As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires a different meaning:”Motorboat” means any vessel propelled by machinery whether or not the machinery is the principal source of propulsion.”No wake” means operation of a motorboat at the slowest possible speed required to maintain steerage and headway.”Operate” means to navigate or otherwise control the movement of a motorboat or a vessel.”Owner” 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.”Personal watercraft” 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.”Vessel” 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.”Waters of the Commonwealth” 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.