DEP Boating Safety

Regulations Take Effect

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has announced that new regulations regarding boating safety — recently approved by the Legislative Regulation Review Committee — went into effect on January 3. The highlights of the new boating safety regulations include the following:

All persons aboard any manually propelled vessel are now required to wear life jackets from October 1 to May 31. Previously, the requirement to wear life jackets only applied to persons aboard canoes. Now, kayakers and persons in rowboats must comply with this requirement as well. In addition, the operator, owner, or user of the manually propelled vessel is responsible for prohibiting any person to be aboard the vessel who is not wearing a life jacket, unless the person is aboard a racing vessel that is either accompanied by an escort vessel or involved in a race in which the commissioner has approved race organizers’ steps to provide for the safety of race participants.

Fishing is now prohibited inside a swim area authorized by the commissioner.

On the Housatonic River, two speed zones were combined to create a Slow-No-Wake zone between the area bounded northerly by the Devon Railroad Bridge between Milford and Stratford and bounded southerly by navigation aid #14.

On West Hill Pond in New Hartford and Barkhamsted, the use of motorboats equipped with motors with a total power greater than 8 horsepower is prohibited from Memorial Day through September 15. Previously, the use of motorboats equipped with motors with a total power greater than 7½ horsepower was prohibited. In addition, the 15 miles-per-hour daytime speed limit and the 6 miles-per-hour speed limit between sunset and sunrise are now applicable year round. These speed limits were previously only applicable from June 15 through Labor Day. Finally, waterskiing is now prohibited on West Hill Pond.