gistfile1.txt

· · ·MEETING OF THE
· · · · · · MARYLAND BOAT ACT ADVISORY COMMITTEE

· · · · · · · · · · * * * * * * * *


· · · · · · ·The above-entitled matter came on for
· meeting on Tuesday, August 21st, 2013 commencing at
· 10:00 a.m., at the Kent Island Yacht Club, Chester,
· Maryland, Coles Marsh, committee chairman,
· presiding.


MS. SMITH:· I have a daughter that lives
in Sweden, but she's a competitive kite boarder and
they're not the kite racers so she's going yearly
and doing tricks and they can go 30 meters
apparently and they're flying around and it's
self-contained, non-motorized obviously kite and
doing these tricks so I guess I would start by
asking where, what's the difference maybe, you have
a self-contained individual that's operating
something like a kiteboard off the water are they
subject to personal watercraft rules here in
Maryland waters?· I know I see people doing it
here.
· · · · · ·MR. O'MALLEY:· I don't know.
· · · · · ·MR. KLING:· The kiteboard things, those
are sailboats.
· · · · · ·MS. SMITH:· Sailboats, perfect, gotcha,
like a sailboat.
· · · · · ·MR. KLING:· Like a wind surfer doing
flips.· Kiteboarding is replacing sailboarding in
the next Olympics.
· · · · · ·MS. SMITH:· This is different than kite,
that doesn't give us a starting point.
· · · · · ·MR. KLING:· There is a starting point,
we need opinions from the attorney general, I mean
John says he thinks these guys are sea planes, I
don't.· The guys that -- parasailers are not
seaplanes, I don't believe, but from a regulatory
standpoint we need to know that because then you
get all kinds, you have planes, you have FAA
regulations.
· · · · · ·MR. PEPE:· You have a hybrid thing going
on here, but I think what you're looking at here I
don't think these are going to be considered boats
in any stretch of the imagination.
· · · · · ·MR. KLING:· I'm saying because I think
as a baseline we need to get some serious
horsepower defining what we're looking at.
· · · · · ·MR. PEPE:· This is going to be relegated
to an amusement park ride and going to have to be
done in a designated area, because that could turn
into a total horror show.
· · · · · ·MR. PARLIN:· Like you suggested, maybe
looking at regulating helmet wear, you're near a
marina, pilings and boats and, you know, cracking
your skull, besides you have shallow water.
· · · · · ·MR. KLING:· It may be that the they need
to be defined as amusements and looked at as a
separate category of thing, but --
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· They're out there, I can
tell you right now, I'm part of a group and meet
with a bunch of other marinas and they have given
presentations at these meetings and they're trying
to solicit them and most of the people in my group
are more landlocked in lakes and that type of
thing, but it's coming and it's, like I said, it's
an expensive investment so --
· · · · · ·THE CHAIRMAN:· Somebody on Deep Creek
will decide that's a great place to do that.
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· Yeah, yeah, there's going
to be a lot -- you're completely right, a new toy.
I can make a fortune there.
· · · · · ·MR. SHELLER:· It requires a considerable
amount of skill to develop.
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· Yeah, because oddly enough
one of the other owners of the marina was
entertaining the idea up on Lake Wallenpaupack up
in the Poconos and he went and did it and he said
it was not easy so, you know, and in similar
regulations on your livery operator's personal
watercraft it's very extensive, I think something
like that would have to be at a minimum
established, but I think best part is get somebody,
first the attorney general, to get into it and then
the boating safety and Anthony Brown and all of
those -- they have to have done something by now.
If he's doing it down there there is no doubt in my
mind there has been an accident or two or
something, videos, whatever it may be, it's got to
be established and I think the smart thing is
regulatory, you can't do it in three feet of water,
you have to be at least a minimum 15, 20 feet of
water.
· · · · · ·MR. PEPE:· I would think to rent these
things to the public the liability is going to kill
this thing before it starts.
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· Candidly, I don't go near
Jet Skis and when they said, propositioned me, I
said I can't make enough money to cover the rider
on it.
· · · · · ·MS. CRAIG:· There is a hundred dollars
for 30 minutes in Living Social and there is a deal
for Annapolis area, it's not that expensive.
· · · · · ·MR. PEPE:· The rental is a hundred or
two hundred dollars an hour is not going to scare
people off, but the liability when the people get
hurt on these things --
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· If you're not on board and
somebody has the investment you're asking for a
battle, I know if I had had it and all of a sudden
regulations came out there I'm taking you on too
from there, because I want to say it was 80 to a
hundred thousand dollars for some of these per
unit.· That's an investment, there's a return.
· · · · · ·THE CHAIRMAN:· That's more of a thrill
ride than going up and being shot up at 75 dollars,
so a hundred dollars for 30 minutes for a thrill
seeker is not a bad price and there are is lot of
thrill seekers that would like to try that, tons of
them.
· · · · · ·MR. GRANT:· In Hawaii it's 175 for 15
minutes.
· · · · · ·MS. HENNINGER:· They have a few down in
Key West.· When I go down to the boat races they're
down there and going around.
· · · · · ·MS. CRAIG:· Myrtle Beach has them too.
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· Maybe that's another thing
to see what these other states are doing.
· · · · · ·MS. HENNINGER:· Can you imagine hitting
coral?· Coming down and boom, and you don't know
it's there?
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· What is everybody else
doing, you know?
· · · · ·(Discussion held off the record.)
· · · · · ·MR. LUNSFORD:· I don't know if I want to
put this in the form of a motion, but would it be
appropriate to ask Mike to get us more information
on are they required to wear helmets, PFDs, do
these things have a cutoff switch so if the
operator gets disoriented or clobbered they turn
off, what is the standard equipment on these
things, but I guess how much more information can
we get on them that you can ship out to us?
· · · · · ·MR. GRANT:· Absolutely.
· · · · · ·MR. LUNSFORD:· Even from the propaganda
that the company provides or the livery operator.
· · · · · ·THE CHAIRMAN:· Some other states.
· · · · · ·MR. LUNSFORD:· Yeah.
· · · · · ·MR. GRANT:· The states that are dealing
with it, Florida and Hawaii and all of New Zealand.
I can't remember his title, the Marine Safety
Operations Director has 86'd these JetLev craft,
personal watercraft fitting with a Flyboard device
from all waters, all western Australian state
waters.
· · · · · ·MR. LUNSFORD:· So eastern Australia.
· · · · · ·MR. GRANT:· They can still party down.
· · · · · ·MR. PEPE:· And they drag race surf
boards down there.
· · · · · ·MR. LUNSFORD:· Steve's issue, are they
vessels because our definition of vessel is
something like anything that can be used as a
conveyance in the water and I would like an opinion
from one of the attorneys as to whether or not this
is a conveyance or as Steve said it's simply an
amusement.
· · · · · ·MR. KLING:· You go from point A to point
B, you go vertically.
· · · · · ·MR. LUNSFORD:· It's A to B, how long you
can keep your balance is how far B is from A.
· · · · · ·MR. KLING:· I think if they have them in
Ocean City, a field trip down there would be nice.
· · · · · ·MS. CRAIG:· In Miami they have them.
· · · · · ·MR. PARLIN:· We kind of brought this up
with the Kiteboarder and we should look at this as
something to come, what paddle boarding has become,
what the regulations are on paddle boarding, I see
them in Annapolis day in and day out and most
people are not wearing a PFD and don't have one on
the paddle board; is that a requirement?
· · · · · ·MS. TROVATO:· It is a requirement.
· · · · · ·MR. GRANT:· No.
· · · · · ·MR. PARLIN:· What else is out there?
· · · · · ·MR. LUNSFORD:· Got written up for not
having one.
· · · · · ·MR. GRANT:· I didn't know that.
· · · · · ·MR. PARLIN:· New technology, what's
around the corner.
· · · · · ·MR. PEPE:· The difference between paddle
boards, kiteboards, kayaks, whatever, this thing,
this is a highly powered piece of equipment.
· · · · · ·MR. PARLIN:· Without a doubt.
· · · · · ·MR. PEPE:· When this goes bad, it is
going to be bad real quick.
· · · · · ·MR. PARLIN:· This is a hybrid and unique
thing, we have a lot of stuff come and go and/or
come upon us really recently.· I don't know if
we've taken a close look at everything.
· · · · · ·MR. JONES:· We need to be out in front
of this before people invest a lot of money in it.
· · · · · ·THE CHAIRMAN:· We need to know what
we're up against in regulations.
· · · · · ·MR. JONES:· That means fast.
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· What, has anybody had any
discussion with NRP and Julie Brown and that whole
group what they're doing with them, they have to be
meeting some livery operator's license, I know I
that I have to have everything signed and crossed.
· · · · · ·MR. O'MALLEY:· I don't know, Bob.
· · · · · ·MR. NICKEL:· That's the first thing.
· · · · · ·MR. O'MALLEY:· That's a great place to
start, Colonel Johnson brought that video to me,
courtesy of his retired officer out in OC so we've
not talked to Julie so we'll start there.· This is
all great information.· We were not aware they're
in Key West or Myrtle Beach, we knew Hawaii of
course, so we'll, we will get the official Coast
Guard definition of this vessel versus aircraft and
what have you and then we'll contact our
counterparts in these other locations and see what
they're doing and we'll circulate that around,
shoot it out to all of you.