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1998 SESSION


CHAPTER 563
An Act to amend and reenact § 29.1-700 of the Code of Virginia, to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 29.1-749.1, and to repeal § 29.1-747 of the Code of Virginia, relating to insurance for personal watercraft rentals.
[H 576]
Approved April 15, 1998

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 29.1-700 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 29.1-749.1 as follows:

§ 29.1-700. Definitions.

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.

"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.

§ 29.1-749.1. Personal watercraft rentals to be insured; local option.

Any locality may by ordinance establish standards for insurance coverage for any business which provides personal watercraft for rent.

2. That § 29.1-747 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.