“Interpretation.

2. (1) In these Regulations--

‘authorised officer’ means a person appointed under Regulation 13;

‘authorised representative’ means any natural or legal person established in the Community who has received a written mandate from the manufacturer to act on his or her behalf with regard to the latter's obligation under these Regulations;

‘CE’ marking’ means the mark of conformity consisting of the initials ‘CE’, taking the form of the specimen given in Annex IV;

‘Commission’ means Commission of the European Communities;

‘Community’ means European Community;

‘component’ means any one of the components listed in Annex II, whether separate or installed, which is intended for use in recreational craft;

‘Directive’ means Directive 94/25/EC of 16 June 1994 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 1994¹ , as amended by Directive 2003/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2003² ;

‘engine family’ means the manufacturer's grouping of engines which, through their design, are expected to have similar exhaust emission characteristics and which comply with the exhaust emissions requirements of these Regulations;

‘free movement’ means the placing on the market and putting into service of a product to which these Regulations apply;

‘major engine modification’ means the modification of an engine which--

(a) could potentially cause the engine to exceed the emission limits set out in Annex 1B excluding routine replacement of engine components that do not alter the emission characteristics, or

(b) increases the rated power of the engine by more than 15 per cent;

‘major craft conversion’ in relation to a craft, means a conversion of the craft which--

(a) changes the means of propulsion of the craft,

(b) involves a major engine modification,

(c) alters the craft to such an extent that it is considered a new craft;

‘manufacturer’ means any natural or legal person who designs and manufactures a product to which these Regulations apply or who has such a product designed or manufactured or both with a view to placing it on the market on his or her own behalf;

‘means of propulsion’ in relation to a craft, means the mechanical method by which the craft is driven, in particular marine propellers or water jet mechanical drive systems;

‘Member State’ means Member State of the Community;

‘Minister’ means Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources;

‘notified body’ means a body appointed under Regulation 8;

‘partly completed boat’ means a boat consisting of a hull and one or more components. It does not fulfil all the essential requirements of the Directive and is destined to be completed, that is to say, it will fulfil the essential requirements, by another party who will be regarded as the manufacturer;

‘personal watercraft’ means a vessel less than 4 metres in length which uses an internal combustion engine having a water jet pump as its primary source of propulsion and designed to be operated by a person or persons sitting, standing or kneeling on, rather than within the confines of, a hull;

‘place on the market’ means import, sell (whether by wholesale or retail) offer or expose for such sale, distribute free of charge, or supply by a manufacturer for any of those purposes, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;

‘propulsion engine’ means any spark or compression ignition, internal combustion engine used for propulsion purposes, including two-stroke and four-stroke inboard, stern-drive with or without integral exhaust and outboard engines;

‘putting into service’ means the use in the Community for the first time, by the final user, of a product to which these Regulations apply;

‘recreational craft’ means any boat of any type intended for sports and leisure purposes of hull length from 2.5 metres to 24 metres, measured according to the harmonised standard, regardless of the means of propulsion. The fact that the same boat could be used for charter or for recreational boating training does not prevent it being covered by these Regulations when it is placed on the Community market for recreational purposes.

(2) A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and is also used in the Directive has, unless the contrary intention appears, the same meaning in these Regulations that it has in the Directive.

(3) In these Regulations, unless otherwise indicated--

(a) a reference to a Regulation is to a Regulation of these Regulations,

(b) a reference to a paragraph or subparagraph is to a paragraph or subparagraph of the regulation in which the reference occurs, and

(c) a reference to an Annex is to an Annex to the Directive.

Scope.

3. (1) These Regulations apply--

(a) with regard to design and construction, to--

(i)   recreational craft and partly completed boats,

(ii)   personal watercraft, and

(iii)  components referred to in Annex II when placed on the Community market separately and when intended for installation,

(b) with regard to exhaust emissions, to--

(i)   propulsion engines which are installed or specifically intended for installation on or in recreational craft and personal watercraft, and

(ii)   propulsion engines installed on or in these craft that are subject to a ‘major engine modification’,

(c) with regard to noise emissions, to--

(i)   recreational craft with stern drive engines without integral exhausts or inboard propulsion engine installations,

(ii)   recreational craft with stern drive engines without integral exhausts or with inboard propulsion installations which are subject to a major craft conversion and subsequently placed on the Community market within 5 years following conversion,

(iii)  personal watercraft, and

(iv) outboard engines and stern drive engines with integral exhausts intended for installation on recreational craft, and

(d) for products falling under paragraphs (a)(ii), (b) and (c), these Regulations only apply from the first placing on the market or putting into service after 1 January 2005.

(2) These Regulations do not apply to--

(a) with regard to paragraph (1)(a)--

(i)   craft intended solely for racing, including rowing racing boats and training rowing boats, labelled as such by the manufacturer,

(ii)   canoes and kayaks, gondolas and pedalos,

(iii)  sailing surfboards,

(iv)  surfboards, including powered surfboards,

(v)  original historical craft and individual replicas thereof designed before 1950, built predominantly with the original materials and labelled as such by the manufacturer,

(vi)  experimental craft, provided that they are not subsequently placed on the Community market,

(vii) craft built for own use, provided that they are not subsequently placed on the Community market during a period of 5 years,

(viii) craft specially intended to be crewed and to carry passengers for commercial purposes, without prejudice to the definition of “recreational craft”, in particular those defined in Council Directive 82/714/EC of 4 October 1982³ laying down technical requirements for inland waterway vessels, regardless of the number of passengers,

(ix)  submersibles,

(x)   air cushion vehicles,

(xi)  hydrofoils, or

(xii) external combusion steam powered craft, fuelled by coal, coke, wood, oil or gas,

(b) with regard to paragraph (1)(b)--

(i)   propulsion engines installed or specificially intended for installation on the following--

(I)   craft intended solely for racing and labelled as such by the manufacturer,

(II)  experimental craft, provided that they are not subsequently placed on the Community market,

(III) craft specially intended to be crewed and to carry passengers for commercial purposes, without prejudice to the definition of “recreational craft”, in particular those defined in Directive 82/714/EEC of 4 October 1982³ regardless of the number of passengers,

(IV) submersibles,

(V)  air cushion vehicles, or

(VI) hydrofoils;

(ii)  original and individual replicas of historical propulsion engines, which are based on a pre-1950 design, not produced in series and fitted on craft referred to in paragraph (2)(a)(v) and (vii), or

(iii)  propulsion engines built for own use provided that they are not subsequently placed on the Community market during a period of 5 years, or

(c) with regard to paragraph (1)(c)--

(i)   all craft referred to in subparagraph (b), or

(ii)  craft built for own use, provided that they are not subsequently placed on the Community market during a period of 5 years.”.

(3) These Regulations do not apply to products which are placed on the market or put into service and which comply with any legislation in force in the State as follows;

(a) until 31 December 2005, for the products referred to in Regulation 3(1)(a),

(b) until 31 December 2005, for compression ignition and four-stroke ignition engines and

(c) until 31 December 2006, for two-stroke ignition engines.”.

“Conformity assessment.

7. (1) Before placing on the market or putting into service any of the products to which these Regulations apply, the manufacturer or his or her authorised representative shall apply the procedures referred to in paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) of Article 8 of the Directive.

(2) (a) In the case of post construction assessment for recreational craft, if neither the manufacturer nor his or her authorised representative fulfils the responsibilities for the product's conformity to these Regulations, these can be assumed by any natural or legal person established within the Community who places the product on the market, or puts it into service, under his own responsibility.

(b) In such a case, the person who places the product on the market or puts it into service must lodge an application for a post-construction report with a notified body.

(c) The person who places the product on the market or puts it into service must provide the notified body with any available document and technical file referred to the first placing on the market of the product in the county of origin.

(d) The notified body shall examine the individual product and carry out calculations and other assessment to ensure its equivalent conformity with the relevant requirements of these Regulations.

(e) In this case, the Builder's plate described in Annex 1, 2.2 shall include the words (“Post-construction certificate”).

(f) The notified body shall draw up a report of conformity concerning the assessment carried out and shall inform the person who places the product on the market or puts it into service of his obligations.

(g) That person shall draw up a declaration of conformity (see Annex XV) and affix, or cause to be affixed, the CE mark accompanied by the distinguishing number of the relevant notified body on the product.”.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, 1 July, 2004.

DERMOT AHERN,

Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.