meeting we had was in April at the Coast Guard Base here in Boston with Rear Admiral Ellis and his staff

This year there were 14 major problems that were brought out and submitted to the Governor and the Division of Motorboats in an advisory councelling capacity.

Mr. KEITH. Could we have a copy of the recommendations that you have submitted to the Government?

Mr. AVENI. Absolutely.

Mr. KEITH. Do these recommendations include suggested legislation for starting in Massachusetts what you propose nationally, namely, requiring the numbering of hulls?

Mr. AVENI. Yes, sir.1

Mr. KEITH. They do?

Mr. AVENI. No, sir, it does not include that because this is something that happened since then. For example, we did review completely the adequate use-whether safety cushions were adequate and we recommend very strongly that they would not be considered to be adequate safety equipment on classes 1, 2, and so forth.

Mr. KEITH. I believe that is already within the sphere and jurisdiction of the Coast Guard, but this new suggestion you made here did not get incorporated into your recommendations to the Government. Mr. AVENI. No, sir, this has transpired since April 6th of this year. Mr. CLARK. Thank you very much, Joe. We appreciate your remarks. Has Mr. James Hunt come into the hearing room yet? [No response.] Mr. CLARK. Our next witness is Hume G. MacDougall, president and general manager of Cape Cod Marine Service. I will allow Mr. Keith to introduce this gentleman.

Mr. KEITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MacDougall is the senior member of the firm of the Cape Cod Marine Service, Inc., known as MacDougall's down on Cape Cod, and a little advertising is in order since he is one of my constituents and he has come up all the way from Cape Cod this morning.

He is the vice president of the American Boat Builders and Repairers Association, Inc., and I am sure he will have a great deal of knowledge to contribute to this subject.

STATEMENT OF HUME G. MacDOUGALL, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, CAPE COD MARINE SERVICE, INC., AND FIRST VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN BOAT BUILDERS & REPAIRERS ASSOCIATION, INC.

Mr. MACDOUGALL. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your giving me this opportunity to testify since it will save me about 6 hours of traveling time tomorrow.

I am Hume G. MacDougall, president and general manager of Cape Cod Marine Service, Inc., of Falmouth, Mass.

We have been engaged in boat service for 32 years, 5 of these years I spent in the Army Engineers as an Operations Officer in charge of marine construction and repair.

1 Answer relates to legislation "That all boats, regardless of horsepower, be numbered (registered) in Massachusetts."

2 Answer relates to a hull number at time of manufacture.

I am a technical member of the American Boat and Yacht Council which needs no introduction to your committee.

I am also first vice president of the American Boat Builders & Repairers Association, Inc. I am here as chairman of their committee to study the Federal Boating Safety Act. Our committee consists of Mr. William Potter of Fairhaven Marine, Fairhaven, Mass. and Mr. George Davis, Plymouth Marine Railways, Plymouth, Mass. We were appointed at the annual meeting of the American Boat Builders & Repairers Association, Inc., after considerable discussion of the proposed Federal Boating Safety Act. We have conferred with officials of the boating industry by correspondence and with Mr. Ralph Thacher of the National Association of Engine & Boat Manufacturers, a previous speaker here and we are in general agreement with his testimony.

The American Boat Builders & Repairers Association for whom I speak is an organization of approximately 125 boatyards, custom boat builders, and sailmakers dedicated to boating safety and efficient management of boating services industries. We like to believe that our clientele are not in general those men who have contributed to the recent increase in boating accidents which has necessitated this legislation.

We can understand readily, however, how the expansion of recreational boating with more inexperienced participants and the larger number of builders and service facilities experienced and inexperienced are creating an unsafe situation that requires government regulation. We believe the regulation of pleasure boating safety should be under Federal control. Pleasure boating is an interstate activity both in the operation of yachts and in the manufacture and distribution for sale of boats and equipment.

We can see that H.R. 15041 and substantially equivalent S. 3119 are generally a step in the right direction.

However, so much authority is delegated to the Secretary of Transportation by these acts that their success in promoting safety will be altogether dependent on the regulations that are decreed by the Secretary, with the advice of a new Federal Boating Safety Advisory Council.

Great care must be taken that regulations and standards are specific so that little is left to the discretion or interpretation of inspectors or enforcement personnel in the field. Otherwise enforcement will not be uniform and the value of Federal preemption of this field will be lost. Award of a label or approval by any qualified inspector should be prima facie evidence of compliance with regulations in all geographic areas.

We in the boat repair and custom boat building industries are particularly interested in the regulations under these acts not discriminating against us by making inspection procedures unduly complex.

We can see how some prototype for mass-produced boats would serve the public interest, but such a program is full of pitfalls. A safe boat can be rendered unseaworthy by the improper application of ordinarily perfect safe equipment.

We should avoid a program which provides only for type acceptance of mass-produced craft and equipment. There must be practical means of qualifying innovative designs and the individual develop

ments of custom builders. Also, there should be practical procedures for the approval of custom alteration to mass-produced boats.

We believe the act itself should spell out the qualifications and composition of the Advisory Council. The membership should include representation from the boat maintenance and custom building industries. We who are engaged in boat maintenance and repair are best qualified by experience to be aware of the failures in construction and design and practical means of remedy. We do not consider that our interests are necessarily identical with the boatbuilding and marine equipment mass manufacturers; but we are more closely parallel to the interests of the boating public we serve.

We believe that in the act itself criteria should be spelled out for the qualification and licensing of inspectors. This would result in an upgrading of boatbuilding and maintenance personnel.

We envision a situation where we could take for example one of our better people in the mechanical department and qualify him as an inspector of engine installation. We might take another qualified person and have him qualified as an inspector of hull repair and modification. These people would not necessarily inspect from the point of view of whether or not the modification or installation was seaworthy or not but would simply make a determination that the modification or installation was in conformity with regulations under this act.

Aside from these general matters, we comment as follows on the act : Section 3.-(1) Definition of "Boat" needs clarification; (2) To distinguish it from "Vessel." If the use of these two terms has been precisely used throughout the act, then apparently much of the law does not apply to vessels over 65′ or to smaller commercial vessels or fishing craft. For example, section 5(a) (1) would appear to apply only to pleasure craft 65' or under, but the cross-references are confusing. This clarification can be accomplished by amending section 4.

Section 5(b) (2).-Needs clarification-substantially unseaworthy existing hulls cannot be corrected by less than substantial alteration, or is the intent to tolerate some unsafe existing conditions for a transition period.

Section 6.-Available boat safety standards, should be reviewed very thoroughly before adoption. Some of these recommended practices, which have been promulgated particularly by agencies allied to the underwriting industry are unduly restrictive to the point of being unenforceable. Witness the recent commotion when the U.S. Coast Guard attempted to enforce NFPA and BIA ventilation recommended practices as mandatory requirements.

Section 7.-Should be more specific and provide for periodic reinspection.

Section 8.--Should contain criteria and provision for licensing and qualifying inspectors and setting fees for their services.

Section 12(a).-We believe this section should be amended and made applicable only to newly constructed boats otherwise we will be in the position of having boats in storage which we will be unable to deliver to their owners in the spring until we can determine whether or not they are in conformance with the regulations.

Section 12(e).-Existing qualifications need modification particularly in the area of small craft under 16 feet with less than 10 h.p. when used primarily for harbor launches in very sheltered waters.

We have found that it is impossible to qualify perfectly capable young people who, while they have experiences and skill, have no experience of record.

Section 17.-Certificate should be issued only on proof of ownership with bill of sale incorporated the same as the old Certificate of Award of Number.

This would fix responsibility for unsafe and reckless operation on an individual. Presently, sometimes a person buys a boat from a manufacturer and immediately resells it to some corporation he controls. It is then impossible to determine who the responsible owner is as the registration certificate is not proof of ownership.

This change would lead not only to safer boating and the fixing of responsibility for safety purposes but would incidentally reduce our credit problems as sometimes it is very difficult for us to establish who is responsible for the maintenance of a boat.

Section 21.-Dealers and maintenance agencies should be permitted to operate for demonstration and test only under a dealer number when status of owner's registration is in doubt.

Section 26. All enforcement authority should be prohibited from boarding boats tied up and unattended or not seen navigated. This is current Coast Guard practice. We have known of cases where State enforcement personnel have filed violations notices on boats where they could not find lifejackets aboard when the boat was tied up at dockside and the owner not present.

Many owners nowadays, in order to prevent their equipment from theft, find it necessary to take their equipment home when the boat is not in use.

Section 33.-Council should have specific representation from boat repair and maintenance industries as well as boatbuilding industries. Boatyard and maintenance people are best qualified by experience to recognize causes of hull failure and are best qualified to judge practicality of regulations requiring modification of existing boats and equipment.

Section 34.-Penalties should have wider range and be less harsh. Excessive penalties discourage enforcement of minor regulations. I believe that about covers my remarks, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. CLARK. Mr. Keith.

Mr. KEITH. I am very glad that we learned of Mr. MacDougall's prepared testimony. I would say he has done his homework. As a matter of fact, one of his friends in the audience has suggested that he would like to have a copy of not only the transcript of Mr. MacDougall's remarks but those of the hearings themselves. I will see that you get that.

I personally am very interested in your observations and would be happy to correspond with you about each of the points you have made as the hearings progress and as the executive sessions develop. Mr. MACDOUGALL. I understand we have raised certain difficulties. We are not lawyers; we are boatmen. Again, I want to thank you for allowing me to testify today and saving me an extra day of travel. Mr. CLARK. Thank you.

We are now adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.

(The subcommittee recessed at 11:45 a.m., to reconvene at 10 a.m., Friday, June 12, 1970.)

RECREATIONAL BOAT SAFETY

FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1970

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD, COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY, AND NAVIGATION, OF COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES, Boston, Mass.

The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 2203, John F. Kennedy Federal Center, Boston, Mass., Hon. Frank M. Clark (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. CLARK. Our subcommittee will now come to order.

We will resume our sitting for H.R. 15041. Our first witness this morning is Michael Denaro, legislative officer, Massachusetts Bay Yacht Clubs Association.

Mike, if you will come up here to the mike, we will let you go right ahead.

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL DENARO, VICE COMMODORE, MASSACHUSETTS BAY YACHT CLUBS ASSOCIATION

Mr. DENARO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

I am Michael Denaro, of 11 Harvey Drive, Dedham, Mass. By vocation a textile mill representative for J. P. Stevens & Co., Inc., by avocation the vice commodore of the Massachusetts Bay Yacht Clubs Association, I appear here for this association today.

I have served as commodore of one of our members clubs. I am an active member of the United States Power Squadron, a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Commission of Boating Advisers, the New England Safe Boating Council, and several other boating organizations.

The Massachusetts Bay Yacht Clubs Association is a nonprofit corporation whose membership is composed of and limited to organized boat and yacht clubs in the eastern Massachusetts area. In 1920 seven member clubs formed what was then known as the Dorchester Bay Yacht Clubs Association. This venture became so successful that in 1928 the Massachusetts Bay Yacht Clubs Association was incorporated and we have grown to 65 member clubs representing approximately 17,000 boating families in eastern Massachusetts.

The objectives of our association are to promote yachting safety, good sportsmanship, to help each other whenever help is needed, to follow the rules and regulations as laid down by the law-enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over the waterways of Massachusetts, and to promote the continued interest of interclub sailboat racing including a junior racing program.

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