N.J. Stat. § 12:7-71
As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires a different meaning:
"Commission" means the Boat Regulation Commission established pursuant to section 14 of P.L. 1962, c.73 (C.12:7-34.49);
"Department" means the Department of Law and Public Safety;
"Director" means the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles in the Department of Transportation;
"Division" means the Division of Motor Vehicles in the Department of Transportation;
"Documented vessel" means a vessel which has a valid Marine Document issued by the United States Coast Guard or any Federal agency successor thereto;
"Length" means measurement from end to end over the deck parallel to the centerline excluding sheer, bowsprits, bumpkins, rudders, outboard motors, brackets or other equipment or appendages;
"Motor" means a temporarily or permanently installed fuel consuming mechanism by which the vessel is or may be propelled, including an electrical motor;
"Operate" means to navigate, use, control or command a vessel;
"Operator" means every person having charge, control, operation or direction of any vessel and the owner of the vessel if the owner is on the vessel at the time it is operated in violation of the law;
"Owner" means a person, other than a lienholder, having the property in or title to a vessel. The term includes a person entitled to the use or possession of the vessel subject to an interest of another person, reserved or created by agreement and securing payment or performance of an obligation, but the term excludes a lessee under a lease not intended as security;
"Personal watercraft" means a personal watercraft as defined by section 1 of P.L. 1993, c.299 (C.12:7-62);
"Pontoon boat" means a vessel supported by one or more cylindrical floats and propelled by an inboard or outboard motor;
"Power vessel" means a vessel temporarily or permanently equipped with machinery for propulsion, including a personal watercraft, and shall not include a vessel propelled wholly by sails or by muscular power;
"Sailboat" means any boat whose sole source of propulsion is the wind;
"Vessel" means a boat or watercraft, other than a sea plane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water; and
"Waters of this State" means all waters within the jurisdiction of this State, both tidal and nontidal, and the marginal sea adjacent to this State to a distance of three nautical miles from the shoreline.
N.J.S. § 12:7-71