2023 Tennessee Code › Title 69 - WATERS, WATERWAYS, DRAINS AND LEVEES (§§ 69-1-101 — 69-11-127) › Chapter 9 - BOATING REGULATION (§§ 69-9-101 — 69-9-508) › Part 2 - BOATING SAFETY (§§ 69-9-201 — 69-9-228) › Section 69-9-204 - Chapter definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Agency" means the wildlife resources agency;
(2)
"Anchored" means held in place in the water by an anchor;
(3)
"Boat" means any vessel:
(A)
Manufactured or used primarily for noncommercial use;
(B)
Leased, rented, or chartered to another for the latter's noncommercial use; or
(C)
Engaged in the carrying of six (6) or fewer passengers;
(4)
"Commission" means the fish and wildlife commission;
(5)
"Dealer" means a person engaged in the business of manufacturing, buying, selling or exchanging boats, either outright or on conditional sale, chattel mortgage or other such contract;
(6)
"Diver" means any person who is wholly or partially submerged in the waters of the state and who is equipped with a face mask and snorkel or underwater breathing apparatus;
(7)
"Divers-down flag" means a free-flying flag, red in color, with a white diagonal stripe that begins at the top staff-side corner of the flag and extends to the lower opposite corner. The width of the stripe must be twenty-five percent (25%) of the height of the flag;
(8)
"Drifting" means underway, but proceeding without use of engines, oars or sails, being carried along only by the tide, current or wind;
(9)
"Executive director" means the executive director of the wildlife resources agency;
(10)
"Fueling" means any stage of the fueling operation; primarily concerned with introduction of explosive or combustible vapors or liquids on board;
(11)
"Maneuvering" means changing of course, speed or similar boat handling action;
(12)
"Mooring" means the act of making fast or securing a boat with lines or anchors, and may also include the place where a boat is secured or made fast;
(13)
"Motorboat" means any vessel propelled by machinery, whether or not such machinery is the principal source of propulsion;
(14)
"Numbered vessel" means an undocumented vessel that is subject to issue or has been issued a certificate of number by the state;
(15)
"Operate" means to navigate, be in physical control of, or otherwise use a motorboat or a vessel;
(16)
"Operator" means the person who operates or has charge of the navigation or use of a motorboat or vessel;
(17)
"Overloading" means excessive loading of a vessel with equipment or persons that causes instability, limited maneuverability, dangerously reduced freeboard or other similar conditions;
(18)
"Owner" means a person, other than a lienholder, having the property in or title to a motorboat or vessel. "Owner" includes a person entitled to the use or possession of a motorboat or vessel 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;
(19)
"Person" means an individual, partnership, firm, corporation, association, or other entity;
(20)
"Registration" means satisfying the requirements for registration prescribed by the commission;
(21)
"Restricted visibility" means any condition in which visibility is restricted by fog, mist, falling snow, heavy rainstorms or any other similar causes;
(22)
"Rules of the road" means statutory and regulatory rules governing navigation of vessels;
(23)
"Sailboat or auxiliary sailboat" means a vessel intended to be propelled primarily by sail, regardless of size or type;
(24)
"State of principal use" means the state on whose waters a vessel is used, whether moored or underway, or to be used most during a calendar year;
(25)
"Serious injury" means an injury that requires, or should have required, medical treatment by a physician beyond first aid;
(26)
"Underwater breathing apparatus" means any apparatus, whether self-contained or connected to a distant source of air or gas, whereby a person wholly or partially submerged in the water is enabled to obtain air or other gases for breathing without returning to the surface of the water;
(27)
"Underway" means a vessel that is not anchored, moored or aground;
(28)
"Use" means to operate, navigate or employ;
(29)
"Vessel" means every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water;
(30)
"Vessel length" means the distance from the vessel's forward end to the after end across the deck down the centerline, excluding the sheer and disregarding bowsprits, bumkins, rudders, outboard motors or similar fittings;
(31)
"Wakeboarding" means:
(A)
To use a board with or without foot bindings on which a rider is towed by a motorboat across a wake; or
(B)
To operate a motorboat in a manner that creates a wake while towing a person using a board with or without foot bindings to be towed by the motorboat across the boat's wake;
(32)
"Wakesurfing" means:
(A)
To surf a motorboat's wake, regardless of whether the person is being pulled by a tow rope attached to the motorboat that is producing the wake; or
(B)
To operate a motorboat in a manner that creates a wake that is, or is intended to be, surfed by another person; and
(33)
"Waters of Tennessee" means any waters within the territorial limits of this state, except privately owned ponds or lakes not used for commercial purposes.
Amended by 2022 Tenn. Acts, ch. 872, s 1, eff. 7/1/2022.
Acts 1965, ch. 334, § 4; 1974, ch. 719, § 1; 1975, ch. 87, § 2; 1975, ch. 184, §§ 5-7; T.C.A., § 70-2204; Acts 1984, ch. 732, §1; 1989, ch. 92, §§ 1-3; T.C.A. §69-10-204; Acts 2007 , ch. 185, §§2-4; 2012 , ch. 993, § 10.