Arkansas Code of 1987 (2023) › Title 27 - TRANSPORTATION (§§ 27-1-101 — 27-117-105) › Subtitle 7 - WATERCOURSES AND NAVIGATION (§§ 27-101-101 — 27-102-110) › Chapter 101 - WATERCRAFT (§§ 27-101-101 — 27-101-1030) › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 27-101-101 — 27-101-113) › Section 27-101-103 - Definitions

As used in this chapter, unless otherwise specified in the particular subchapter:
(1)
"Certificate of number" means a motorboat registration or motorboat registration certificate;
(2)
"Length" means the extreme deck fore-and-aft measurement of a vessel;
(3)
"Marina" means a dock or basin providing moorings for motorboats and offering supply, repair, or other services for remuneration;
(4)
"Marine sanitation device" means equipment that is identified by the United States Coast Guard as meeting the standards of the United States Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate the discharge of untreated sewage from vessels and is a device that receives, treats, retains, or discharges sewage;
(5)
"Motorboat" means any vessel operated upon water and which is propelled by sail or machinery, whether or not the machinery is the principal source of propulsion but shall not include a vessel that has a valid marine document issued by the United States Customs and Border Protection or any federal agency successor thereto;
(6)
"Operate" means to navigate or otherwise use a motorboat or a vessel;
(7)
"Operator" means a person who is controlling the speed and direction of a vessel or a person who is in direct physical control of a vessel;
(8)
(A)
"Owner" means a person other than a lienholder having the property in or title to a motorboat.
(B)
"Owner" includes a person entitled to the use or possession of a motorboat subject to an interest in another person reserved or created by agreement and securing payment or performance of an obligation, but "owner" excludes a lessee under a lease not intended as security;
(9)
"Person" means an individual, partnership, firm, corporation, association, or other entity;
(10)
"Personal watercraft" means a vessel which uses an inboard motor powering a water jet pump as its primary source of motive power and which is designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on the vessel rather than in the conventional manner of sitting or standing inside the vessel;
(11)
"Vessel" means every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation;
(12)
(A)
"Water sport activity" means an activity that involves a person being towed by a motorboat, personal watercraft, or other vessel in waters of this state.
(B)
"Water sport activity" shall include, but not be limited to, any of the following activities:
(i)
Barefooting;
(ii)
Wake boarding;
(iii)
Wake surfing;
(iv)
Water skiing;
(v)
Water sledding; or
(vi)
Water tubing.
(C)
"Water sport activity" does not include organized water carnivals, water skiing exhibitions, or other organized water sports exhibitions; and
(13)
(A)
"Waters of this state" means any public waters within the territorial limits of the State of Arkansas.
(B)
However, waters that are confined within a pond, tank, or lake, situated entirely on the premises of a single owner, and that except under abnormal flood conditions are in no way connected by water or with any other flowing stream or body of water or with any other body of water not situated on the premises of the owner are declared to be privately owned waters and shall not be construed to be waters of this state.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 733,§ 7, eff. 7/24/2019.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 733,§ 6, eff. 7/24/2019.
Acts 1959, No. 453, § 2; 1961, No. 423, § 1; 1973, No. 395, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, §§ 21-222, 21-248; Acts 1987, No. 122, §§ 1, 7; 1995, No. 517, § 1; 2003, No. 1774, § 2; 2005, No. 1297, § 1.