California Harbors and Navigation Code ARTICLE 1 - Operation and Equipment

• Section 650.
  It is the policy of this state to promote safety for persons and property in and connected with the use and equipment of vessels and...
• Section 650.1.
  (a) This chapter shall apply to vessels and associated equipment used, to be used, or carried in vessels used on waters subject to the jurisdiction of...
• Section 651.
  As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires a different meaning:(a) “Alcohol” means any form or derivative of ethyl alcohol (ethanol).(b) “Alcohol concentration” means either...
• Section 651.1.
  As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires a different meaning, “bather” or “bathing” means a person floating, swimming, wading, or bodysurfing, with...
• Section 651.5.
  The Department of Motor Vehicles shall provide every person who originally registers, or who acquires the ownership certificate of, a vessel required to be numbered...
• Section 652.
  (a) The department may issue regulations to do all of the following:(1) Establish minimum safety standards for boats and associated equipment.(2) Require the installation, carrying, or using of...
• Section 652.5.
  (a) The use of a distinctive blue light as prescribed by the department is reserved for public safety vessels and may be displayed during the day...
• Section 654.
  (a) (1) For the purposes of this section, a “muffler” or “muffler system” is a sound suppression device or system that is designed and installed to abate...
• Section 654.03.
  (a) A person may not manufacture for sale a motorized recreational vessel that is not equipped with a muffler or muffler system, as defined in subdivision...
• Section 654.05.
  (a) The owner of a motorized recreational vessel that is numbered pursuant to Section 9850 of the Vehicle Code, or that is documented by an agency...
• Section 654.06.
  No person shall sell or offer for sale at retail any internal combustion engine for use on any motorized recreational vessel which, when operated, exceeds...
• Section 654.1.
  Boating facilities constructed with funds derived from the state shall be required as a condition for the receipt of such funds to provide shoreside facilities...
• Section 654.3.
  (a) Each diesel powered vessel operating exclusively in California, engaged in the commercial transport of passengers with the capacity to transport 75 passengers or more, shall...
• Section 654.5.
  A person who maliciously throws, hurls, or projects an object by manual, mechanical, or other means at a vessel or an occupant of a vessel...
• Section 655.
  (a) No person shall use any vessel or manipulate water skis, an aquaplane, or a similar device in a reckless or negligent manner so as to...
• Section 655.05.
  (a) No person shall operate a vessel other than a recreational vessel for 24 hours if the person is found by a peace officer to have...
• Section 655.1.
  (a) As used in this section, “mechanically propelled vessel” means any vessel actively propelled by machinery, whether or not the machinery is the principal source of...
• Section 655.2.
  (a) Every owner, operator, or person in command of any vessel propelled by machinery is guilty of an infraction who uses it, or permits it to...
• Section 655.3.
  The department may adopt regulations to establish and maintain for the use of vessels and the equipment on vessels on the waters of this state...
• Section 655.4.
  (a) No person shall serve as a crew member on any charter boat while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, any drug, or the combined influence...
• Section 655.5.
  (a) Whenever a person convicted of any violation of subdivision (b), (c), (d), (e), or (f) of Section 655 is found by the court to have...
• Section 655.6.
  (a) It is an infraction for a person under the age of 21 years who has 0.01 percent or more, by weight, of alcohol in his...
• Section 655.7.
  (a) A person operating a personal watercraft equipped by the manufacturer with a lanyard-type engine cutoff switch shall attach the lanyard to his or her person,...
• Section 656.
  (a) It is the duty of the operator of a vessel involved in a collision, accident, or other casualty, so far as the operator can do...
• Section 656.1.
  The operator of any vessel involved in an accident in the waters of this state who knows or has reason to know that the accident...
• Section 656.2.
  In addition to the requirements of Section 656.1, the operator of any vessel involved in an accident in the waters of this state who knows...
• Section 656.3.
  In addition to the requirements of Sections 656.1 and 656.2, the operator of any vessel involved in an accident in the waters of this state...
• Section 656.4.
  The department is authorized to develop a program of public information and research in the interest of reducing loss of life and property in the...
• Section 657.
  In accordance with any request duly made by an authorized official or agency of the United States, any information compiled or otherwise available to the...
• Section 658.
  (a) No person shall operate a vessel on any waters for towing a person or persons on water skis, an aquaplane, or a similar device unless...
• Section 658.3.
  (a) A person shall not operate a motorboat, sailboat, or vessel, unless every person who is on board and who is under 13 years of age...
• Section 658.5.
  (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), no person under 16 years of age shall operate a vessel powered by a motor of greater than 15...
• Section 658.7.
  (a) Failure of the operator of a vessel involved in towing a skier to display or cause to be displayed a ski flag, as described in...
• Section 659.
  The department may make rules and regulations for the uniform navigational marking of the waters of this state. Such rules and regulations shall not be...
• Section 660.
  (a) Any ordinance, law, regulation, or rule relating to vessels, which is adopted pursuant to provisions of law other than this chapter by any entity other...
• Section 661.
  (a) Every owner of an undocumented vessel numbered under this code is liable and responsible for the death of or injury to person or property resulting...
• Section 662.
  A copy of the ordinances or local laws adopted pursuant to this chapter, and of any amendments thereto, shall be filed in the office of...
• Section 663.
  Every peace officer of this state or of any city, county, city and county, or other political subdivision of the state shall enforce this chapter...
• Section 663.1.
  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a peace officer may, without a warrant, arrest a person who is involved in an accident in the waters...
• Section 663.5.
  Within the territorial limits of a county, city, or district, a harbor policeman regularly employed and paid as such by the county, city, or district...
• Section 663.6.
  Every vessel subject to this chapter, if under way and lawfully ordered to stop and lie to by a peace officer or harbor policeman authorized...
• Section 663.7.
  (a) Each county of the state is entitled to receive state financial aid for boating safety and enforcement programs on waters under its jurisdiction as provided...
• Section 664.
  (a) When any person is arrested for a violation of this chapter or any regulation adopted by the department pursuant to this chapter or any ordinance...
• Section 665.
  Any person willfully violating his written promise to appear in court is guilty of a misdemeanor regardless of the disposition of the charge upon which...
• Section 666.
  When a person signs a written promise to appear at the time and place specified in the written promise to appear and has not posted...
• Section 667.
  In addition to any other court which may be a proper place of trial, any superior court location where cases of that type are tried,...
• Section 668.
  (a) Any person who violates subdivision (c) of Section 652, Section 654, 654.05, 654.06, 655.7, 658.3, 659, 673, 674, or 754, or any regulations adopted pursuant thereto,...
• Section 668.1.
  (a) A person convicted of a violation of subdivision (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), or (f) of Section 655, or of Section 655.2, 655.6, 655.7, 658,...
• Section 668.2.
  The department may grant funds from the Harbors and Watercraft Revolving Fund to local public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and colleges and universities for scholarship funding...
• Section 668.3.
  (a) For the purposes of Section 668.1, the department shall approve boating safety courses that it determines provides the course taker with information that effectively educates...
• Section 669.
  The regulations adopted by the department pursuant to this chapter shall be adopted in accordance with Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1...
• Section 673.
  The owner of a boat livery shall cause to be kept a record of the name and address of the person or persons hiring any...
• Section 674.
  Neither the owner of a boat livery nor his agent or employees shall permit any vessel to be delivered to a renter unless it shall...

Last modified: October 22, 2018