ABYC Releases Updated Standards

The American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) has officially released its latest update to standards and technical information reports for small craft. Announced last week, Supplement 56 is said to reflect changes in industry best practices and advancements in technology.

The update includes more than a dozen standard revisions, including a critical update to standard H-5: Boat Capacity, which has been expanded to cover upper deck weight capacity regardless of boat length in response to a number of high profile accidents where overloading of upper decks resulted in fatalities.

“This was a very active year for our committees as we published 15 standards, almost double of what we published last year,” said Brian Goodwin, ABYC technical director. “It is imperative that boat builders and repair faculties are up-to-date on these changes.”

A webinar outlining the changes is offered for free to ABYC members and is available on demand (www.abycinc.org/supplement56). ABYC is offering one continuing education credit (CEU) for watching the webinar.

ABYC members can access the standards 24/7 by using the online standards library, which features an improved search ability. Manuals may be purchased online at www.abycinc.org/publications.