I’ve got a little flat bottom skiff that I use to row my family around the local reservoir quite often. Sometimes I just row, sometimes I bring along my electric motor for assisted rowing, especially when it’s loaded. This week is “National Harass the Boating Public Week” and the local sheriffs were out giving “Safety Inspections” and basically clearing the lake of boaters (one by one we were all sent ashore). My father-in-law, daughters and I went for a ride today and got pulled over by the Sheriff. As it turns out my boat has faded ID numbers, I didn’t have a gay two-square-foot-orange distress flag and my registration was in the van, not in my boat (I keep the boat on my van roof all summer). Also, we were over capacity. The US Coast Guard Boat Capacity Plate on my boat says “2 Persons or 300 Pounds” and “385 Pounds, Persons, Motor, Gear”. Clearly we were over that, my father-in-law and I each weigh about 180 lbs and my daughters weigh 30 and 35 pounds (plus motor and battery). The sheriff said that my boat has a two person limit. I asked if my boat was rated for 3 people as long as the total people weight was under 300 pounds. He said, “No, just two persons”. I remained respectful and compliant and he sent me back to shore with a written warning.
Now I’ll be damned if an 11.5’ long by 3.5’ wide flat bottom skiff can’t safely hold a 180 pound adult and two little kids totaling 255 pounds. (This aluminum boat is very light; I can pick it up and carry it around with little difficulty. I row a lot in the summer and it’s one of my favorite forms of exercise. I plan on rowing around quite often this summer with my daughters. The US Coast Guard Boat Capacity Plates are not clear; there are a few ways to interpret the rating:
“2 Persons or 300 Pounds”.
A. Never exceed two people, and the combined weight of those people cannot exceed 300 pounds.
B. Any two people, or more than two people whose combined weight is under 300 pounds.
When I got home I researched this question. I searched all though the USCG site as well as several government sponsored safety sites. After nearly two hours of searching, I could not find a clear answer. I found the same information repeated on dozens of sites, but none clarified my question.
I am guessing that after 30 years of requiring these vaguely worded plates on thousands of boats all over the nation, they have made things a bit more clear; I found two types of plates:
and
My boat is old and has the vague top style plate. I’m guessing that they have recently changed the style to the lower type. Note that the lower style completely drops the number of people. After all, its displacement that counts.
I’m pretty sure that I’m right, but I’d like to have written proof of what the capacity plates really mean that I can hand them if they decide to harass me for taking my girls for a row.
Otherwise, I can always put my daughters in the front hole of my two-hole kayak; kayaks are exempt from capacity plates. It’s kind of ironic that I might take a less safe craft to avoid being harassed about safety.
Do any of you know of a decent lead that might answer the question I seek?
Thanks,
eskimo
