NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1981 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 1266

SENATE BILL 748

 

AN ACT TO AMEND THE BOATING SAFETY ACT.  

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 75A-9 is amended by adding the following subsections thereto:

"(a)      Every internal combustion engine used on a motorboat with inboard-outboard propulsion machinery must exhaust through the propeller.

(b)       Every internal combustion engine used on inboard motorboats with 'V' Drives having jets or propeller propulsion machinery which exhausts through or over the transom must exhaust underwater while underway or exhaust through an automotive type sealed (baffle) muffler for each exhaust stack, with exhaust openings not to exceed an internal diameter of two inches. Glass pack mufflers, resonators, and above water water-mufflers are prohibited. Baffle inserts are prohibited on all inboard motorboats. Motorboats with original propulsion machinery made before 1970 are exempt from this law.

(c)       Any person who violates any of the provisions of subsections (a) or (b) shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be subject to imprisonment not to exceed 30 days or a fine not to exceed fifty dollars ($50.00) for the first violation and one hundred dollars ($100.00) for the second violation, or both imprisonment and a fine. The third and all subsequent violations shall be misdemeanors and shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisonment not to exceed six months, or both, for each such violation."

Sec. 1.1. Section 1 does not apply to boats while participating in an organized regatta sponsored by a civic or charitable organization from one of the counties to which this act applies.

Sec. 2. All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with the act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3. This act shall apply to Mecklenburg, Iredell, Lincoln, and Catawba Counties only, and within those counties, it shall apply only on Lakes Norman, Wylie and Mountain Island.

Sec. 4. This act shall become effective March 1, 1983.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 18th day of June, 1982.