The Coast Guard doesn’t beat around the bush when explaining their new restrictions

[Ram]

The Coast Guard doesn’t beat around the bush when explaining their new restrictions. As of December 1, the Coast Guard’s calculated vessel capacity has changed, based on an assumed higher average weight of passengers. Since 1960, the Coast Guard has calculated vessels’ capacity using an assumed average weight per person of 160 pounds. An amended federal rule that took effect this month recalibrated the average weight of a passenger at 185, a 25-pound jump. Recreational boats and cruise ships are not affected by the change. “The U.S. Coast Guard feels the U.S. people have gotten fatter over time,” Capt. Ed Sparrow, owner of a Miami-based charter yacht called Holiday of Magic, told The Miami Herald. His boat’s legal capacity has shrunk from 49 to 35 passengers. The revamped weight standard applies to all passengers, regardless of gender, and was based on a 2004 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found the average man 20 to 75 years of age weighs 191 pounds, up from 166 pounds in 1960. For women, the tally went from 140 to 164. The call for change stemmed from two boating tragedies. In March 2004, a pontoon water taxi called Lady D overturned in Baltimore Harbor with 25 aboard. Five people died; four were severely injured. In October 2005, the Ethan Allen sunk in 70 feet of water on Lake George in New York while carrying 49 passengers. Twenty elderly people died. In both cases, the vessels were carrying the proper number of passengers, but an excessive amount of weight.

[unbusted67]

Only in America.

Some vessels are affected more than others by the new policy. I was at the CG meeting for the state of Maine when they announced this. There were some pissed off schooner captains whose COI's were for 55 people and whose holds had, in the past, consistently carried the weight of 1000 people in coal. They were forced to either reduce their capacity by using an arbitrary ratio (if 160lbs = 55 people then 185=x) or undergo expensive stability tests to prove their vessel's ability to carry the weight, which in the case of a 150ft schooner is a bit of a no brainer.

One of the schooner captains stood up and said, "I just realized that the entire purpose of the Coast Guard is to run small mom and pop run businesses off of the water, you might not know it yet but that's where this is going." He said this right to the port captain's face. I don't necessarily think this is true but it does absolutely hurt the little guy more than the bigguns. (please excuse the pun)

[rebel heart]

I'd say 90% of the passengers onboard the little one day sport fisher I work on are >200lbs.

People are getting fat/huge/gross at an alarming rate. Stuff is nuts.

[webejammin]

This hits the ferrys around Seattle Wa and probably the whale watching boats. It will cause inflation in boat transportation prices.

[Waterway Guide]

They're right: "number of persons" is arbitrary...weight is weight. (I weigh 215 lbs more than I did in 1960...but I wasn't quite born yet!)

[IslandHopper]

Stability 101.....

You keep adding weight you need to re-calculate.....

Simple....

[Kijit]

There is a little difference between people and cargo....people move and, at least on smaller vessels, are on deck, cargo is not supposed to move and is normally lower in the hold. On a boat with a COI for 40 people and 40 people on board milling about is fine, but watch what happens when all 40 run over to the starboard rail to see something.

[perchance]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I'd say 90% of the passengers onboard the little one day sport fisher I work on are >200lbs.

People are getting fat/huge/gross at an alarming rate. Stuff is nuts.

You are going to have to start charging by the pound.

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by perchance

You are going to have to start charging by the pound.

It's funny you should suggest that. One of the "solutions" the CG came up with to determine your new capacity was to weigh every passenger before they got on board. Can you imagine?

[daddle]

Originally Posted by perchance

You are going to have to start charging by the pound.

And loading with a crane...

[svpattyd]

The Coast Guard seems to be making a decision based on reality. Yes the population is getting heavier. There r many reasons the population is gaining weight.

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by Kijit

There is a little difference between people and cargo....people move and, at least on smaller vessels, are on deck, cargo is not supposed to move and is normally lower in the hold. On a boat with a COI for 40 people and 40 people on board milling about is fine, but watch what happens when all 40 run over to the starboard rail to see something.

Some years ago, a day-boat 48ft cat, capsized in Hamilton harbour when the passengers did not move across the boat when it tacked. Calypso did not go all the way over as she was sailing in about 15ft of water, and the mast head bottomed out. They had all been on one side watching the cruise ship leave.
IIRC, about 24 passengers.
I was on the rescue boat.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by unbusted67

It's funny you should suggest that. One of the "solutions" the CG came up with to determine your new capacity was to weigh every passenger before they got on board. Can you imagine?

I want to be on the dock when they start doing that.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Ram

The Coast Guard doesn’t beat around the bush when explaining their new restrictions. As of December 1, the Coast Guard’s calculated vessel capacity has changed, based on an assumed higher average weight of passengers. Since 1960, the Coast Guard has calculated vessels’ capacity using an assumed average weight per person of 160 pounds. An amended federal rule that took effect this month recalibrated the average weight of a passenger at 185, a 25-pound jump. Recreational boats and cruise ships are not affected by the change. “The U.S. Coast Guard feels the U.S. people have gotten fatter over time,” Capt. Ed Sparrow, owner of a Miami-based charter yacht called Holiday of Magic, told The Miami Herald. His boat’s legal capacity has shrunk from 49 to 35 passengers. The revamped weight standard applies to all passengers, regardless of gender, and was based on a 2004 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found the average man 20 to 75 years of age weighs 191 pounds, up from 166 pounds in 1960. For women, the tally went from 140 to 164. The call for change stemmed from two boating tragedies. In March 2004, a pontoon water taxi called Lady D overturned in Baltimore Harbor with 25 aboard. Five people died; four were severely injured. In October 2005, the Ethan Allen sunk in 70 feet of water on Lake George in New York while carrying 49 passengers. Twenty elderly people died. In both cases, the vessels were carrying the proper number of passengers, but an excessive amount of weight.

Hmm....the math in this post doesn't work.

49 passengers @ 160lbs = 7840lbs.
7840lbs. / 185lbs per passenger = 42 passengers, not 35.


What am I missing???

[zeehag]

no one in usa knows math....uscg is in and of usa, therefore they know not math