eFoil regulations & spots in Cook Islands

The Cook Islands has no eFoil-specific rule. Motorised craft fall under the Maritime Transport Act 2008 and the Maritime Transport (Small Motorised Vessels) Regulations 2014, administered by the Ministry of Transport, which apply to motorised vessels under 24 m operating in Cook Islands waters and treat personal watercraft as one category of small motorised vessel. An electric hydrofoil board would in practice be handled the same way, although the ministry has published no position on eFoils.

Under the regulations boat owners must register their vessel and operators must hold a Motorised Vessel Driver's Licence; a Cook Islands Boatmaster Certificate is needed only when carrying passengers or cargo commercially. Operators must follow the COLREGs, carry the safety equipment listed in the regulations' equipment table, and stay under a blood-alcohol limit of 0.08 for recreational use (0.02 for commercial). Personal watercraft may be operated in daylight hours only, and bow riding is prohibited. The ministry's published summary does not state a minimum age or a wear-at-all-times life-jacket rule; fines for breaches run up to NZ$2,000.

Speed and distance rules are the main operating constraint: at 10 knots or more a vessel must keep 30 m from shorelines, wharves, jetties and fish-aggregating devices and 60 m from any person in the water, and at more than 5 knots it must stay 200 m from a vessel flying a diver's flag. On Rarotonga, Muri Lagoon, the island's busiest swimming, kayaking and snorkelling water, is closed to jet skis by a rule of the Ngatangiia Aronga Mana (traditional chiefs) reported in December 2017; it is customary rather than statute law, enforced by warning rather than fines, and local jet-ski operators run their tours outside the reef instead. Motorised boats near the Avaavaroa Passage turtle site operate at very slow speed with propeller guards under an operators' memorandum of understanding, and their presence around snorkellers is contested. Ra'ui, community-declared conservation closures, are common around Rarotonga and on the outer islands; their rules are set locally, so ask before riding through one.

Enforcement by the Ministry of Transport is light and aimed mainly at commercial operators; on Muri Lagoon it is social pressure from the community and traditional leaders. Rules therefore vary in practice: national licensing and speed rules everywhere, a hard local ban on motorised riding inside Muri Lagoon, and community-managed closures elsewhere. Obtain the driver's licence and register the board through the Ministry of Transport in Avarua before riding, launch outside the reef or away from swimming areas, and ask the local Aronga Mana or island council before riding any lagoon on an outer island.