CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Marine Patrol officers will be out in force over the upcoming July 4th holiday weekend with power to enforce boating rules that inadvertently lapsed.

New Hampshire Marine Patrol officers will enforce emergency replacement rules for the ones that lapsed due to an oversight. The emergency rules will remain in effect until the permanent rules are reinstated July 14.

Maine boaters need not worry about such a thing happening there, said Col. Tim Peabody, boating law administrator for Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“The boating rules do not lapse here in Maine, unless the rule was written with a specific sunset clause,” Peabody said.

He said all of Maine’s boating rules are state statutes. Peabody said Maine and New Hampshire boating rules are similar.

New Hampshire Safety Services Director David Barrett said speed limits, no-wake zones and personal watercraft restrictions will be enforced. He is encouraging boaters to observe all the state’s laws and rules because officers will be enforcing every one of them.

Barrett insists the state always had authority to enforce the rules.

“There was never a situation where rules were not in place and we didn’t have the authority to enforce them,” Barrett said.

Most New Hampshire boating rules automatically lapse every seven years unless reinstated. Barrett said that while many of the state’s boating rules did lapse due to departmental oversight, they will be reinstated on July 14. In the meantime, identical emergency rules are in place.

“Speed limits, no-wake zones and personal watercraft restrictions are all still in place,” Barrett said.

“Nothing has changed. I encourage people to boat properly and with due understanding of all the state’s boating laws and rules because our officers are going to be out there enforcing every one of them,” Barrett said.

Emergency rules are in effect for 120 days and carry the same legal weight as permanent rules.

“There’s no difference between an emergency rule and a regular rule except that it has a shorter life and it doesn’t have to through the hearing process,” Barrett said.

Barrett said most of the rules that lapsed are technical and don’t affect boaters, though some of the regulations include rules for specific bodies of water, such as no-wake zones and speed limits.

In addition to the emergency rules, many of the lapsed regulations, especially those related to boater safety, are mirrored in state statutes, Barrett said. For example, lifejacket requirements and maintaining headway speed when within 150 feet of another vessel or a dock do not lapse.

Barrett said some of the rules have undergone significant revision, but most would not affect the average boater. Most of the safety rules and requirements will remain the same, Barrett said.

AP-ES-06-27-04 1231EDT