#### § 173.3 Definitions.

As used in this part—

*Airboat* means a vessel that is typically flat-bottomed and propelled by an aircraft-type propeller powered by an engine.

*Auxiliary sail* means a vessel with sail as its primary method of propulsion and mechanical propulsion as its secondary method.

*Cabin motorboat* means a vessel propelled by propulsion machinery and providing enclosed spaces inside its structure.

*Certificate of number* means the certificate required by § 173.21 of this part.

*Houseboat* means a motorized vessel that is usually non-planing and designed primarily for multi-purpose accommodation spaces with low freeboard and little or no foredeck or cockpit.

*Hull identification number* or *HIN* means a number required by 33 CFR 181.23.

*Inboard,* in the context of an engine, means an engine mounted inside the confines of a vessel which powers a drive shaft that turns a water jet impeller or that runs through the bottom of the hull and is attached to a propeller at the other end.

*Inflatable boat* means a vessel that uses air-filled flexible fabric for buoyancy.

*Issuing authority* means a State listed in Appendix A of this part as having a numbering system approved by the Coast Guard or the Coast Guard itself when a State numbering system has not been approved.

*Open motorboat* means a vessel equipped with propulsion machinery and having an open load carrying area that does not have a continuous deck to protect it from the entry of water.

*Operate* means use, navigate, or employ.

*Operator* means the person who is in control or in charge of a vessel while it is in operation.

*Outboard,* in the context of an engine, means an engine with propeller or water jet integrally attached, which is usually mounted at the stern of a vessel.

*Owner* means a person, other than a secured party, having property rights in or title to a vessel, including persons entitled to use or possess a vessel subject to a security interest in another person, but excluding lessees under a lease not intended as security.

*Paddlecraft* means a vessel powered only by its occupants, using a single or double- bladed paddle as a lever without the aid of a fulcrum provided by oarlocks, thole pins, crutches, or similar arrangements.

*Person* means an individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint-stock association, or governmental entity and includes a trustee, receiver, assignee, or similar representative of any of them.

*Personal watercraft* means a vessel propelled by a water-jet pump or other machinery as its primary source of motive power and designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on the vessel, rather than sitting or standing within the vessel's hull.

*Pod drive* means an engine mounted in front of the transom of a vessel and attached through the bottom of the hull to a steerable propulsion unit.

*Pontoon boat* means a vessel with a broad, flat deck that is affixed on top of closed cylinders which are used for buoyancy, the basic design of which is usually implemented with two rows of floats as a catamaran or with three rows of floats as a trimaran.

*Reporting authority* means a State listed in Appendix A of this part as having a numbering system approved by the Coast Guard or the Coast Guard itself when a numbering system has not been approved.

*Rowboat* means an open vessel manually propelled by oars.

*Sail only* means a vessel propelled only by sails.

*State* means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and any other territory or possession of the United States.

*State of principal operation* means the State in whose waters a vessel is or will be operated most during a calendar year.

*Sterndrive* means an engine, powering a propeller through a series of shafts and gears, mounted in front of the transom of a vessel and attached through the transom to a drive unit that is similar to the lower unit of an outboard; and may also be known as an inboard-outdrive or an inboard-outboard.

*Vessel* means every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water.

[USCG-2003-14963, 77 FR 18699, Mar. 28, 2012]