04-16-2007, 11:51 PM
I might be wrong on this but 2 years ago the State (UT) cleared up the whole thing with PFDs and electric motors.
First lets cover PFDs. If it floats you must have a PFD accessible to you NO EXCEPTIONS. For the longest time I got away with my tube is a PFD. No longer can you do that.
Second if you put a motor (any kind) on anything that floats that thing is now a vessel. It now becomes sugject to all rules and regulation of all other vessels. Yes it is true it may have lesser regs because of it's size. One reg that is the same is this you must have a PFD for each person on board. You must also carry a floating device that can be thrown to a person who is overboard. So this means you have say a 9 foot toon. You add a 30 FLbT electric to it. You now have to carry the following, 1 PFD for each person, 1 throwable floatation device, 1 whistle/horn that can be heard from 100 feet. There is current debate as to wether you need to carry a tow rope, but I think that is comming. I was surprised that they didn't require a bail bucket of some sort. When I asked why all the regs for floats. I got 2 answers from 2 different individuals. One was confority it makes it easier to enforce the laws if they are the same for everyone. The other answer was if you don't want to follow these rules then you shouldn't have made a boat out of it. I took that to mean a float is a float you kick them around. You add a motor and you changed your float to a boat follow the rules. But that info came from the same to rangers who use to argue wether they should give me a ticket for not having a PFD on my donut. One would say yes the other would say I wasn't required to have one.
What I know for sure is I haven't put a trolling motor on my toon. Last year they wanted a fortune to lic it. This year the regs make it a boat. I have enough gear to pack on it just to fish. I have no idea where the hell I'd put a throw that I could get to it and still be able to get to everything else. Just my thoughts on this mess.
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First lets cover PFDs. If it floats you must have a PFD accessible to you NO EXCEPTIONS. For the longest time I got away with my tube is a PFD. No longer can you do that.
Second if you put a motor (any kind) on anything that floats that thing is now a vessel. It now becomes sugject to all rules and regulation of all other vessels. Yes it is true it may have lesser regs because of it's size. One reg that is the same is this you must have a PFD for each person on board. You must also carry a floating device that can be thrown to a person who is overboard. So this means you have say a 9 foot toon. You add a 30 FLbT electric to it. You now have to carry the following, 1 PFD for each person, 1 throwable floatation device, 1 whistle/horn that can be heard from 100 feet. There is current debate as to wether you need to carry a tow rope, but I think that is comming. I was surprised that they didn't require a bail bucket of some sort. When I asked why all the regs for floats. I got 2 answers from 2 different individuals. One was confority it makes it easier to enforce the laws if they are the same for everyone. The other answer was if you don't want to follow these rules then you shouldn't have made a boat out of it. I took that to mean a float is a float you kick them around. You add a motor and you changed your float to a boat follow the rules. But that info came from the same to rangers who use to argue wether they should give me a ticket for not having a PFD on my donut. One would say yes the other would say I wasn't required to have one.
What I know for sure is I haven't put a trolling motor on my toon. Last year they wanted a fortune to lic it. This year the regs make it a boat. I have enough gear to pack on it just to fish. I have no idea where the hell I'd put a throw that I could get to it and still be able to get to everything else. Just my thoughts on this mess.
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