Laws and Safety Equipment

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WATER SKIING

Always follow safe towing procedures. The term skiing or towing implies you are pulling a person or persons behind your boat. This includes pulling skiers, wakeboarders, tubers, kiters, or any other evolution where a person is in the water and being pulled by a boat.

Rules

In Delaware, when towing a person on water skis there must be competent person in the boat vessel, in addition to the operator, who is in a position to observe the progress of the person being towed. The observer shall be considered competent if he/she can, in fact, observe the person being towed and relay any signals from the person being towed to the operator. This rule does not apply to vessels under 16 feet long operated by the person being towed and designed to be incapable of carrying the operator in or on the vessel.

• All persons engaged in water skiing must wear a Type I, Type II, Type III, or Type V PFD.

Exceptions: performer engaged in a professional exhibition or a person preparing to participate or participating in an official regatta, boat race, marine parade, tournament, or exhibition.

• The towline may not exceed 75 feet.
• Skiing is only permitted between sunrise and sunset.
• The operator of a vessel towing a water skier must always operate the vessel in a careful and prudent manner, so as not to interfere with other vessels or obstruct any channel or normal shipping lane, and maintain reasonable distance from persons and property, so as not to endanger the life or property of any person.
• No person shall engage in water skiing in such a manner as to strike or threaten to strike any person, vessel, or property, and no person shall operate a vessel or manipulate a tow line or other towing device in such a manner as to cause a water skier to strike or threaten to strike another person, vessel, or property.
• The law requires any vessel towing a person to stay a minimum of one hundred (100) feet away from any person in the water, a pier, dock, float, wharf, or vessel anchored or adrift, or in any direction of boat launching ramps, both public and private.

Never allow teak-surfing or dragging as the potential for carbon monoxide poisoning and propeller injury are significant.

Never tow someone close to shorelines, boathouses, boatramps, or under bridges. Maintain a clear skiing corridor, giving ample room to maneuver both the boat and the skier in a safe manner.