RECREATIONAL BOATING ASSOCIATION Of WASHINGTON V oice of Northwest Boating P.O. Box 23601 Federal Way, WA 98093 NATIONAL BOATING FEDERATION REPORT SPRING 2008 TO: RECREATIONAL BOATING ASS'N. OF WASHINGTON (RBAW) FROM: DAVID KUTZ, RBAW DELEGATE TO NBF RE: REPORT ON SPRING MEETING in Hyannis Yacht Club DATE: 15 April 2008 The Spring meeting of the National Boating Federation (NBF) was held on April 11 & 12, at the Hyannis Yacht Club. Founded in 1966, NBF is composed of a large nationwide alliance of recreational boating organizations and members. These people represent all aspects of recreational boating activities. NBF represents no commercial interests and speaks for 2 million boaters nationwide. The National Boating Federation has 22 Boating Organization Regular Members, which includes RBAW. At this meeting we were pleased to accept the Boating Association of Ohio as a new Regular Member to NBF. In addition to the regular members, NBF membership is comprised of several hundred individual members, 70 yacht clubs, and 30 industry associate members. Distribution of NBF s newsletter The Lookout serves to keep recreational boaters and industry leaders appraised of current events effecting boating on the national level.
NBF is an all volunteer watchdog and educational organization that works on national boating issues in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with USCG, NOAA, Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, Wallop-Breaux Trust Funds (our fuel taxes), FCC (Marine Radio) and the Halls of Congress. CURRENT ISSUES IN WASHINGTON D.C: NBF Legislative Director, Earl Waesche, reported the following: EPA Permit for Recreational Boats: As most everyone knows; unless legislation is passed, we all will need an EPA permit to operate our boats after September 2008. Since the previous bills introduced have not succeeded, a new bill has been introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA). S2766, The Clean Boating Act of 2008, fully restores the longstanding exemption for recreational boats to have a permit for water discharges incidental to the normal operation of a boat. Additionally, the bill establishes a three-year framework for the EPA to determine if any Best Management Practices (BMPs) are needed for incidental discharges. If the EPA determines any reasonable and practicable best management practices are needed, the Coast Guard would take over as the lead agency and write the regulations. The Coast Guard would be required to determine the impact on the operational capability, and safety of the vessel and the economic cost of any BMPs that might be recommended. Even if BMPs were determined necessary, it would be difficult for the Coast Guard to administer any such regulations. The bottom line is we must all ask our Senators to serve as co-sponsors of S2766. The Senate is now in session and the activity is intense to gather as many co-sponsors as possible and get the bill passed. Presuming successful passage in the Senate the bill would then be sent to the House for a vote of Unanimous Consent. For details log on to www.boatblue.org. The American Boating Congress (ABC) will hold its Legislative Conference April 27-29 in Washington DC at the L Enfant Plaza Hotel. There will be speakers from government and industry on issues of importance to boating and will include visits with legislators on Capitol Hill. The EPA permit legislation will be high on the agenda. A bill to prevent hull splashing, or copying, reauthorization of the Coastal Zone Management Act, HR 3223 definition of working waterfronts, and others will be discussed. The ABC is sponsored by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) who has led the fight on the EPA permit bill.
New Ethanol Requirements: The recently passed Energy Bill contains new requirements for the amount of ethanol added to gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. This will make it more difficult to locate any marine fuel which does not contain ethanol. Many have read of (or experienced) the effects of ethanol which loosens sediment in fuel systems, the way it mixes with water, its effect on older boats and on those boats equipped with fiberglass fuel tanks. This is good news for farmers who grow corn from which ethanol is derived but bad news for the boating community. Fortunately the bill does contain provisions added by the NMMA requiring the EPA to thoroughly review new fuels for safety and potential engine damage prior to approving them for sale. Operation of Loran-C to Continue: The Department of Homeland Security issued a press release indicating it would now continue Loran operations as a national backup system to GPS. It further stated that the enhanced Loran, or eloran, system will be a land based, independent system and will mitigate any safety, security, or economic effects of a GPS outage or disruption. The eloran system will be an enhanced and modernized version of Loran-C, containing all new transmitting stations and an upgraded network. NBF has long been an advocate for Loran continuation as a backup for and complement to GPS and was one of the few groups working to bring this to fruition. NBF received a letter of appreciation from the International Loran Association for our efforts in making this happen. MISCELLANEOUS The meeting offered several good speakers addressing topics in both the New England area and national issues covered above. We heard from Tom Griffin of the National Youth Marine Alliance. Their mission is getting more kids connected to the water. They work in helping youth organizations (like Sea Scouts) get grants to succeed in advancing their youth boating programs. The philosophy is to get kids started boating as they are the future of boating. Carolyn Belmore of the USCG Auxiliary Association reported to NBF that 90% of the paddle sport fatalities in New England were people not wearing a life jacket. The USCGA is developing a safety packet of information for paddlers to take on board their paddle craft. Jimmie Homburg National Commodore of the Sea Scouts is asking boating organizations to come up with service projects for the Sea Scouts that would benefit boating in your area. She will come up with a Unit to carry out your project. Contact info@rbaw.org to get in contact with Jimmie. John Johnson Exec. Director NASBLA gave us an update on NASBLA happenings. He reported the Wallop-Breaux fund is now officially called the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund. It was created in 1984 as a user pay=user benefit initiative to
enhance boating and fishing. Congress allocates funds generated directly by boaters through taxes on motor boat fuel and fishing tackle, along with other fees. The USCG and the Dept. of Interior administer the Account and distributes the funds. The Fund provides boaters with boating safety programs such as education and enforcement along with many other boating and fishing initiatives, It should be noted that Wallop-Breaux almost pays for our entire Washington State Boating Programs Staff and overhead in Olympia, which includes our Boating Safety Council expenses and it also offsets our boater education program costs. Additionally, over the next 2 years, Washington State Boating Programs will be receiving an additional $500,000 per year for grants to jurisdictions to fund new marine patrol vessels and improvements. The entire fund is about $700 million strong with boaters contributing $400 million. The Fund needs to be reauthorized by Congress every five years and this year is the 4 th in the cycle. Next year at this time we ll likely be lobbying our Senators and House Representatives to reauthorized and improve the funding for Wallop Breaux. John Johnson also reported NASBLA will finally finish their national standards for mandatory paddle sports education by the end of October. This is good news for many groups that have been waiting to establish local initiatives for mandatory paddle sports education. Jeff Hoedt Chief, USCG Boating Safety Division in Washington D.C. thanked NBF and all of our member organizations for our critical help in our partnerships with boating safety. They recognize the #1 SAR component on the water is other recreational boaters. Boating is growing, along with the fast growing population in the USA. Kayaks are now ½ of all boats sold and the fatalities relate to this. Over 130 fatalities were in Kayaks alone last year. Boating fatalities for all boats have leveled off at about 700 per year and they want to improve. Lifejacket wear needs improvement. Less than 10% adults wear life jackets. Operators of vessels under 21 ft. have a 4% wear rate. Look for mandatory PFD initiatives coming on in the future. USCG officials are pushing it. The so called 3 year trial period to enhance voluntary wear is not working at all. Where PWC operation requires mandatory PFD wear, the wear rate is 95% and that s what they d like to see for all open boats and small craft. The USCG may be directed to require MBE on nationwide level, but they won t be advocating Licensing. They heard this loud and clear from the Boaters.
A large National Boating Survey is now being implemented. You may get a call asking about boating safety and participation questions. They are studying casualty rates relative to participation. The USCG SMALL VESSEL SECURITY SECURITY SUMMIT Last month RBAW received an invitation to the Long Beach Summit. (NBF will represent us) The USCG considers a small vessel anything under 300 gross tons. They want to hear from the boating community and are conducting these regional summits. The objective is to develop goals and objectives for a national security program to prevent incidents like the USS COLE happening here in the States. Once the input is registered, the goals and objectives of the program will be published but the program strategies will be classified. This is a hot item in Washington, the Administration wants the plan ASAP yesterday, and is pushing USCG. United States Power Squadron Bob Sweet reported to NBF that they are rolling out a non professional boat operatior certificate process for boaters who don t have a need to go through the USCG licensing process, but would like to learn more and get certified for various levels of boater competence. They have several seminars available for topics like boat handling, electronics, anchoring, VHF operation, rules of the road, diesel engines, etc. It s a structured education program for serious boaters going way beyond the basic MBE 8 hour course. There are 4 Levels of Certification: Inland, Coastal, Advanced coastal, and Offshore. NEWS FROM OTHER STATES: Massachusetts has almost passed Mandatory Boater Education. Mandatory boater liability insurance is being considered by the New Jersey Legislature. The California Assembly is currently considering Mandatory Boater Education and is supported by many organizations including the Recreational Boaters of California. Florida is considering raising the age exemption on their mandatory boater education. The exemption is currently 21 y/o and older. The Georgia Legislature also has a bill to require mandatory boater education moving through there Senate. The State of Virginia finally passed a MBE requirement this year. NBF ELECTIONS: New slate of Officers for 2008-2009: President Phil Arms (from IOBG), Vice President Tom Dogan (Lake Michigan Yacht Association), Treasurer Ev Tucker (USCG Auxiliary) and Secretary David Kutz (RBAW). The next meeting (Fall Meeting) of the National Boating Federation will be at the Clover Island Yacht Club in Kennewick on October 10 & 11, 2008. All RBAW members are encouraged to attend.
Respectfully submitted, David Kutz, Delegate Recreational Boating Association of Washington 1