American Boat and Yacht Council
Standards and Certification
Throughout this website I reference the
American Boat
and Yacht Council standards. Even though this site is
primarily about United
States Coast Guard regulations, any person entering the
marine business, building, designing or repairing boats, should
join ABYC.
See Also
Standards Societies.
See The ABYC Channel on
Youtube.com. at
https://www.youtube.com/user/ABYCAnnapolis
In the USA, most industries attempt to regulate themselves.
They believe that Federal
regulations should be enacted only when necessary to protect the
public, and that they should
reflect what the industry and the public already believe is a
necessity for the safety and environmental health of the people and the
country. To this end almost every industry in the USA has a
separate, independent organization that develops standards for that
industry. Probably the most well known of these organizations is the
Society of Automotive
Engineers (SAE) which develops standards for everything automotive,
and some for the marine and aircraft industry as well. Another is
the National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) which develops standards to prevent
fire and for other safety issues in the home and business.
In the marine industry this is the
American Boat and Yacht
Council.
ABYC has a small, professional staff that
oversees and administers the organization, but they do not determine the
standards. That is done by the volunteer membership of ABYC. ABYC
(as of 07/20/2015) has about 3200 members. About 2400 are marine
related businesses, about 480 are manufacturers and about 300 are
individual members, like me. ABYC
membership is open to anyone who takes an interest in boats, boating and
the safety of boats. However, as shown in the above numbers, most of it's members come from the
marine industry. Almost all of the US Coast Guard standards for
recreational boats were originally developed by ABYC and it's
predecessor the Yacht Safety Bureau, in affiliation with the US Coast
Guard and the Boating Industry Association (now the National Marine
Manufacturers Association,
NMMA). USCG
personnel are active members of ABYC and sit on many of it's committees
to protect the public interest.
ABYC functions by committees. Each
committee develops standards for a specific subject, such as Electrical
Systems, Fuel Systems, Flotation, Fire Fighting Systems, and so
on. There are 66 standards, and 17 committees. The committees are made up of volunteers from the membership.
Many of the members of each committee are from the boatbuilding sector,
and the industry that manufactures the systems involved, but also
committee members are marine surveyors, repairers, designers, US Coast
Guard, and the general boating public. ABYC staff, in picking the
members of each committee, try to balance the membership so that no
particular interest group controls the committee. Additionally,
non-voting (that is not a member of the committee) ABYC members and
interested parties may participate in meetings and give their opinions
on standards being developed. An ABYC technical board oversees the
activities of all committees and reviews the standards as they are
developed. All standards are published for comment by anyone, and voted
on by the ABYC membership, so that they are truly a consensus standard.
See more about this at
http://www.abycinc.org/standards/index.cfm
The ABYC standards are used by most of the marine
industry in the USA, Canada and many other countries, and were heavily
referenced by the International Standards Organization (ISO) when
developing their own standards. ABYC is a member of ISO, and of
the American National Standards Institute which oversees all standards
societies in the USA.
As part of membership you have immediate access
to all of the ABYC Standards, either in book, CD, or on-line, and to ISO
standards and the USCG regulations.
So if you are going to build boats,
join
ABYC! You will be glad
you did.
ABYC Blogposts: Articles on
standards. Available to everyone, no membership or logon
required.
https://abycinc.org/blogpost/1653087/Certified-Technician--Advisor-Newsletter
Education/Certification:
In addition to settings standards, ABYC offers
education and training programs for marine technicians. At the end
of each program, a technician can take exams leading to certification in
their specialty. The programs include Electrical Systems, Marine
Corrosion, Marine Systems, ABYC Standards, Marine Composites, and Air
Condition/Refrigeration Systems. See ABYC's programs at
http://abycinc.org/?page=Education.
The instructors for these courses are some of
the top professionals in the marine industry. These are
experienced technicians who have also published books and articles on
their specialty, and who have taught at educational institutions,
conferences, and seminars. If they don't know the answer to your
question they know who does!
Marine certification is a valuable tool for boat
manufacturers and marine repairers to assure their customers that boats
and repairs are done to the highest standards. Anyone can take the
courses but prices are reduced for ABYC members.
The
American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) also has an online
marine training platform which hosts multi-module courses, interactive
learning tools and on-demand webinars. Students will have the
opportunity to learn at their own pace and save in travel expenses to
attend on-site courses.
This is only available to ABYC members.
https://abyc.elevate.commpartners.com/
So if you are going to repair boats,
join
ABYC! You will be glad
you did.
Marine Insurance:
ABYC has a cooperative agreement with Great
American Insurance Company to provide Marine Artisan Insurance policies
for companies in the marine industry : see
http://www.starkweathershepley.com/wp/starkweather-shepley-partners-abyc-new-member-benefit/
Certified Component Program:
ABYC has a program
to certify that marine products meet ABYC standards.
https://abycinc.org/page/CertifiedComponent?
This is accomplished through the International Marine Certification Institute (IMCI)
https://www.imci.org/
Inquire with
ABYC for more information.
|