Reboarding device & lifting harness Requirements - Transport Canada

Reboarding device

What is a reboarding device?

A reboarding device allows a person to get back onto the boat from the water. Being able to re-board your vessel is very important and even more so if you are the only one in the boat and have fallen overboard.

That is why a vessel that has a freeboard of greater than 0.5 metres is required by law to have a re-boarding device.

Requirements for a reboarding device

A transom ladder, a swim platform ladder, or a lifting harness meet requirement in Canada.

The reboarding device must obviously be appropriate to the type of pleasure craft. 

The vessel’s propulsion unit can never be used in gaining access to the vessel from the water.

A reboarding device is required if the vertical height that must be climbed to re-board the boat from the water is over 0.5 metres.

The ladder should go deep enough into the water to allow you to easily climb onto it and back aboard your vessel. If you do not have a fixed ladder and rely on something portable make sure it is located in a place in your boat that you can reach it from the water, retrieve and secure it to be operational.

On which vessel lifting harness is required?