Wednesday, 04 February 2009 12:19

In 1994 the revised international tonnage convention was implemented for U.S. vessels. As a result the Coast Guard (based upon industry recommendation) adopted the maximum tonnage of an OSV as 6000 GT ITC. With the advent of ultra-deepwater development the need for OSV’s over 6000 GT became evident. Such vessels are currently under construction.

Issue: The Coast Guard requested that NOSAC form a committee to recommend design, construction, inspection, manning and licensing standards for the new class of OSV’s over 6000 GT ITC. Ben Bordelon of Bollinger was tasked to chair the committee.

Status: The NOSAC working group lead by Ben Bordelon of Bollinger with members from Tidewater, Otto Candies, ECO, OMSA, SEACOR, Hornbeck and including Richard Block presented its recommendations to NOSAC for approval and transmission to the Coast Guard April 18th, 2008. The committee recommended keeping all the current cargo exemptions for OSV’s and has added full class, SOLAS and MARPOL compliance to the current requirements of Subchapter L. No response has been officially received from the Coast Guard