{"data":{"id":"us-va/va.-code-29.1-700","jurisdiction":"us-va","citation":"Va. Code § 29.1-700","heading":"Definitions","body":"As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires a different meaning:\"Motorboat\" means any vessel propelled by machinery whether or not the machinery is the principal source of propulsion.\"No wake\" means operation of a motorboat at the slowest possible speed required to maintain steerage and headway.\"Operate\" means to navigate or otherwise control the movement of a motorboat or a vessel.\"Owner\" means a person, other than a lien holder, having the property in or title to a motorboat. The term includes a person entitled to the use or possession of a motorboat subject to an interest in another person, reserved or created by agreement and securing payment of performance of an obligation, but the term excludes a lessee under a lease not intended as security.\"Personal watercraft\" means a motorboat less than sixteen feet in length which uses an inboard motor powering a jet pump, as its primary motive power and which is designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on, rather than in the conventional manner of sitting or standing inside, the vessel.\"Vessel\" means every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water.\"Waters of the Commonwealth\" means any public waters within the territorial limits of the Commonwealth, the adjacent marginal sea and the high seas when navigated as a part of a journey or ride to or from the Virginia shore.Code 1960, c. 500, § 62-174.2; 1962, c. 626; 1968, c. 659, § 62.1-167; 1972, c. 412; 1987, c. 488; 1998, cc. 84, 443, 512, 514, 515, 533, 537, 563.","path":["Title 29.1. Wildlife, Inland Fisheries and Boating","Chapter 7. BOATING LAWS","Article 1. BOAT REGISTRATION AND IDENTIFICATION"],"source_url":"https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/29.1-700/","current_through":"9/4/2026","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-04T15:15:24Z","sha256":"729aab5a34bc593f090c420998fc1094e45409bdf1e52061caf2fc3d45950975","source_id":"us-va","stale":true,"prev":"us-va/va.-code-29.1-612","next":"us-va/va.-code-29.1-701"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}