A basket of thoughts on submitting plans the USCG MSC in 2017.
A fellow who was quite informed about other catamaran designers told me that John Marples has given up on dealing with the USCG submittals. He also thought that Gold Coast had not had a new submittal since Ganulin retired. On the othe side, Schooner Creek thought the whole process went fine on a new submittal.
As I have noted, I am very wary of the new “kids” there and, as I found out last spring, anything that we had as settled regulations for the last two decades could be over. Which leads me to my next thought.
Building departments charge a lot of money for plans submittals. The USCG MSC charges nothing. I imagine that as soon as Trump realizes that some part of the government is doing something for nothing, that will change.
If any of you are thinking of having me do a new plans submittal to the USCG, I urge you to do it now.
Settled policies for all commercial vessels are well-documented in the various Plan Review Guides available for free at the Marine Safety Center website, as well as the Federal Register, also available for free download on the web. Any changes to regulations by MSC are noted in the Federal Register (available to anyone) and distributed to regular MSC submitters via email. Plan reviewers are always available at MSC to answer questions by email or phone.
Plan review fees have been under discussion as a possibility since MSC originated in 1986, and possibly even before that at the Merchant Marine Technical Offices. If such fees eventually come to pass, they will not be something that Trump originated.
Mark Ganulin
Staff Engineer (Retired)
USCG Marine Safety Center
hello Mark, good to hear from you.