Page 41: of Marine News Magazine (March 2019)

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SAFETY if you are the owner on the fence, what do you do?

Some say that they will probably just go the Coast Guard Option because that is the cheapest path of least resis- tance. After all, they have had a good relationship with the Coast Guard, so far. But what they fail to realize is that the Coast Guard is not your friend; not your sworn enemy either, but an en- forcement agency with a job to do. And that nice inspector in Florida is going to be in Dutch Harbor next summer and who will his replacement be? Another nice guy? Every mariner with a few is- sues under his belt will tell you the same thing: At all costs, keep the Coast Guard off my boat. So why invite them on?

A company recently asked the

Coast Guard to attend a drydocking.

Nine weeks later and with more than $100,000 in changes they are no lon- ger advocates for the Coast Guard on their vessels. Separately, another com- pany bought a boat on the Gulf and was bringing her home to the Mid-

Atlantic region when the Coast Guard tied them to the dock about week away from home. Had they understood that

Sub M was in effect when they left and what that entailed, they might have had the boat audited, defciencies corrected and the crew properly trained, but they were just delivering the boat. What could go wrong? Three weeks later with a $30,000 tab and a new crew, the vessel headed north again. She will be sold upon arrival because the owner has lost his taste for the towing industry.

We didn’t become involved with this vessel until after the COTP Or- der was issued. The Coast Guard did their job and was great to deal with.

But this all was avoidable. How many more times will this happen before the industry awakens to a new day?

The TSMS Option is by far the bet- ter one for any company and certainly for the mariners. We have worked with 41 www.marinelink.com MN