                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DEFINITIONS (§ 29.1-700)

As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires a different
meaning:
		&#8220;Motorboat&#8221; means any vessel propelled by machinery whether or not
the machinery is the principal source of propulsion.
		&#8220;No wake&#8221; means operation of a motorboat at the slowest possible
speed required to maintain steerage and headway.
		&#8220;Operate&#8221; means to navigate or otherwise control the movement of a
motorboat or a vessel.
		&#8220;Owner&#8221; means a person, other than a lien holder, having the
property in or title to a motorboat. The term includes a person entitled to the
use or possession of a motorboat subject to an interest in another person,
reserved or created by agreement and securing payment of performance of an
obligation, but the term excludes a lessee under a lease not intended as
security.
		&#8220;Personal watercraft&#8221; means a motorboat less than sixteen feet in
length which uses an inboard motor powering a jet pump, as its primary motive
power and which 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.
		&#8220;Vessel&#8221; means every description of watercraft, other than a
seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of
transportation on water.
		&#8220;Waters of the Commonwealth&#8221; means any public waters within the
territorial limits of the Commonwealth, the adjacent marginal sea and the high
seas when navigated as a part of a journey or ride to or from the Virginia
shore.

HISTORY: Code 1960, c. 500, § 62-174.2; 1962, c. 626; 1968, c. 659, §
62.1-167; 1972, c. 412; 1987, c. 488; 1998, cc. 84, 443, 512, 514, 515, 533,
537, 563.