Fat People on Boats

People have gotten fatter and the Coast Guard is worried.

Since the 1960s, stability calculations (heel tests) on vessels have been based on an average weight of 160 pounds per person (140 pounds per person for vessels in protected waters), but this is all about to change.

Reports from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have prompted the USCG to re-evaluate its stability calculation process. What this means is that USCG Certified Sub-Chapter T vessels might be required to undergo new stability tests. Vessel operators who don't want to retest might avoid the procedure by accepting a new Certificate of Inspection with less passenger carrying capacity. The latter would be a simple calculation based on the CDC determination for average per person weight.

Obviously, in the passenger carrying trade, the more people you can carry, the more money you can make. So this development has some consequences, especially at a time when fuel and other costs are rising at an alarming rate,

-seabgb

Note on Fat Homer (courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox) Above:

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