This issue has been debated since the 70's. Proactive Government at work.

Generally speaking, most cruise ships are not affected by the new rule because they are registered outside the United States... But for commercial vessels sailing under the U.S. flag, the new standard applies.

It's possible this rule is justified in isolation but will cause net harm by encouraging more companies to register ships in foreign countries.

It's not that we've gotten fatter. We're evolving to have larger bones. We NEED the fat in case the boat capsizes and we can't get to food for a few days. We have a glandular problem! It's not us! Its the designers who make clothes for pre-teens and label them for adults!


/We're fat

ZAZ: Generally speaking, most cruise ships are not affected by the new rule because they are registered outside the United States... But for commercial vessels sailing under the U.S. flag, the new standard applies.

It's possible this rule is justified in isolation but will cause net harm by encouraging more companies to register ships in foreign countries.

The US is a strange beast when it comes to commercial vessels. back in the day, in order to protect our shipping industry, the US passed a law requiring all interstate shipping to be done by US made ships.

Due to the fact that the market for US shipping was thus protected, there was no real competition in the shipbuilding world. Other nations's shipmakers made significantly better ships due to their international competition. They would make better ships more efficiently. Thus, the US hardly makes any international commercial vessels. We don't have the background or efficiency to be competitive.

So, we basically protected ourselves out of the market. What I meant to say is that we have already diverted shipbuilding of international commercial carriers to other nations, so these rules will have little if any effect. Their only effect may be felt on dedicated US carries that don't have international routes. But, those routes are not in competition with any non-US ships.

Many folks - big-bellied cruisers included - think the new standard is long overdue.

"Oh, God, yeah. I'm 251 with sandals," David Kushner of Chenango Bridge, N.Y., said as he boarded the Key Largo Princess

Obese and proud of it. Or at least untroubled by it. Go 'murka!

Any of you ever seen a coastie with 10 years behind him? They immediately go up 200 lb in weight.

Ever notice the folks who don't have pics of themselves in their profiles are usually the most critical of other folks appearence on Fark?


/I'm sure its just a coincidence.

Seacop: logistic: Any of you ever seen a coastie with 10 years behind him? They immediately go up 200 lb in weight.

[i165.photobucket.com image 450x338]

With a name like Seacop, you are clearly not personally invested in that rebuttal, right? Also, that's a Village People member, right? The Indian, the contruction worker, the sea cop...I'm positive of this...

What a fat American might look like

Another point: passenger vessel operators don't have to simply do the math and accept the passenger reduction. They can conduct a new stability test to demonstrate their boat can handle the added weight (many old stability tests were done for only the amount of weight they needed, with no extra built in.) Also, they have the option of weighing every passenger that comes on board until they hit their max allowable weight. I know of no passenger vessel operator that plans to be doing this. Frankly, passenger vessel operators were lucky to get away with as few changes to the regs as they did- in the notice of proposed rulemaking, there was a provision to require passenger vessels to get a new stability test every fifteen years, rather than only if needed. That would have solved the unnecessary passenger reduction problem, but everyone who owns a boat over 65 ft (and thus would have had to hire a PE and go through MSC) would have howled about the expense.

/Coast Guard Marine Inspector
//you'd be surprised how much a small amount of weight can affect a stability test

Gleeman: Palmer Eldritch:

/Coast Guard Marine Inspector
//you'd be surprised how much a small amount of weight can affect a stability test

I had duty when my Navy ship went through an inclining. It was done at night with only the duty personnel aboard; and we weren't allowed to move around the ship not even the roving watch, because it would have thrown the measurements off.

I know how to spell "sea," but other than that I know next to nothing about it. So this next question may not make sense, but I gotta ask anyway.

1) What was the maximum incline the ship sustained during this test? And
2) Those ships are generally heavier than fark. How do you incline one in the first place?