Virginia Administrative Code › Title 4 - CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES › Agency 15 - DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES › Chapter 370 - WATERCRAFT: IN GENERAL › Section 4VAC15-370-50 - Regulatory markers and aids to navigation

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
A. Under the provisions of Chapter 7 of Title
				29.1 of the Code of Virginia a system of regulatory markers and a lateral
				buoyage marking system of aids to navigation are hereby adopted on all public
				waters of the Commonwealth not marked by an agency of the United States.
				Regulatory markers will be white with international orange bands. A vertical
				open-faced diamond shape with a white center shall denote danger. A vertical
				open-faced diamond shape with an inside cross shall denote a prohibition of all
				vessels. A circular shape with a white center shall denote a control or
				restriction. A rectangular shape shall denote information other than a danger,
				control or restriction. No regulatory marker, aid to navigation or other
				waterway marker affecting the safety, health or well-being of a boat operator,
				excepting those placed by an agency of the United States or a political
				subdivision of this Commonwealth as authorized in § 29.1-744D of the Code
				of Virginia, shall be placed in, on or near the water unless authorized by the
				department.
B. When buoys are used
				as regulatory markers, they shall be white with horizontal bands of
				international orange, having a minimum width of two inches, placed completely
				around the buoy circumference. One band shall be at the top of the buoy, with a
				second band placed just above the waterline so that both bands are clearly
				visible to approaching watercraft. The area of the buoy body visible between
				the two bands shall be white and not less than 12 inches in height. No buoy
				shall be less than 24 inches in overall height from the waterline.
C. Where a regulatory marker consists of a
				sign displayed from a marine structure, post or piling, the sign shall be
				white, with an international orange border having a minimum width of three
				inches. The geometric shape associated with the meaning of the marker shall be
				centered on the signboard.
D. The
				size of the display area shall be as required by circumstances, except that no
				display area shall be smaller than one foot in height. The outside width of the
				diamond, the inner diameter of the circle, and the average of the inside and
				outside widths of a square shall be two-thirds of the display area. The side of
				the diamond shall slope at a 35° angle from the vertical on the plane
				surface. Approximate adjustments for curvature may be made when applied to a
				cylindrical surface.
E. Explanatory
				words may be added outside the diamond with a center cross, the open diamond
				and the no wake circle on fixed markers only, and shall be added to the inside
				of the circle, square and rectangle. The letters of such words shall be black,
				in block characters of good proportion, spaced in a manner that will provide
				maximum legibility, and of a size that will provide the necessary degree of
				visibility. Applicable words include, but are not limited to:
1. Open faced diamond: rock, snag, cable,
				dam, dredge, shoal, reef, wreck.
2.
				Diamond with cross: dam, swim area, rapids, no boats.
3. Circle: no skiing, no wake, no anchoring,
				no fishing, no scuba, no boats, ski only, fishing only, for wording inside the
				circle; and entering no wake zone, leaving no wake zone, for wording outside
				the circle.
4. Square or rectangle:
				information other than a danger, control or restriction, which may contribute
				to health, safety, or well-being of boaters, such as place names, arrows
				indicating availability of gas, oil, groceries, marine repairs, limits of
				controlled areas, or approaching controlled area.