Section 3529 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for 2019 provides U.S.-flag large recreational vessels otherwise subject to Coast Guard inspection as “seagoing motor vessels” (see 46 U.S.C. 3301) the opportunity to be exempted from inspection. While final regulations are under development, the Coast Guard is implementing paragraph (a)(4) Interim Compliance, which reads:

“Until the effective date of regulations issued under paragraph (1), a recreational vessel described in paragraph (1) shall not be subject to inspection under section 3301(7) of title 46, United States Code, if the Secretary determines, as part of the review of the application for documentation submitted for the vessel by the owner of the vessel and other materials as considered necessary by the Secretary, that the vessel complies with the code set forth in Merchant Shipping Notice 1851(M) (commonly referred to as the ‘‘Large Commercial Yacht Code (LY3)’’), as published by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency of the United Kingdom on August 20, 2013, or an equivalent code, regulation, or standard that is acceptable to the Secretary.”

Vessel owners interested in applying for the inspection exemption should contact cgcvc@uscg.mil for more information.