b'REGULATORY REPORT:A Short History of EarlyThe late eighties brought a notice of proposedAdmiralJimCardandhisPreventionmanyhighspeedaluminumcatamaransin rulemaking(NPRM)toreviseandupdateThroughPeoplewasrevolutionary.Itservice today. Other issues ran from structural REGULATORYSubchapter T.acknowledgedthattheCoastGuardandfi protection to the streamlined inspectionre Small Passenger VesselThis was the catalyst that matured PVA, thenindustry were partners in safety. That led toprogramandtotheAlternativeSecurity the founding of a chartered partnership andProgram(ASP)amongmanyothers.This theNationalAssociationofPassengerVessela theme of honoring the mariner. In 1996 thecommunicationandjointproblemsolving Inspection Owners(NAPVO),asanorganizationthatCoast Guard and PVA signed an agreementthrough working groups on issues of mutual could and would speak for the SPV element ofto establish a partnership mechanism calledinteresthasprobablybeenthevehiclethat the maritime industry. Members came togetherPartnershipActionTeam(PAT).ThePATprevented many workable issues from turning PETER LAURIDSEN // PVAREGULATORY AFFAIRS CONSULTANT in an ad hoc regulatory committee. They tookidentifi ednonregulatoryissuesofmutualto legislative and regulatory intervention of whatwaslearnedandwhattheyknewandinterest for exploration and resolution. Therethird parties.T heSmallPassengerVesselActinwho were not yet sufficiently versed in orbluewaterfl becauseoffocusandfamiliaritywherever the Coast Guard scheduled a hearingwere teams established that solved problemsI think Ill save the last 20 years for discussions 1956calledfortheregulationandoccupied with the blue water fl eet. eettheyinvitedeverypassengervesseloperatorlike domestic operation and manning of high-inspection of passenger vessels of less eetin the area, member or not, to a pre-hearingspeedvesselsthatisthefoundationoftherelated to some of the major rulemakings. withregulation.TheSPVfl didnotgenerate than 100 gross tons carrying more than sixThe marine inspector cadre had a signifi cantmany reports but those that occurred were generallymeeting and shared all that had been developed. passengers for hire. This fl came underpercentage of high-level licensed merchantdeterminedtobecausedasoperatorsunfamiliarThe process educated the public and, to a greateetwith matters of regulation and seamanship. inspection at the time that the U.S. merchantmariners who came to the Coast Guard underextent, the Coast Guard. fl was a signifi cant part of internationalthe Public Law 219 direct commissioned aseetIn the mid-70s the Gulf of Mexico oil industry and domestic seaborne commerce. MarineLieutenants. Their infl uence enhanced thewasmovingfromtheshallowwaterdrillingtoThe Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993 was Inspection Offices, particularly coastal ports,marine inspection bent towards identifyingdeeperanddeeperwaters.Almostallmanpoweraseriouseff orttocontrolthewidespread were involved in bringing the merchant fl eetwithbluewaterfl astheCoastGuardbare boat charter industry. Then, as now, theeetandmuchoftheprovisioningmovedbycrew intocompliancewiththeInternationalprimary marine safety mission. boattooff shoredrillrigs.Crewboatswereinresponsible Coast Guard-inspected vessels were Convention for Safety of Life at Sea, 1960high demand and were being built under the SPVbeing tarnished with the sins of others.(SOLAS 1960). The small passenger vesselThe early 1970s brought an eff ort on theregulations. The tonnage measurement of SPVs was (SPV) fl eet was primarily the party fi part of the Coast Guard to analyze marineIn1994,theCoastGuardpublishedshingbeing challenged as designers and builders sought fl TheU.S.CoastGuardsmarinecasualty and personnel injury data that hadaSupplementaryNoticeofProposedeet.toexploitthemeasuresthatreducedcalculated inspectionactivitywasprincipallyseenbeen collected and tabulated for an annualtonnage. The tonnage management was not lostRulemaking (SNPRM) that broke SPVs into asabluewaterendeavorandSPVswerereporttoCongress.AlthoughSPVswereon what is now known as T boats. They too sawtwo Subchapters: T and a new K. This enabled generally seen as a novelty at that time. Theynowundertherequirementofreportingbenefi tinlarger,moreadaptablecraftbuiltanda clear distinction between the typical T-Boat wereoftentheareaformarineinspectorscasualties this data was skewed towards themanned under Subchapter T. These larger, moreand the larger capacity K boats that could have capable craft could be manned with a single licensedregulatory standards appropriate to their larger master and unlicensed crew. capacity and a size that would accommodate redundancy,structuralfi protectionandre The early eighties brought the Presidents Privateappropriate engineering standards.SectorSurveyonCoastControlandPresidentIn the beginning of the 90s, the manning of Reagans question on why did the government haveSPVsbecameanissueandtheCoastGuard two navies. What followed was a vigorous attempt tomade a case for two licensed operators, a master defend the multi-missioned Coast Guard throughandamate.Thiswasseenasimpracticable a Roles and Mission study. A major task was tounder the economics of the industry and an justify the Coast Guards role in regulation of theabsence of a pool of mates. NAPVO proposed a merchant marine. The marine safety program usedspecially trained deck hand as the back up to the the time to examine its eff ectiveness and efficiency.master and the take home capability in the event It was obvious that the merchant marine was madethe master was disabled. The deckhand training up in part of a growing domestic passenger vesselNavigationandVeselInceptionCircular element and a shrinking blue water fl eet.(NVIC) 01-91 and the senior deckhand solved In1983,thelossofthecollier/bulkcarrierSSthe problem.Marine Electric demonstrated that a large part ofAnother major occurred in 1991: the onset of the blue water fl eet was a faade. It is reported someriverboatcasinogambling.Mostoftheearly 70 World War II-era craft left the fl eet through morecasinovesselswerepassengervesselsbuiltto rigorous inspection or voluntarily surrender of theirSubchapterH(afuturearticlethere).Given Certifi cates of Inspection after the investigation.the tonnage management schemes some casino The Subchapter T boat fl eet not only became moreboats could be and were built to Subchapter K. apparent thenless blue water activitybut soonThenewSubchaptersTandKwere began to grow in number and eventually becamepublishedin1996.Thisyearalsobrought a signifi cant proportion of the inspected fl Ateet.theacknowledgmentthatSPVownersand its peak it was nearly 50 percent of the inspectedoperators were professional mariners. vessels. But not yet.REGULATORY REPORT 32 FOGHORN JULY 2021 33 REGULATORY REPORT'