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ABYC Publishes Updated Boat Building and Repair Standards

The American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) published its 61st supplement of Standards and Technical Information Reports for Small Craft , which provides the marine industry with the latest in boat building and repair standards. The 2021-2022 updates are available to purchase as a book or in digital format via the ABYC online library and desktop subscription. 

ABYC standards are continually researched, developed, and revised by over 400 volunteer technical experts and marine professionals participating in Project Technical Committees (PTCs).

“This is the largest update in ABYC’s history,” said ABYC technical director Brian Goodwin. “Our committees addressed the growing demand for electric propulsion and the increasingly more complex electrical systems we see on boats. This was a major achievement from dedicated industry professionals working together to ensure we keep boating safe.” 

With over 75% of revised documents included as the standards basis for the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) Boat & Yacht Certification Program, manufacturers designing for 2023 model year will need to understand and apply standards updates that affect their product.

ABYC members can access the standards on ABYC’s website via the standards library. The online standards library includes an overview document that highlights the major changes in supplement 61. Additionally, the overview document and supplemental technical tools, including an updated compliance audit checklist and updated test templates, are available on ABYC’s website.

New and revised standards and technical information reports:

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Abyc publishes updated boat building and repair standards.

• A-3       Cooking Appliances
• A-7       Liquid and Solid Fueled Boat Heating Systems
• A-16     Installation of Electric Navigation Lights
• A-27     Alternating Current (AC) Generator Sets
• E-10     Storage Batteries
• E-11     AC & DC Electrical Systems on Boats
• E-30     Electric Propulsion Systems
• H-2       Ventilation of Boats Using Gasoline
• H-5       Boat Load Capacity
• H-25     Portable and Semi-Portable Marine Gasoline Fuel Systems
• H-26     Powering of Boats
• H-27     Seacocks, Thru-Hull Fittings, and Drain Plugs
• H-28     Inflatable Boats
• H-33     Diesel Fuel Systems
• P-6       Propeller Shafting Systems
• S-8       Boat Measurement and Weight

Component Standards

• C-1      Primer Bulbs
• C-2      Carbon Canisters
• C-5      Construction and Testing of Electric Navigation Lights NEW
• C-7      Battery Switches for Use on Boats NEW

Technical Information Reports

• T-5      Safety Signs and Labels
• T-32    Design and Construction in Consideration of Aquatic Invasive Species

Every year PTCs gather during ABYC’s Standards Week to update the standards currently under review. The 2022 Standards Week will be held in Charleston, SC, January 10-14. All are welcome to have a voice in standards development. Visit ABYC’s “Get Involved” site to learn more. Visit www.abycinc.org to purchase Standards and Technical Information Reports for Small Craft , Supplement 61 manual or desktop subscription.

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The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) was created in 1954 as a non-profit organization to develop safety standards for the design, construction, equipage, repair and maintenance of boats.

The story of the American Boat & Yacht Council, Inc. starts several years before ABYC was formally organized. As early as 1950, members of the former Motorboat and Yacht Advisory Panel of the Coast Guard’s Merchant Marine Council had expressed an interest in having the boating industry, public, and government combine their talents to draft standards and recommended practices for the construction of small craft and associated equipment. The panel thought that such a broad-based effort could win wide support and acceptance of its recommendations.

With this encouragement, the American Boat & Yacht Council was incorporated in 1954 under New York State law as a nonprofit, public service, membership organization. The ABYC now numbers over 4000 individuals, corporations and associations, worldwide.

Organization

Contact Information

ABYC Headquarters 613 Third Street – Suite 10 Annapolis, Maryland 21403 Telephone: (410) 990-4460 Hours: M-F 8am – 5pm Webesite:  www.abycinc.org . Contact Form:  www.abycinc.org/contact/index.cfm .

List of ABYC Standards

A-1 Marine Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Systems A-3 Galley Stoves A-4 Fire Fighting Equipment A-6 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Equipment A-7 Liquid and Solid Fueled Boat Heating Systems A-14 Gasoline and Propane Gas Detection Systems A-16 Electric Navigation Lights A-22 Marine Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Systems A-23 Sound Signal Appliances A-24 Carbon Monoxide Detection Systems A-26 LPG and CNG Fueled Appliances A-27 Alternating Current (AC) Generator Sets A-28 Galvanic Isolators A-30 Cooking Appliances with Integral LPG Cylinders A-31 Battery Chargers and Inverters E-2 Cathodic Protection E-4 Lightning Protection E-10 Storage Batteries E-11 AC & DC Electrical Systems on Boats H-1 Field of Vision from the Helm Position H-2 Ventilation of Boats Using Gasoline H-3 Windows, Windshields, Exterior Hatches, Doors, Port Lights, and Glazing H-4 Cockpits and Scuppers H-5 Boat Load Capacity H-8 Buoyancy in the Event of Swamping H-22 Electric Bilge Pump Systems H-23 Installation of Potable Water Systems H-24 Gasoline Fuel Systems H-25 Portable Gasoline Fuel Systems H-26 Powering of Boats H-27 Seacocks, Thru-Hull Connections, and Drain Plugs H-28 Inflatable Boats H-29 Canoes and Kayaks H-30 Hydraulic Systems H-31 Seat Structures H-32 Ventilation of Boats Using Diesel Fuel H-33 Diesel Fuel Systems H-35 Powering and Load Capacity of Pontoon Boats H-37 Mini Jet Boats H-40 Anchoring, Mooring, and Lifting H-41 Reboarding Means, Ladders, Handholds, Rails and Lifelines P-1 Installation of Exhaust Systems for Propulsion and Auxiliary Engines P-4 Marine Inboard Engines and Transmissions P-6 Propeller Shafting Systems P-14 Propulsion Control Systems P-17 Steering Systems for Outboard, Inboard, Sterndrive, and Water Jet Drive Boats P-18 Cable Over Pulley Steering Systems for Outboard Engines P-21 Manual Hydraulic Steering Systems P-22 Steering Wheels P-23 Steering and Propulsion Controls for Jet Boats P-24 Electric/Electronic Propulsion Control Systems S-7 Boat Capacity Labels S-8 Boat Measurement and Weight S-12 Outboard Motor Transom and Motor Well Dimensions S-30 Outboard Engine and Related Equipment Weights More from Wikipedia .

ABYC Standards Classes and Certification

ABYC offers standards classes and certification. See www.abycinc.org/?page=Education .

ABYC also arranges discounts for its members to take classes from Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology .

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BOAT PRODUCTION : ^  Statutes & Standards : ^  ^  Laws : ^  ^  Classification Societies : ^  ^  ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council – US): ^  ^  NFPA (National Fire Protection Association – US) : ^  ^  International Standards : IMO, ISO, etc . ^  Do-It-Yourself Boat Building :

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A Trump shark’s tale: Whether to be eaten or electrocuted

The Republican nominee keeps telling a nonsensical story involving a battery-powered boat, a shark and electrocution.

Over the past 10 months, former president Donald Trump has periodically unspooled a nonsensical tale involving a sinking electric boat, a potential electrocution and a ferocious shark attack.

Trump’s recounting of the saga goes roughly like this: In September, a South Carolina boat manufacturer warned him about the scourge of electric boats — arguing that the battery is so large that it leaves little room for passengers and, worse, the battery is so heavy that the boat might not even float.

It was then that Trump claims he posed the “very smart” question the manufacturer said he had never before been asked: If the boat sinks under the weight of its own battery, couldn’t the boaters be electrocuted? And worse, if they jumped off the boat to avoid electrocution, might they then be devoured by a shark?

“You know what I’m going to take? Electrocution,” Trump said when he unveiled the story for the first time at a rally in October in Ottumwa, Iowa. “I will take electrocution every single time.”

The riff has all the hallmarks of a classic Trumpian yarn — full of fabrication, riddled with illogic, defying the laws of physics and, by turns, rambling and hyperbolic, humorous and head-scratching.

It is a whale of a tale, and listeners could be forgiven for thinking they’re going to need a bigger boat to handle all of the exaggerations and flights of fancy.

Electric vehicle and electric boat experts say that, like any boat or ship, the battery of a properly built electric boat is unlikely to cause it to sink and that even if the vessel did take on water for some reason, safety standards make it unlikely that anyone would be at risk for electrocution.

“We have cargo ships that carry thousands of tons of cargo, so based on Archimedes’ principle — you just have to displace as much water as the weight of the battery pack,” said Jason Siegel, a research scientist in the University of Michigan’s mechanical engineering department who also is the education director for the university’s Electric Vehicle Center.

As for the threat of electrocution, Siegel added that EV lithium-based batteries “are inherently more dangerous than a 12-volt lead acid battery you’d typically find on a boat — but because they are more dangerous, they have more safety precautions designed on the package so there’s virtually no way you can come in contact with the battery.”

Siegel explained that the risk of electrocution with high-voltage systems normally occurs when “you become part of an electrical circuit between the positive and negative terminals of a battery.” So it’s possible, he said, that if “you just happened to lay across the battery pack, maybe you’d be in trouble.” But an individual would have to come in contact with both terminals of the battery — and these battery systems “are designed in a way that you don’t have access to the electrical connections of the battery pack.”

In a text message, the Trump campaign declined to answer whether Trump truly believes his claims about electric boats and, if not, why he is continuing to repeat falsehoods about them.

“The Washington Post is a pathetic institution no longer worth the paper it’s printed on and they should be embarrassed for wasting time writing a story about boats sinking when our country is sinking from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s failed leadership,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote.

Yet the former president has persisted in repeating the unlikely narrative.

Trump rolled out the story yet again at a rally this past weekend in Grand Rapids, Mich. — his first public appearance with his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), following the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.

“The press kills me all the time,” Trump said, before forging ahead with this favored hypothetical scenario. “If there’s a shark about 10 yards away, do I get electrocuted or do I go with the shark … because I will take electrocution all day long.”

It was hardly the first time Trump had recounted the tale.

“I said, ‘How bad would it be if you went all electric?’” Trump said in November at an event in Houston, segueing from concerns about the Army wanting to build electric tanks straight into his boat riff, and again referring to his alleged conversation at the South Carolina boat manufacturer. “He said, ‘Well, the one thing is it’s very heavy, so we don’t think the boat can float.’”

“So they’re off to a bad start,” Trump said, to laughter.

The former president continued: “I said, ‘What would happen if you’re out at sea and your boat sinks and you have a whole big electric deal under you — would you get electrocuted?’ He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.’”

Finally, Trump reached his denouement — the Hobson’s choice between electrocution and a shark attack, perhaps more at home at a slumber party game of “Would You Rather?” than in the words of a major-party presidential candidate .

“So if that boat goes down and you have a shark that’s 10 yards away, so you have a choice of a shark or being electrocuted — I will take electrocution every single day. Do we agree?” Trump concluded. The former president’s tale of “The Old Man and the Shark” also offers a submersible journey into the deep recesses of Trump’s psyche, where institutions — like marine safety standards — can’t be trusted and abiding fears — like sharks — loom large.

Trump has long disdained sharks , regularly expressing his unease toward the ocean predators . On July 4, 2013, before he was a presidential candidate, Trump tweeted, “Sorry folks, I’m just not a fan of sharks — and don’t worry, they will be around long after we are gone.” Just minutes later, he returned to the topic again with another missive, writing, “Sharks are last on my list — other than perhaps the losers and haters of the World!”

As president, he again reaffirmed his dislike of the finned underwater carnivores, telling a confused Pennsylvania crowd: “It’s true — I’m not a big fan of sharks either,” before worrying aloud he might have alienated the shark demographic: “I don’t know, how many votes am I going to lose?”

Another claim of Trump’s shark obsession came from adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who said in a 2018 interview with In Touch Weekly that when she met him at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2006, she found Trump watching the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, describing him as both “terrified of” and “obsessed with” sharks. Trump this year was found guilty of 34 counts of business fraud for covering up a hush money payment to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election to hide his relationship with her.

“He was like, ‘I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die,’” Daniels told the magazine.

Trump’s recent shark’s tale began in late 2023, following a September visit to Sportsman Boats , a boat manufacturer in Summerville, S.C., where Trump claims he first heard the concerns about electric boats. Sportsman Boats did not return several calls requesting comment.

Less than a week later, on the first day of October, Trump recounted the story in Ottumwa, Iowa, for the first time, repeating it twice more that month as he campaigned across the state, and again in Texas in November. Each retelling remained remarkably consistent: The concerns from the boat manufacturer, the former president’s question about the threat of electrocution and then the surprise twist of a shark just “10 yards” away.

He revived the yarn in June in Las Vegas. But this time, the riff seemed to come out of nowhere and was even more circuitous than usual.

At one point, he paused to opine on shark attacks generally — “By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately, you notice that?” he asked — before digressing into an aside about sharks that “bit off the young lady’s leg” because they “misunderstood who she was.” (Trump seemed to be referring to a trio of shark attacks two days prior at western Florida beaches that injured three swimmers, including two teenage girls.)

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, there were 69 unprovoked shark bites on humans and 22 provoked bites in 2023, the last year for which the file has released data. But Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida, said 2024 “is absolutely spot-on for an average year” and that shark attacks have consistently been declining over the years.

Nonetheless, it was after this Las Vegas retelling that Trump’s shark diatribe went viral. “Trump Jumps the Shark,” blared several headlines. “Cognitive Decline? Trump Short-Circuits During Bonkers Rant,” wrote the New Republic, adding, “The former president glitched during a tirade about sharks and batteries.”

The absurdity of Trump’s hypothetical is only heightened by his incorrect facts and assumptions.

Craig Scholten, vice president of technical for the American Boat and Yacht Council, which writes safety standards for the marine industry, said the weight of a battery for an electric boat is handled similarly to a traditional fuel tank.

“A battery bank on an electric boat is not different than a gasoline or diesel fuel system, and the weight of the fuel is determined in the boat weight and then there’s a safety margin that is put in place,” Scholten said, explaining why an electric boat will remain buoyant and float.

Elaine Buckberg, who served as chief economist of General Motors and oversaw the company’s long-term forecasting for vehicles — including the EV market — said that when GM did an analysis on a hypothetical electric pontoon boat, none of Trump’s concerns came up.

“At no time in any of those discussions did I hear any concerns about safety,” said Buckberg, a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. “I heard nothing about it could sink from the battery weight. I heard nothing about risk of electrocution.”

After his Las Vegas event, even Trump seemed to realize that his story was being mocked, and he defended it later in June at a gathering of conservatives in Washington, D.C.

“You heard my story on the boat with the shark, right? I got killed on that. They thought I was rambling — I’m not rambling,” he said, before launching anew into the watery depths of his riff.

This time, Trump became especially animated as he imagined “a shark about 10 yards over there” — gesturing with his left hand at the invisible predator — and, conjuring images of “Dr. Strangelove,” again asked, to laughter, “Would I immediately have to abandon or could I ride the electric down?”

“It’s actually not crazy,” he concluded. “It’s sort of a smart story, right?”

And for all the tale’s twists and turns, at least one thing remains remarkably clear: Trump would definitely prefer electrocution to a shark encounter.

Others, however, weren’t so sure.

“I mean, I’d be staying on the boat as long as I could,” Siegel said, when pressed on Trump’s fictitious scenario.

Then, he mused further: “Depends on how big the shark is,” he said. “I’ve seen some pretty scary-looking bull sharks, and some pretty benign-looking sand sharks.”

Clara Ence Morse contributed to this report.

Election 2024

Follow live updates on the 2024 election from our reporters on the campaign trail and in Washington.

Kamala Harris: A majority of Democratic delegates have pledged to support Harris , signaling she is likely to secure the presidential nomination next month. We broke down seven options for her vice-presidential pick .

Biden drops out: President Biden addressed the nation , seeking to define his legacy and explain his decision to exit the presidential race. Here’s what happened in the hours before Biden posted a letter announcing his decision to end his campaign .

Trump VP pick: Donald Trump has chosen Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) as his running mate , selecting a rising star in the Republican Party and a previously outspoken Trump critic who in recent years has closely aligned himself with the former president.

Presidential election polls: Here’s what voters think about Harris replacing Biden and how Harris performs against Trump in recent polls .

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Marine Electrical Certification

Course description, topics and standards covered.

• Basic electrical theory and fundamentals
• Proper installation and termination of wiring
• How to size wiring for AC and DC systems
• Battery installation, maintenance, testing & charging systems
• Inverter installation, operation and troubleshooting
• AC shore power system design and components
• Isolating vessels from corrosion galvanic currents
• Installation, operation and troubleshooting of AC generators
• AC and DC panelboard design and installation requirements
• Installation requirements for AC and DC components
• Requirements for onboard electrical safety equipment and systems
• Troubleshooting different aspects of AC and DC systems

ABYC Standards

• A-24, Carbon Monoxide Detection Systems on Boats
• A-27, Alternating Current Generator Sets
• A-28, Galvanic Isolators
• A-31, Battery Chargers and Inverters
• A-32, AC Power Conversion Equipment and Systems
• E-2, Cathodic Protection Systems
• E-10, Storage Batteries
• E-11, AC and DC Electrical Systems on Boats
• TE-4, Lightning Protection Systems

Code of Federal Regulations

Exam/credit details.

• In-Person Course Fees: Member $1,295 – Nonmember $1,495
• Online Course Fees: Member $985 – Nonmember $1,495
• Exam only Fees: Member $295 – Nonmember $595
• The exam is comprised of 204 questions
• The passing score: 83%
• Timed Exam: 3.5 Hours
• CEUs available: 32

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