Online Regs

For the life of me I don’t understand why it is so difficult to find international maritime regulations online. Specifically I’m looking for SOLAS, MARPOL, and STCW. The USCG’s Navcen only gives MSC amendments. Other national governments are just the same. The IMO website is nearly useless, as it sorts regulations by the dates that amendments were made, and is a summary of the amendments, rather than the full text of the regulations themselves. This seems suspiciously designed to get you to buy their pubs instead. So, short of ponying up $800 for Lloyds Rulefinder, or buying the print publications from the IMO directly, is there no place online to browse these conventions in their complete, most current form?

STCW: http://www.uscg.mil/imo/stw/docs/stcw-c2-final-acts.pdf (2010)

SOLAS: http://library.arcticportal.org/1696/1/SOLAS_consolidated_edition2004.pdf (2004)

[QUOTE=SappaCreek;165937]STCW: http://www.uscg.mil/imo/stw/docs/stcw-c2-final-acts.pdf (2010)

SOLAS: http://library.arcticportal.org/1696/1/SOLAS_consolidated_edition2004.pdf (2004)[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the STCW! Unfortunately SOLAS has been amended about a dozen times since then. They’re up to the 2014 Consolidated now.

[QUOTE=wafinator;165944]Thanks for the STCW! Unfortunately SOLAS has been amended about a dozen times since then. They’re up to the 2014 Consolidated now.[/QUOTE]

So far I haven’t been able to find links for the more recent versions. However, if you don’t mind a bit of legwork, you can use this link:


to get specifics on any amendments that enter into force between 2010 and 2025.

From looking at:
http://www.imo.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/ReferencesAndArchives/HistoryofSOLAS/Documents/SOLAS%201974%20-%20Brief%20History%20-%20List%20of%20amendments%20to%20date%20and%20how%20to%20find%20them.html#Amendments_year_by_year_
it looks like the amendments not covered between that and the 2004 edition are the ones made in December 2004, May 2005, May 2006, and October 2007

It’s not a good situation for browsing, but if you need to look up something specific, you could use the 2004 edition and those two links to either find the current version or confirm that it’s been modified by the amendments that entered into force between 2004 and 2010. Hopefully someone can find the 2014 consolidated version.

Yeah, the amendments themselves are fairly easy to find, along with old versions of the Convention. The issue is a reliable, searchable, up-to-date version. And actually for those wondering, the list of SOLAS amendments since 2004:
May 2005 amendments - revised chapter II-1
• May 2006 amendments - LRIT
• May 2006 amendments - other issues
• December 2006 amendments - passenger ship safety
• October 2007 amendments - GMDSS providers
• May 2008 - mandatory casualty investigation code
• December 2008 - mandatory IS code
• December 2008 - mandatory IMSBC code
• June 2009 - ECDIS
• May 2010 - Goal Based Standards (GBS)
• December 2010 – FTP Code
• May 2011 – lifeboat release hooks

They want people to follow the rules, but they won’t let people see the rules.

[QUOTE=follow40;166003]They want people to follow the rules, but they won’t let people see the rules.[/QUOTE]

No, they’ll let you see them, but it will cost you.