Fred,
I think that if you kept your boat only on the waters of the Great
Lakes, you could get away without state registration. As soon as you
put into port however, you just entered State controlled waterways. I
guess you could anchor offshore and go into port with a registered dingy
but that might be iffy.
Michigan State boundaries go all the way to mid lake on Lake Michigan
but the federal jurisdiction may end at the shoreline. Not sure on that.
Neil Schiller
1983 C&C 35-3, #028
"Grace"
White Lake Michigan
WLYC
On 1/26/2018 9:38 AM, Frederick G Street via CnC-List wrote:
Matt — it’s my understanding that the federal government has sole
authority over the Great Lakes Inland Waterways for purposes of
navigation. Are you saying that’s not the case?
From a US DOJ site which includes parts of the US code:
Great Lakes Jurisdiction
Also included within the "special territorial and maritime
jurisdiction of the United States" by 18 U.S.C. § 7(2) are the Great
Lakes and their connecting waterways…
Federal jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 7(2) over American vessels is
not affected by the existence of concurrent state jurisdiction…
It seems like the Supremacy clause in the Constitution would mean that
Federal law will supplant local jurisdictions in all cases. The
jurisdictions may overlap, but the Federal rules will always trump
local ones.
— Fred
Fred Street -- Minneapolis
S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- on the hard in Bayfield, WI :^(
On Jan 26, 2018, at 7:49 AM, Matthew L. Wolford via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote:
I just reviewed your note below and the article writer’s legal
conclusion about PFBC legal authority (sometimes called
“jurisdiction”). For clarification, my understanding is that the
PFBC’s authority to regulate boats extends to navigable waters of the
Commonwealth, while the USCG authority extends to navigable waters of
the United States. In the case of Lake Erie (and Presque Isle Bay),
the authority of the two agencies overlaps. In other words, portions
of Lake Erie are both waters of the Commonwealth and waters of the
United States, so both agencies have enforcement authority. I
suspect it’s the same in other States, but you would need to look at
the applicable State statute(s).
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