Why? Inland wouldn’t need it, oceans would.
Small vessel operating companies and small vessel mariners in the near coastal trade (very few of which have oceans or can do celestial) would not stand for that unnecessary regulatory burden being imposed on them.
they’d be right too. Celestial has not been necessary in the near coastal trade in the past 250 years, and it’s certainly less necessary now.
Yeah, so keep the 100 ton GRT near coastal and MoT near coastal and get rid of all other outside GRT and near coastal licenses. Make it clear that these licenses are not valid outside US waters and anyone wanting to run a real vessel needs a 500/3000/unlimited GT oceans license.
Real boats? Sir, I’d have you know that MV Ducky Gooseneck is one the finer vessels any self respecting mariner would be excited to sail on.
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Most of the Near Coastal (or Inland for what is in reality a near coastal type of route, such as Puget Sound and SE Alaska) Master’s licenses are under 100 GRT. It’s probably easiest to either leave that alone.
Or alternatively, grandfather them all in at 500 GT with STCW (500 GT is about 200 GRT).
Near Coastal should be redefined as:
The offshore territorial waters of the state and federal governments,and the US Exclusive Economic Zone up to 200 miles offshore, but not the territorial waters or EEZ of any foreign country.
(The US EEZ boundary is marked on charts).
Yes, that sound definitely be codified as the limit so there stops being confusion.
It makes zero sense to not require any license or training at all for a towing vessel less than 26ft, of any horsepower at all pushing a barge of any tonnage at all, while requiring hundreds of days, years of experience, and thkusands of dollars of training if the tow/push boat is 27 feet.
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Gotta draw the line somewhere. If they made it 100 ft you’d be saying “what’s one more foot??”
Wouldn’t it make more sense to base it on total rated tonnage, rather than if cables tie it together?
Sure, what’s one more ton? Point wasn’t really about the length specifically more about how at some point there has to be a line and someone’s always going to bitch about “what’s one more gonna do?”
I’ve figured that dealing with arbitrary rules was the hazing applied to be part of the fraternity.
There might be some merit to creating a small towing vessel license, under so many feet, hp, and GT, towing small barges under so many feet, GT, within a small geographic area.
However, what we are doing now seems to be working pretty well. There are a few incidents, but compared to auto accidents, they are next to nothing
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Can you do a comparison with how many tug and barge units there are vs how many cars there are? Also include licensed drivers please and thank you
How much are you planning to pay me for this assignment?
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“Compared to auto accidents they are next to nothing ” - yeah no shit.
A quick google search - 299 million cars to 5,500 tugs. Amazing how there are less tug and barge accidents than car accidents. Who would’ve thought!
Apparently you are unaware of the concept of percentages.
Woah wait, what’s a percentage?
All you need to know.