New Mexico Boating Safety Notes

The following information is provided as a convenience to skippers and crews participating in the Rocky Mountain Buccaneer Rodeo. These items are advisory only and, in and of themselves, are not to be used as the basis of a protest.

Reciprocity --
New Mexico honors out-of-state registration from another state for a period of 90 consecutive days.

Registration --
In New Mexico, all motorboats (including sailboats with a motor and jet skis), all sailboats (except sailboards/windsurfers), and most other boats longer than ten feet must be registered. Certificate of number cards are to be carried on board.

Youth --
Children operating a motorboat or sailboat must have on-board adult supervision
OR
youth born after January 1, 1989 and age 13 or older must have completed a New Mexico Safe Boating class (or another state's equivalent) to skipper a boat without an adult on board.

Equipment: New Mexico requires the following items on an eighteen-foot sailboat:

• Life vests. One wearable personal flotation device (Coast-Guard approved PFD or life vest) for each person on board.
• Throwable: One throwable type IV PFD per boat.
• Fire extinguisher (if boat has a motor or enclosed passenger or mechanical spaces)
• Whistle: A sound producing device (whistle, or horn)
• Oar or paddle except for sailboats with a removable centerboard and windsurfers
• Bailing bucket, one gallon capacity or a hand-operated bilge pump
• Painter/tow line; length of line at least as long as the boat

Additional requirements apply to larger boats and motorboats with inboard engines.

Other rules --
New Mexico law states that crews of boats participating in a regatta shall wear personal buoyancy.

Accidents --
Accidents must be reported if
damage is more than $100 (this may be changed)
a person becomes unconscious or requires treatment beyond first aid
a person disappears (injury or death suspected)
a person dies within 24 hours (loss of life)

Motoring --
Heron Lake is a no-visible-wake or "quiet" lake; motors are to be restricted to trolling speed.
New Mexico defines visible wake as white water visible to the front or side of a boat. An exception in the law is made for maintaining steerageway in rough weather.

Wind Warning Signal --
Heron Lake is provided with a light that flashes when winds rise to predetermined speed (usually in the 12 to 18 knot range; double flashes may appear at the higher end of the range).

A triangular small craft advisory pennant may be flown if sustained winds of 29 to 38 mph are expected and a gale warning, with two pennants, may be flown is sustained winds of 39 to 54 mph are expected. Closure of the lake to some vessels may happen during a small craft advisory, and closure of the lake to all vessels is likely during a gale warning.

Termination --
State Parks rangers and marine enforcement operators may terminate a voyage for significant equipment deficiencies or unsafe operation.

Local hazards --

Power lines exist near and within park boundaries. One such power line crosses highway 95 just east of the dam, and it managed to knock a sailboat off its trailer a few years ago.

During Labor Day weekend, water conditions are expected to be warm enough that hypothermia will be only a moderate hazard. Crews should however, be prepared to deal with the possibility of cold water shock or hypothermia. Because of Heron Lake's elevation of 7,155 feet above sea level, water is generally cool to cold, depending upon time of year and recent weather. Remember that capsizes and falls overboard may result in injury as well as exposure to cold water.

Racers will be notified of the general depth in the vicinity of racing marks. In general, Heron Lake has relatively few hazards that are likely to surprise a careful crew. Most of the lake is very deep and shoals are generally predictable.

Because of the altitude and nearby mountains, switchy winds and sudden wind shifts and puffs are very possible.