US Commercial Boats Under 50' Safety Questions

[DCockey]

Section 604 of the Coast Guard Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 requires that commercial fishing boats under 50' built after January 1, 2010 have the same level of safety as recrational boats:
(h) A vessel to which this chapter applies shall be constructed in a manner that provides a level of safety equivalent to the minimum safety standards the Secretary may establish for recreational vessels under section 4302, if--
(1) subsection (b) of this section applies to the vessel;
(2) the vessel is less than 50 feet overall in length; and
(3) the vessel is built after January 1, 2010.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3619/text

My understanding is that in the past boats built and sold for commercial purposes were exempt from the recreational safety standards.

Anyone know how this new requirement is being implemented by the Coast Guard?

Do the exact, same standards have to be met or are alternatives being provided which result in "a level of safety equivalent"?

Does it apply to all new, non-recreational, under 50' boats or only to boats to be used for commercial fishing?

[Ike]

Some very good questions. This is so new I suspect (Having worked at CG HQ for 20 years) that they haven't even written the implementing regulations for it yet. But to find out call the Marine Safety Center. See http://www.uscg.mil/hq/msc/

A little retrospective. Originally vessels in this class were excepted from any specific standards, unless they had an inboard gas engine. Then the USCG tried a voluntary approach using the ABYC standards and the CG Auxiliary to check for compliance. But that was not hugely successful. Thus the Act.

[DCockey]

The president signed the bill on October 14 so it's been around for a while. I first ran across mention of it in an article in the most recent issue of Soundings. Google search didn't find much mention of it. Here's a link to one summary of the provisions in the act regarding commercial fishing vessel safety: http://bayoulog.com/2011/03/15/coast...ustry-vessels/

I'm not doing anything affected by the change in regulations but thought others might be interested and might need to know about them.

[Ike]

A quote from the link you gave

When implemented through new or amended regulations, the commercial fishing industry should experience enhanced worker and vessel safety.

It takes a long time to put implementing regulations in effect. First, of course they have to be written by someone, reviewed at several levels, and rewritten each time, and eventually sent to the CG legal office for their review and rewriting in legalese. Then after that is done they have to publish an Advanced Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking asking for comments (90 days at the very least), a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking asking for more comments (90 to 180 days) , and the Rulemaking. Regulations usually have a phase in period of 180 days (sometime several years) before the become effective.

I haven't seen anything in the Federal Register yet, so it may be a while.

If they only have to ammend existing regulations then that should shorten the process quite a bit.

[powerabout]

So they wil need to do a swamp test?

[Ike]

Not all of them. Flotation for recreational boats only applies to monohull power boats under 20 feet.