner tube which allows the operator to sit inside with his legs dangling below the vessel.

(11) "Lifeboat" means a vessel that is owned by the owner of a vessel for which a valid certificate of number has been issued, is kept with the numbered vessel during normal operation of the numbered vessel, and is used solely in life-threatening situations.

(12) "Length of vessel" means the distance measured at the centerline at the highest point above the waterline from the fore-part of the outer hull at the bow to the aft-part of the outer hull at the stern, excepting any bowsprits, railings or extraneous or additional equipment.

(13) "Manufacturer" means any person who is engaged in the business of manufacturing or importing new and unused vessels for the purpose of sale or trade.

(14) "Motorboat" means any vessel propelled by machinery that is powered by an energy source other than human effort, whether or not such machinery is the principal source of propulsion.

(15) "Operate" means to navigate or otherwise use a vessel on the water of this state.

(16) "Operator" means any person who controls the direction or propulsion of any vessel on the water of this state.

(17) "Owner" means any person having a property interest in or entitled to the use or possession of a vessel, including a person entitled to the use or possession subject to the interest in another person reserved or created by agreement and securing payment of performance of an obligation, but not including a lessee under lease not intended as security.

(18) "Passenger" means every person carried aboard a vessel other than:

(a)  The owner or his representative;

(b)  The operator;

(c)  A bona fide member of the crew engaged in the business of the vessel who has contributed no consideration for carriage and who is paid for his services; or

(d)  Any guest on board a vessel used exclusively for pleasure purposes who has not contributed any consideration directly or indirectly for his carriage.

(19) "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or body politic, except the United States and the state of Idaho, and includes any agent, trustee, executor, reserve assignee or similar representative of any of the above.

(20) "Personal watercraft" means a small vessel that uses an outboard motor or an inboard motor powering a water jet pump as its primary source of power and is designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on, rather than in the conventional manner of sitting or standing inside, the vessel.

(21) "Private label merchandiser" means any person engaged in the business of selling or distributing, under his own trade name, vessels manufactured by another.

(22) "Regatta," "race," "marine event," "tournament," or "exhibition" means an organized water event of limited duration conducted according to a prearranged schedule.

(23) "Regulatory markers" means any fixed or anchored aid to navigation that is established and used but is not limited to the bathing beach markers, speed zone markers, information markers, swimming or diving markers, floating mooring buoys, fishing buoys, or markers for ski courses or jumps.

(24) "Rules of the road" means the statutory and regulatory rules governing the navigation of vessels as published by the United States coast guard in navigational rules international — inland.

(25) "Sailboard" means a surfboard type sailboat with no freeboard that uses a triangular sail on a swivel-mounted mast not secured to a hull by guys or stays.

(26) "Sailboat" means any vessel equipped with mast(s) and sails(s), dependent upon the wind to propel the vessel in normal course of operation of the vessel.

(27) "Tender" means a vessel that: is equipped with propulsion machinery of less than ten (10) horsepower; is owned by the owner of the vessel for which a valid certificate of number has been issued; displays the number of that numbered vessel followed by the suffix "I"; and is used for direct transportation between the numbered vessel and the shore and for no other purpose.

(28) "Vessel" means every description of watercraft, including a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water, but does not include float houses, diver’s aids operated and designed primarily to propel a diver below the surface of the water, and nonmotorized devices not designed or modified to be used as a means of transportation on the water, such as inflatable air mattresses, single inner tubes, and beach and water toys.

(29) "Watercraft" means those devices designed as a means of transportation on water. Devices that are not considered watercraft are diver’s aids operated and designed primarily to propel a diver below the surface of the water; nonmotorized devices not designed as a means of transportation on water, such as inflatable air mattresses, single inner tubes, beach toys, and water toys; and float houses as defined in subsection (9) of this section.

(30) "Water of this state" means any waters in the state of Idaho over which the state has jurisdiction.

(31) "Whistle or horn" means any sound-producing appliance capable of producing prescribed blasts that complies with the specifications of section 67-7015, Idaho Code.

History:

[67-7003, added 1986, ch. 207, sec. 2, p. 516; am. 1988, ch. 368, sec. 1, p. 1085; am. 1994, ch. 65, sec. 2, p. 129; am. 1996, ch. 54, sec. 1, p. 161; am. 1996, ch. 335, sec. 2, p. 1133; am. 1997, ch. 101, sec. 1, p. 232; am. 1997, ch. 216, sec. 1, p. 636; am. 2014, ch. 338, sec. 16, p. 848; am. 2022, ch. 218, sec. 1, p. 710.]