Spokane Municipal Code

Title 16A Transportation

Chapter 16A.60 Rules of the River

Section 16A.60.010 Definitions

Terms in this chapter shall mean as follows:

1. “Boat livery” means a business which holds any vessel for renting or leasing.

2. “Boating accident” means a collision, sinking, fire, explosion, injury or loss of life that involves a vessel, its equipment or its appendages.

3. “Buoy” means a floating device or marker anchored in the water. All buoys, except for recreational buoys, shall comply with the Uniform State Waterway Marking System (USWMS).

4. “Buoy line” means a straight line that would exist if drawn between the closest safety buoys.

5. “Dock” means any manmade platform extending from the shoreline into the water.

6. “Flotation device” means any device used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on the water and shall include, but not be limited to, inflatable beach toys, rubber inner tubes, rafts and air mattresses.

7. “Mooring buoy” means a buoy placed for the mooring of vessels. Such buoys will be white with a blue stripe on top.

8. “Motorboat” means any vessel propelled in whole or part by machinery, including those temporarily equipped with detachable motors.

1. “Moving water” means a waterway which has a flow of water which can be measured in cubic feet per second.

10. “Navigation lights” means a red port light and a green starboard light and a white stern light visible at a distance of one hundred yards.

11. “Non-motorized vessel” means sailboats or vessels that are paddled, poled, or rowed.

12. “Operator” means a person who is in actual physical control or in charge of a vessel when it is in use.

13. “Owner” means a person who claims lawful possession of a vessel by virtue of legal title or equitable interest therein which entitles them to such possession.

14. “Personal flotation device (PFD)” means life preservers, life vests, flotation rings, or buoyant cushions approved by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and designed to float a person in the water.

1. 1. Type I PFDs are designed for rough or remote waters where rescue may take a while. These devices are designed to turn an unconscious person face up in the water.

1. 2. Type II PFDs are designed for calm waters when a quick rescue is likely. These devices may not turn some unconscious persons face up in the water.

1. 3. Type III PFDs are designed for calm waters when a quick rescue is likely. These devices are not designed for rough waters as they will not turn most unconscious persons face up in the water.

1. 4. Type IV PFDs are designed to be thrown to a person in the water. They are not designed to be worn.

14. 5. Type V PFDs are designed to be for special activities such as kayaking and water-skiing.

15. “Personal watercraft” means a Class “A” inboard vessel, as defined by the U.S. Coast Guard, which uses an internal combustion engine powering a water jet pump as its primary source of motive propulsion and is designed to be operated by a person or persons sitting, standing or kneeling or being towed behind the product, rather than in the conventional manner of boat operation.

16. “Port” is the left side of a vessel while facing forward.

17. “Safety buoy” means a buoy placed to regulate or control vessel speed or operations as required for the safety of the public.

18. “Sailboat” means any vessel propelled primarily by the wind.

19. “Shoreline” means any existing waterline.

20. “Ski or swimming dock” means a manmade platform anchored to the bottom of a body of water.

21. “Starboard” means the right side of a vessel while facing forward.

5. “Underway” means that a vessel is not at anchor, or made fast to the shore, or a ground.

23. “Use” means to operate, navigate or employ.

10. “Vessel” means any watercraft used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on the water. This definition shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

1. 1. Rowboats,

1. 2. Sailboats,

1. 3. Motorboats,

1. 4. Canoes,

1. 5. Kayaks,

1. 6. Paddleboards,

1. 7. Flotation Devices,

1. 8. Personal watercraft, and

1. 9. Hover craft.

25. “Wake speed” means a slow speed producing a wake not to exceed six inches in height at its apex when reaching any shoreline, dock or manmade structure on the shoreline and further not to exceed five miles per hour in any event.

26. “Waterway” is any waters, waterway, lake, river, tributary canal, lagoon or connecting waters within the incorporated boundaries of the City of Spokane.

Date Passed: Monday, April 23, 2018

Effective Date: Sunday, June 3, 2018

ORD C35612 Section 4