Ohio Revised Code
Chapter 1547 | Watercraft and Waterways
Section 1547.08 | Prohibiting Operation in Certain Areas - Low Speed Areas.

Effective: September 14, 2016
Latest Legislation: Senate Bill 293 - 131st General Assembly
(A) No person shall operate a vessel within or through a designated bathing area or within or through any area that has been buoyed off designating it as an area in which vessels are prohibited.
(B)(1) No person shall operate a vessel at greater than idle speed or at a speed that creates a wake under any of the following circumstances:
(a) Within three hundred feet of any marina, boat docking facility, boat gasoline dock, launch ramp, recreational boat harbor, or harbor entrance on Lake Erie or on the Ohio river;
(b) During the period from sunset to sunrise according to local time within any water between the Dan Beard bridge and the Brent Spence bridge on the Ohio river for any vessel not documented by the United States coast guard as commercial;
(c) Within any area buoyed or marked as a no wake area on the waters in this state.
(2) Division (B)(1) of this section does not apply in either of the following places:
(a) An area designated by the chief of the division of parks and watercraft unless it is marked by a buoy or sign as a no wake or idle speed area;
(b) Within any water between the Dan Beard bridge and the Brent Spence bridge on the Ohio river when the United States coast guard has authorized the holding of a special event of a community nature on that water.
(C) No person shall operate a vessel in any area of restricted or controlled operation in violation of the designated restriction.
(D) No person shall operate a vessel within three hundred feet of an official diver's flag unless the person is tendering the diving operation.
(E) All areas of restricted or controlled operation as described in division (A) of this section or as provided for in section 1547.14 or 1547.61 of the Revised Code shall be marked by a buoy or sign designating the restriction. All waters surrounded by or lying between such a buoy or sign and the closest shoreline are thereby designated as an area in which the designated restrictions shall apply in the operation of any vessel.
Markings on buoys designating areas of restricted or controlled operation shall be so spaced as to show all around the horizon. Lineal spacing between the buoys shall be such that under normal conditions of visibility any buoy shall be readily visible from the next adjacent buoy. No colors or symbols, except as provided for in rules, shall be used on buoys or signs for marking closed or controlled areas of boating waters.
Any state department, conservancy district, or political subdivision having jurisdiction and control of impounded boating waters may place such buoys or signs on its waters. Any political subdivision may apply to the chief for permission to place such buoys or signs on other waters within its territorial limits. No person shall place or cause to be placed a regulatory buoy or sign on, into, or along the waters in this state unless the person has complied with all the provisions of this chapter.
(F) No person shall enter, operate a vessel that enters, or allow a vessel to enter a federally declared security zone as defined in 33 C.F.R. Chapter I, subparts 6.01-1, 6.01-2, 6.01-3, 6.01-4, 6.01-5, 6.04-1, 6.04-5, 6.04-6, 6.04-7, and 6.04-8.
(G) No person shall permit any vessel to be operated on the waters in this state in violation of this section.

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