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Holiday Inn in Ballston in Arlington Virginia

The meeting was held in the ballroom of the Holiday Inn in Ballston in Arlington.

The meeting room was setup with tables forming a horseshoe at the front of the room, with the open end of the horseshoe facing the public seating area. Each Council member had their own microphone. A microphone stand in front of the public area was used for public comment.

NBSAC97 room layout. See the horseshoe arrangement of tables at front (toward the projection screen) for the Council. Public sits in the back.

U.S. Coast Guard National Boating Safety Advisory Council (NBSAC) 87th meeting in Arlington Virginia March 23-25, 2017. Part 2 of our coverage.

Thursday Early Afternoon 25 March 2017.

Subcommittee Meetings

Much of the work of NBSAC occurs in the three subcommittees:

1. Boats & Associated Equipment Subcommittee
2. Prevention Through People Subcommittee
3. Strategic Planning Subcommittee

Each Subcommittee presented some topics Thursday afternoon.

Boats & Associated Equipment Subcommittee

Pete Chisholm of Mercury Marine chairs this subcommittee.

Visual Distress Signals

Marty Jackson of USCG presented on Visual Distress Signals.

Traditionally boaters carried flares for visual distress signals. Some LED lights are now bright enough to meet nighttime use requirements. The current lights do not work well in daylight.

The technical criteria they have been looking at does not include affordability or durability.

They are considering flashing them at 4 Hertz (4 times per second) or flashing them to sent “S-O-S” in Morse code.

There was considerable discussion about some LED products currently on the market claiming to be USCG approved.

Besides convenience, an LED light that COULD also work in daylight could eliminate the need for flares. It would also eliminate the need to track flare expiration dates and properly dispose of them.

Jackie Yurkovich of USCG gave an update on the transition to new life jacket approval standards.

Basically they are trying to harmonize U.S. life jacket standards with Canada AND Canada’s standard is much closer to the international standard.

By bringing the standards together (harmonizing them), those building life jackets will no longer have to build special life jackets for each country.
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U.S. Coast Guard National Boating Safety Advisory Council (NBSAC) 87th meeting in Arlington Virginia March 23-25, 2017. Part 5 of our coverage.

Saturday 26 March 2017.

The last day is typically reserved for the three subcommittees (Boats and Boat Equipment, Prevention Through People, and Strategic Planning) presenting resolutions, the discussion and formalization of those resolutions, and voting on them.

With no resolutions this year, beyond those recognizing those retiring, it was mostly comments on the three topics, planning for the future, and some informational presentations.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Accident Statistics
by Pam Doty of USACE

Pam Doty of USACE presenting at NBSAC97

USACE might be able to move the needle in ways USCG has not been able to on life jacket wear.

Several years ago they required life jacket wear on a part of Mississippi. They previously counted lake traffic there and on surrounding lakes. Traffic did not decrease on mandatory wear lakes, it actually increased. Wear rate is still higher there years later. She hopes to do some counting there this year.

Wear rate went up to about 80 percent.

Officers just enforced the law (mandatory wear) when they encountered people. They gave out warnings and tickets. The word got out and coffee shop chat spread the word.
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