Revision: Sept. 25, 2023, 10:11 a.m.
2024 SESSION
24-2019.0
10/05
HOUSE BILL [bill number]
AN ACT relative to personal watercraft.
SPONSORS: [sponsors]
COMMITTEE: [committee]
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ANALYSIS
This bill removes the term "ski craft" from laws on navigation of state waters and defines such craft as personal watercraft.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
24-2019.0
10/05
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Four
AN ACT relative to personal watercraft.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Navigation; Waters; Definition of Personal Watercraft. Amend RSA 270:73 to read as follows:
270:73 Definitions. In this subdivision:
I. "Bureau" means the department of safety, bureau of hearings, established pursuant to RSA 21-P:13.
II. "Department" means the department of safety.
III. "Operator" means a person who operates or who has charge of the navigation or use of a [ski craft] personal watercraft.
IV. "Private boat" means a boat as defined in RSA 270:2, V, including a [ski craft] personal watercraft.
V. ["Ski craft" means any motorized watercraft or private boat which is less than 13 feet in length as manufactured, is capable of exceeding a speed of 20 miles per hour, and has the capacity to carry not more than the operator and one other person while in operation. The term includes a jet ski, surf ski, fun ski, or other similar device. "Ski craft" does not include any watercraft or boat with twin hulls and which is greater than 11 feet long, greater than 5 feet wide, and powered by an outboard motor.] "Personal watercraft" means a motor boat 16 feet or less in length that is propelled by jet pump, not propellers, where the operator and riders stand, kneel, straddle, or sit on, rather than inside, the craft.
VI. "Watercraft" means a motorized [ski craft] personal watercraft, capable of being used as a means of transportation on or in the water, except a seaplane.
2 Personal Water Craft; Prohibitions. Amend RSA 270:74-c to read as follows:
270:74-c Personal [Water Craft] Watercraft; Prohibition on Certain Waters.
[I. In this section, "personal water craft" means a motor boat 16 feet or less in length that is propelled by jet pump, not propellers, where the operator and riders stand, kneel, straddle, or sit on, rather than inside, the craft.
II.] No person shall operate a personal [water craft] watercraft at more than headway speed within 300 feet of any marsh land or flat in the Hampton/Seabrook estuary, within 300 feet of the Rye marsh areas to include Witch Creek, Seavey Creek, Berry's Brook, Parson's Creek, Awcomin Marsh, and Rye Harbor Marsh, or within the New Castle Goat Island Back Channel Mooring Field as defined in rules adopted by the Pease Development Authority Pda 500, or that area marked between Shapleigh Island and Goat Island to Red Nun #4 to the Wentworth Bridge, to include the areas around Pest, Leaches, and Clampit Islands, without regard to tide height, or the landing in Hampton Falls to Hampton. Such water craft shall stay in marked channels. This [paragraph] section shall not apply to watercraft operated by police, fire, or other emergency services
3 Name Change; Ski Craft to Personal Watercraft. Amend the following RSA provisions by replacing the words "ski craft" with the words "personal watercraft": 72-A:4, I; the subdivision heading preceding RSA 270:73; 270:74; 270:74-a; 270:74-b; 270:113; and 487:16-c.
4 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.