S.1129<\/a>, puts the industry on a path to expand the use of alternative distress signals like LED lights and emergency position-indicating radio beacons, a move that will equip boaters with safer, longer-lasting, and more environmentally friendly options to signal for help in case of an emergency, said Dammrich.<\/p>\n\u201cThis bill also provides new training for 911 dispatchers to better distinguish situations that require a U.S. Coast Guard response from those that should be directed to a local or third-party entity \u2014 a worthwhile initiative that will help boaters receive assistance when they need it and reduce unnecessary burdens on Coast Guard personnel,\u201d said Dammrich.<\/p>\n
While this legislation does not mandate wearing of engine cutoff devices, the bill \u201ctakes the important steps of requiring manufacturers to install these devices in most boats under 26 feet \u2014 something many currently do at no cost to the consumer \u2014 and incentivizes the Coast Guard to promote their use,\u201d said Dammrich.<\/p>\n
\u201cWearing engine cutoff devices is a vital safety measure for boaters and law enforcement alike,\u201d he said. \u201cThis proposal is supported across the recreational boating community and we encourage Congress and the Coast Guard to take additional steps toward implementing mandatory wear of engine cutoff devices soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill reforms Certificates of Documentation, or registrations, for recreational boats by extending renewal dates from one year to five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, this bipartisan legislation reduces the risks posed by ballast water discharges from commercial vessels \u2014 which will minimize the likelihood of introducing aquatic invasive species in our waterways, while ensuring these discharges, and recreational boats, continue to be regulated under the Clean Water Act,\u201d said Dammrich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. Senate passed the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017, which includes several provisions championed by the boating industry and the National Marine Manufacturers Association. The NMMA said it played \u201ca pivotal role\u201d in shaping the bill. \u201cNMMA applauds the Senate for passing this critical legislation, which includes several provisions that will directly improve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boating-industry-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nboa.largeinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}