Section 33-5-22

Safety equipment and lights; flags; capacity plate; flame arrestor, etc., for carburetor.

(a) Every vessel while being operated on the waters of this state shall be equipped with reasonable safety devices and lights as may be required under regulations promulgated by the Commissioner of Conservation and Natural Resources. No person shall operate or give permission for the operation of a vessel which is not equipped as is required by rules and regulations duly promulgated by the commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

(b) All such safety equipment and safety lights required by this section shall meet such standards as the Commissioner of Conservation and Natural Resources may from time to time establish as minimum equipment, and all such safety equipment and safety lights above the minimum requirements which are required by the rules and regulations of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources shall conform with specific standards as may be adopted by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

(c) Airboats shall display a flag 10 by 14 inches on a 12 foot mast.

(d) A diver's flag must be displayed on the surface of any water where skin divers are operating as may be stipulated by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

(e) Every vessel less than 26 feet in length designed to carry one or more persons and to be propelled by machinery as its principal source of power or designed to be propelled by oars shall, if manufactured or offered for sale in this state, have affixed permanently thereto by the manufacturer a capacity plate as required by rules and regulations duly promulgated by the Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. This subsection shall apply to vessels manufactured after January 1, 1971.

(f) Every motorboat shall have the carburetor or carburetors of every engine therein, except outboard motors using gasoline as fuel, equipped with such efficient USCG approved flame arrestor, backfire trap or similar device as may be prescribed by the regulations duly promulgated by the Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

(Acts 1959, No. 576, p. 1442, §17; Acts 1969, No. 1057, p. 1977, §1.)