Legalities of dangling feet over the bow?

I was not aware this is illegal, yet, I have never seen anyone dangling feet off the bow while underway, I have seen done from side deck and even the stern, which made me think of a new advantage of the PC-58, which is the ability of easily with no bulwarks giving you hard time!

A correction for the email you got: if she fell overboard she will not have a day at all!

Interesting post.

Thanks.

Here it is not illegal, just plain stupid. These guys took the prize last summer...

Here in Florida it is indeed illegal. I forget the statute that they use for it.....could look it up if you're really interested.

This is the type of behavior the Darwin Award was invented for!
Best,
Maldwin

I believe it is illlegal Downunder, but we see it almost every time we are out on the weekends. Sadly, it is mainly kids on the bow, while the idiot father is steering.
As for the professionals doing it, a while ago a skipper of a whale watching boat crossed the Gold Coast Seaway with the bow crammed with tourists. The result was almost tragic.

Eleven people injured as wave crashes into whale-watch boat | The Courier-Mail

I have a lot of time on the water going back to the 70's

my sea time includes, lakes, bays, oceans, offshore, sailing, power, live aboard, and even some commercial fishing,

I did not know that hanging your feet over the bow of a moving boat was illegial.
I thought it was just WRONG and something i would never allow.

If you or a passenger ends up in the water from the front of a moving boat your chances of serious injury or death are very likely.

As a kid I can remember the daughter of the owner of the Famous restaurant "Louies" in Manhasset Bay was killed or seriously injured in a fall off the front of a moving boat.

Please do not engage in allowing people to hang their feet over the front of any moving boat weather it is illegal or not.

My cousin will testify as to how dangerous this is. He has scars starting at the top of his head, face , torso down to his ankles from the prop on a runabout. He was siiting on the bow and of course the boat hit a wave and he went in and under the boat. Very lucky to be alive and scarred for life.

I on the other hand go against the grain in these situations. I don't believe there should be laws to prevent stupidity. I'm a firm believer of natural selection. Evolution happens for a reason.

Don’t we all do things that might not be 100% with the law? I know that I have maybe had one to many glasses of wine with dinner and drove home. As every smart boat owner knows… Use your head.

The Horizon picture is a marketing shot showing the room that the twin bows have to offer a prospect customer. Right or Wrong… How is this relevant?

Any who… Happy Boating and be careful here in the USA. For it is “operation dry water”.

Cheers,

Keith

I also did not know that was illegal. I can remember a lot of years ago, in Wrightsville Beach, NC, watching a small boat with 4-5 people sitting on the bow. The channel required a wide sweeping left turn to avoid a sand bank. This gy headed straight across the bank at about 30 knots, hit the bank and all 4-5 went in headfirst! Fortunately no one hurt. I tend to agree that you can't legislate stupidity.

Au contraire. Congress legislates stupidity all the time; it's intelligence that can't be legislated.

I tend to agree with you on this.

In IL on Lake MI it is Illegal to have limbs over the bow while underway. To me this is common sense but it never seizes to amaze me how many people I see underway on the lake or even the Chicago river (which can be very busy) with kids hanging over the bow. Crazy. It takes every fiber in my body to not call out to the captain (this person shouldn't even be called a captain) and point out what a moron he is.

Until they become a ward of the state when they get hurt and our rising healthcare costs and taxes end up paying for their recovery (or not).

Unfortunately the stupidity is usually not by the persons on the sitting on the bow as they generally are children.

Illegal in NYS

Our slip is on the Erie Canal and is patrolled by the local sheriff (Schuyler County). I have seen many vessels pulled over and the driver ticketed (counts against your drivers license as a moving violation!), even larger 32+ boats.
Unless your boat has a seat (many Chris Craft Roamers do) on the deck, it is illegal and obviously quite unsafe.

That being said, we see many boats coming and going by with young passengers dangling their feet (saw a few yesterday). When I make a comment about it I often get a dirty look to mind my own business.
John

It happens on larger boats too.

A few years back there was a fatality on a 100'+ coming into Port Vauban, Antibes. It was a private vessel with the owner at the helm. The boat had a lot of people on board and had been out for a day trip and a lot of drinking. A young woman was dangling her legs over the bow when a large fast boat cut them up. As the yacht hit the wake, she slipped under the wire and into the water. She had gone under the yacht and hit the props before anyone got word to the bridge.

I recall the owner being successfully prosecuted for manslaughter through negligent operation of the vessel.

In Maryland last spring the Natural resources police were stopping boats in the 40' range with built in seats on the bow and giving them warnings about people sitting on those seats. This in a no wake zone. This happened to my friend on his 40' pacemaker. When he pointed out to the DNR that the seats came with cushions from the factory he was told "Well bow riding is illegal" Even heard about one trawler being stopped. The scuttle butt is that the USCG pretty much told the DNR to doing that with larger boats and I haven't heard any reports of it lately. It is my understanding that the applicable law in Maryland is simply unsafe operation so basically anything the LEO decides is unsafe is unsafe.

This leaves it pretty open to interpretation. There are some boats that you can safely move around the entire deck while underway and some bubble boats you can't move about safely even when they are tied up.

How do you define it as illegal when noted sailing yacht's that partake in various competitions or not you often see the crews of those yachts doing the same mainly to counter act against the Yacht capsizing ..

Those aren't legs, those are ballast units required for operation of the vessel.