During the Superyacht Society´s annual breakfast meeting at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show, the MCA gave an overview of how the large yacht code will be revised in the coming year and how the megayacht industry will be able to get involved.
Paul Jackson, project director of the Ensign Division of Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), talked about the areas that will be looked into to bring the regulations up to date.
Since the large yacht regulations were introduced in June of 1997, many things have changed in the construction of megayachts. In addition, some of the regulations have been open to interpretation and need to be clarified.
According to Jackson, The major areas that will be addressed in the construction portion of the code are:
Hull and machinery classification. Each class society has different rules so those must be changed to match with others.
1/. Sailing vessel machinery. A standard needs to be developed that matches commercial regulations.
2/. Anchoring and mooring arrangements.
3/. Damage stability compliance. Current regulations, now called LY1 for Large Yacht 1, are outdated and don´t take into account the new, larger yachts now being launched. The new regulations, to be called LY2, need to address that. "When the regulations were issued we didn´t expect so many large yachts to be built," Jackson said.
4/. Large portlights and bonded-in windows. Technology has advanced considerably in the past five years in this area so the regulations need updating.
5/. Storm covers and deadlights.
6/. Ventilation, air pipes and hatch and door coaming heights.
7/. Addressing regulations for fire prevention on non-steel yachts. The perception is that current standards are slanted toward non-steel vessels.
8/. Escapes from below decks.
9/. Fixed fire extinguishing systems.
10/. Dealing with the newer, combustible materials.
11/. Dealing with advances in insulation technology.
12/. Clarification of liferaft capacity and launch requirements.
13/. Rescue boats. The MCA wants to look into alternative systems if feasible.
14/. Position of nav lights.
15/. Possible regulations and standards for rigging on sailboats.
Jackson said the MCA was planning to get feedback from the industry at the Lauderdale show as well as Project 2002 in Amsterdam and Project USA in February in Miami. The final draft is expected to be released in February which will go to the MCA´s steering committee headed by Roger Spence of the MCA.
Jackson urged industry members to make suggestions and said they could be submitted by email to:
codes@mcga.gov.uk