Coast Guard to Wait on Boat Crackdown

The Coast Guard has agreed not to enforce a commercial charter boat regulation that boosters of the Newport Beach Festival of Lights boat parade predicted would have ruined the annual event, Rep. Robert E. Badham said Monday.

The boating festivities will begin Saturday and last until Dec. 23, after which the Coast Guard will proceed with a crackdown on what they consider to be charter boats operating without proper certification and inspection, Coast Guard Capt. Terry Lucas said.

“We are not going to be interfering with that parade,” Lucas said Monday. “Afterward, we are going to enforce the rules, but we have an education job to do first.

Education Comes First

“We’ve got to get out and educate the people who do the . . . charters and let them know what the rules are. And then we have to start enforcing it.”

Lucas said if the Coast Guard did not enforce the regulation, that would create unfair competition for certified charter operators who are following the rules.

The crackdown begun recently is based on a new interpretation of a Coast Guard regulation that requires inspection and certification of yachts leased by individuals or companies that take groups of passengers on excursions. The practice is common during the Newport Beach Festival of Lights, when private yacht owners, usually for a fee, turn their boats over to companies that use the vessels to hold Christmas parties.

The Coast Guard’s new interpretation of federal boating regulations will be that commercial use includes a boat used for any business-related purpose, Coast Guard Lt. John Sarubbi said. If a company president takes clients or employees on his own boat or rents a boat for them, the boat will be considered commercially chartered and must meet design and safety standards.

Badham (R-Newport Beach) announced Monday that Coast Guard Adm. Paul Yost assured him that the regulation would not yet be enforced and “that Orange County would not suffer the demise of the Newport Harbor Festival of Lights Christmas boat parade.”

‘Worked Out in Courts’

“I’m extremely pleased with the decision by the Coast Guard,” Badham said. “I still think there are some problems with their interpretation of the law, but that will be worked out next year in the courts.”

Badham criticized the Coast Guard regulation, saying it is not worth the cost to owners to upgrade their yachts to meet stringent requirements solely for the boat to be used in the parade.

However, Eric Scharf, executive director of National Assn. of Passenger Vessel Owners, a Washington-based organization of certificated charter boat owners, said his group wholeheartedly supports the Coast Guard’s effort.

“Our association . . . has been urging the Coast Guard to be more diligent in enforcing the regulations because of the competition these illegal vessels pose to our members,” Scharf said. “There’s no assurance these (uncertificated) boats are safe operations or operating in a safe and legal manner.

“In the long run, we know our position will be upheld by the Coast Guard and any court that looks at it.”