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1998 SESSION

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HOUSE BILL NO. 576 House Amendments in [ ] -- February 6, 1998 A BILL 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 liability insurance for personal watercraft rentals. ----------
Patrons-- Purkey, Croshaw, Tata, Wagner and Wardrup; Senators: Forbes, Schrock and Stolle
---------- Referred to Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources ----------

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 outboard motor, or ] 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.

Any business which provides personal watercraft for rent shall have a [ one million dollar ] liability insurance policy insuring the insured against loss from any liability because of bodily injury to or death of any person caused by an accident arising out of the use or operation of such personal watercraft [ , in the following amounts:

1. For one to fifteen rental personal watercraft, a minimum coverage of two million dollars;

2. For sixteen to thirty rental personal watercraft, a minimum coverage of three million dollars; and

3. For thirty-one or more rental personal watercraft, a minimum coverage of five million dollars. Evidence of such liability coverage shall be kept on the premises and be made available upon the request of a law-enforcement officer. ]

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 That § 29.1-747 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.