Boating Question...Long Island

Skip · 06-15-2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave R

NH law:

"II. ""Houseboat'' means any ship, boat, raft, float, catamaran or marine craft of any description upon or within which are located sleeping and toilet facilities, regardless of whether such facilities are of a permanent or temporary nature."

sa meredith, Skip makes a great point. If you have a porta-potti, leave it at the dock and you are good to go. "Sleeping facilities" are too easily misinterpreted, IMO, could mean a sunpad for all I know. All of the overnight mooring prohibitions plainly refer to this houseboat definition.

Oddly enough, these laws actually encourage folks to remove the toilet facilities from their boats, spend the night at anchor, and just sneak into the lake when nature calls.

Uh-oh Dave R, you've just stumbled on to a tremendous error in our boating laws!

And let's look at it another way. Say you have a 23 footer with sunpads and a porti-potti. Stretch the intent of the law and now declare this a "houseboat".

Uh-oh again!

You see, there are a number of ponds and lakes in NH that specifically ban "houseboats". One of the most famous? Why Squam Lake.

But wait, Squam lake is loaded with 20 to 23 footers that have sun pads and porti-potties or the new heads found in many a deck boat.

Then how come the MPs are not at it full throttle summonsing all these illegal "temporary" houseboats?

Because we go back to legislative intent....

By the way, one of the great myths is that there is a large force of MPs secretly cruising the waterways at night hauling away hundreds of these violators.

Of course nothing is further from the truth....but hey, we're all guilty of indulging in hyperbole here to make a point....me included!

Again, a challenge to Islander and Wildwood. Cite us the RSA or Administrative Rule that bans overnight anchoring for vessels other than "houseboats".

Ooops, have to go finish prepping my (temporary?) houseboat, its getting its first dip this evening...hope to see some of you proud Dads out on the Lake this Sunday!