eFoil riding regulations/laws

Croatia different too. 1.5hp boat under 299cm doesnt need licence. 4hp under 299 needs licence but doesnt need registering. Everything above that, needs registering and different stages of licence (depends on length, power and brutotons, idk how else to translate it). To make things even worse, it all depends on the region of the country, every has their own rules and pricings. Thats sea wise. Idk about rivers/lakes. Looks like pretty simmilar to Stralia.

Lakes are completely different and much more restrictive in Germany than the sea. On a lake you need a number plate for a boat, at sea even larger boats only need a name and the home port written on it, no need to register it anywhere. That is why I think there will be no problem there.

Police stopped me in the middle of the sea.
I received a report of 800 euros :disappointed::persevere::confounded::rage::nauseated_face: because I do not have documents for surfboard and the law requires a cruise test
The procedure and the bureaucracy is so complicated in Israel (you have to submit all the plans and diagrams for an engineer’s approval and after that …) that right now I’m looking for a lake in Europe where you can play without problems.
any recommendations?

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Would you have been fined if you had been windsurfing at the same place ?

No, the law is only for electrical or motorized tool in any volume of power

Once you have solved the battery transportation (ok by boat but not allowed in planes), you could try :

Depending on which European Mediterranean language you speak or favour (Spanish, Italian, French, …) I don’t think in 2019 (maybe 2020 ?) there would be a problem playing with an efoil in the sea providing you are within 6HP or around 5000W. You just can’t do that in swimmers area. OK in sea scooters/windsurf area.

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So @s9tim and I have registered our efoils in Florida. State law requires that all vessels with an electric motor (of any size) be registered so better to be safe than sorry. Not the prettiest thing on the side of the board but at least it’s done. Cost me $38 with a paper copy of title/registration. Titled as a home-built vessel which didn’t require FWC inspection, but the tax office was curious so they got to take a peak at it. Anyway, if you’re in the USA you’re likely going to need to title/register your board.

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Does it mean that LIFT with new offices in Miami (Florida) (since the fire) would require a FWC inspection as they are not a home-built vessel ? :bomb: :bomb:

No. Anything under 16 ft is OK. They did want pictures on file for mine though.

Hey there,
I own a Lift efoil, registering it in Berlin (Germany) in Jan 2020 was not a problem. Having the manual with me helped, they did copy it for reference. Efoil is registered as misc (“sonstiges”). Registering DIY boards might differ slightly but should be possible also.
Today, I ran into the water police for the second time this year. The first time they let me off with a friendly reminder to register the board which I didn’t have back then. This time they charged me 55EUR with “driving in area where not allowed / not following a obvious straight course” (§3 a WasMotRV).
So challenges persist to some extent. Anyone ran into similar problems in Germany?
I am thinking about contesting it though. For the greater good, obviously. Efoils are not jetskis… Maybe next time…

FYI:
§1.3 WasMotRV:
Wassermotorräder:
Kleinfahrzeuge, die als Personal Water Craft wie “Wasserbob”, “Wasserscooter”, “Jetbike” oder “Jetski” bezeichnet werden, und sonstige gleichartige Fahrzeuge

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I was thinking…

How about don’t pay registration? Ride in areas less likely to have authorities. Play dumb. Say sorry I didn’t know. Save the registration fees to put towards paying the tickets. Where I live, If they wanna give you a ticket, they usually can find something to ticket you for! Having registration just makes it easier for them to ticket you!

That sucks you got a ticket. Just pay it. Gotta pay to play! :rofl:

:call_me_hand:

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Hey.
Were you riding on a river or lake?

BR
Nibbler

Hi flightjunkie,
I definitely agree with you on picking a different lake. My preferred lake so far was a smaller one with easy access (parking 10m from lake) and I didn’t mind the water police boat stationed on that very lake. In hindsight I did the equivalent of doing motorcycle donuts in the backyard of a police station. :slightly_smiling_face:

On the registration front, that 30EUR saved won’t get you very far as a war chest and missing registration is so obvious for them that I believe you will be stopped every time they see you. And once they are onto you, they might indeed (want to) get you every time. Then again, my impression was they are not that aware about what efoils are and are not allowed to do. E.g. they told me about staying in the “Fahrrinne” on Müggelsee but concurred when I said that is only mandatory for boats with “Verbrennermotor”.

B.

In a lake. But I encountered a boat making a wake so I did a nice arc to chase those wakes…
in my excitement (not many boats on the lakes this time of the year) I didn’t see the second blue boat some 100m behind. So a bit of bad luck there, I guess.

Hahaha what did they expect you to do, ride in a straight line until you hit the bank? Do they fine every boat that turns?

The problem in Germany is. You are not allowed to ride on lakes. you need to get a permission from the city administration first. Most of them won’t give it to you. I called a lot of them and and asked. If you have a vehicle registration you are only allowed to ride on rivers. But be careful there are also areas where it’s not allowed.
If you want we can discuss. This in German later on. I paid some money too ^^

BR
Nibbler

Unter 2,2kw ist kein Kennzeichen erforderlich.
Gruss Frank

@Nibbler: Boy, I had some trouble putting your comment together with what the water police inferred yesterday. After some additional study of even more legal texts I came to the following conclusion… If efoils fall under WasMotRV (again, somewhat debatable, I will have to talk to a lawyer at some point) then you are technically allowed to ride them on “Bundeswasserstrassen” which luckily includes most of the lakes in my area. See WaStrG for full list of “Bundeswasserstrassen” and included lakes. So yes, there are lakes you can ride on, but yes they are mostly connected by rivers :slight_smile:
By the way (again I am no lawyer), if efoils are not under WasMotRV, then we are just “small boats” and hence are free to ride where they are not explicitly forbidden. Wouldn’t that be nice…

Happy to discuss offline (&in German).

@Jezza: Yeah, well jetskis (as which we seem to be treated) will be fined, boats won’t. Now, even jetskis have to turn some time but what they will charge are constant changes of course aka turns for fun. Which I did yesterday so stupidly obvious just in front of their boat to chase a wake.

I will share some information about registration of your efoil in the Netherlands.

I tried to register my efoil so I had to pay €54 and wait for there response. First I got an email to sent some pictures also with a hull number, so I made it and sent it to them. Than they told me they would investigate it. One week later I got a letter telling me that I could not register because it doesn’t fit in there catogory of fast boats. In the Netherlands you have to register if your boat has mechanical power to make you faster than 20km/h and you also need a boat license for it (witch I already have). So now I am not sure if I am alowed to ride it legaly. I have asked them for more info so if I know more I will let you know.