Thread:

california over transom header law????????

ok no sooner then i launch at discovery park today i got pulled over and cited for over transom headers...

they didnt do a decibal check, nor did he consider water injection and muffling device...


what is the ACTUAL law as written in their books? i cant find any info.

im pretty sure to be illegal they have to be over a certain decibal at idle, or not have any sound deadening system.. ( baffles or water injection)

any answers would be great.

oh and by the way if your anywhere near discovery park dont use your diverter you will get a ticket they are now "illegal"

im pretty sure you could fight it in court since it is the device we use to get our boats on plane...

Are you running baffles or just wet headers . how did you find out about the rooster tail law. ps did you replace your floor yet .

Originally Posted by lowgear351

Are you running baffles or just wet headers . how did you find out about the rooster tail law. ps did you replace your floor yet .

im runnin water injection through the headers which makes a HUGE difference.

another jet pulled up next to us on shore while i was being cited and the officer told me he had just issued a ticket for the use of the diverter the other jetboat.

he warned me about the use of it and said its unsafe for other boaters "what if they made a turn into the jetstream?"

well i guess thats their fault for not paying attention lol. guarantee they wont do it again.


the officer had no sense of humor.


no i have not replaced my floor but i am now very soon my accelerator pedal ripped out of the floor today.

my headers are watter injected after about 2000 rpm's its loud until then . i guess i will not be going around discovery park area this summer .
you going to make it out to cfw fathers day weak end . I did not see you out there last weekend there was some nice boats out there and the weather was nice too .

Interesting to see what code they used for your citation. Never heard of it before. Would like to hear more, or at least get a ruling for you. Hopefully in your favor, then you can share the info with us.

Jerry

Originally Posted by Fountain of Youth

I'd fight the ticket it seems that the cops on the river have no idea what the boating laws are. I had a friend pulled over for having no CF numbers but it was a documented vessel... They had no idea what that was. I was pulled over once while wearing our Lifelines and the cop actually asked to see our lifevests...when I said we're wearing them he felt like an idiot.

I thought you said that was a chick cop who asked you that??

Originally Posted by Fountain of Youth

I'd fight the ticket it seems that the cops on the river have no idea what the boating laws are. I had a friend pulled over for having no CF numbers but it was a documented vessel... They had no idea what that was. I was pulled over once while wearing our Lifelines and the cop actually asked to see our lifevests...when I said we're wearing them he felt like an idiot.

Lifelines are not CG certified. You still could have received a ticket for not wearing a certified life vests.

My undersatanding of the law is that you must have some kind of mechanical muffling device, and water is not considered mechanical. I also recall that there is a db level they use, can't remember what it is though. If they cited you for not having a mechanical baffle, then your probably hosed.

As for the over the transom exhaust being illegal- thats just flat wrong. From my experience, the water cops aren't very well versed in the boating laws.

The section they cited you for should be printed right on the citation, google it.

Research the laws and go school them in court, they probably won't show up anyway

Originally Posted by ultrajet

I dealt with this a couple of years ago. There is no law against OT headers, however, you must have muffler device or "system". Sound restrictions are 88dBA (engines post '93) and 90dBA(engines pre '93). The requirement(s) are spelled out clearly in chapter 5, section 654, 654.05 of the CA boating laws. It does mention exemption from said laws if you have a racing permit or are part of a regatta. Maybe we should get a convoy of jets for a regatta down in Sacto soon!

http://www.dbw.ca.gov/PDF/LawEnforc/2010CBL.pdf

by the way I would argue all day long that running water through your headers is indeed a "muffling system". The only problem is that it is not on all of the time which is a requirement. As long as they didn't break out the decibel meter then I don't see how they can stop you. Needless to say I'll probably just avoid the river until the water in Folsom is too low.

They can make the stop based upon the fact that without baffles the boat is so loud that it must not be in compliance. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that installing a set of baffles in a properly tuned 350-600 hp engine would make not have any real negative effect on performance. The real advantage would be that the cost of the baffles is probably about the same as the cost of the fine.

I think that running a bunch of un-muffled boats would not do much to garner support from the authorities and the regatta would probably have to be a permitted event.