Coast Guard, DHS.
Notice of availability and request for public comments.
The Coast Guard announces the availability of the national performance measures proposed here for use as guidelines when mariners demonstrate their proficiency as officers in charge of engineering watches in manned engine-rooms or as designated duty engineers in periodically unmanned engine-rooms. Because of the comments submitted to the original docket published on April 5, 2001, the Coast Guard is re-publishing these
Comments and related material must reach the Docket Management Facility on or before October 14, 2003.
You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket number USCG–2001–9269 to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S. Department of Transportation. To avoid duplication, please use only one of the following methods:
(1) Web Site:
(2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590–0001.
(3) Fax: 202–493–2251.
(4) Delivery: Room PL–401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone number is 202–366–9329.
(5) Federal eRulemaking Portal:
The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this notice. Comments and material received from the public will become part of this docket and will be available for inspection or copying at room PL–401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. You may also find this docket on the Internet at
If you have questions on this notice, write or call Mr. Gould where indicated under
We encourage you to submit comments. All comments received will be posted, without change, to
Section A–III/1 of the Code accompanying the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978, as amended in 1995, articulates qualifications for ensuring merchant mariners' attaining the minimum standard of competence through demonstrations of their proficiency as officers in charge of engineering watches in manned engine-rooms or as designated duty engineers in periodically unmanned engine-rooms. The Coast Guard tasked MERPAC with referring to the Section, modifying and specifying it as it deemed necessary, and recommending national performance measures. The Coast Guard reviewed the measures recommended by MERPAC and developed a set of guidelines for assessing proficiency. Those guidelines were published in the original docket on April 5, 2001. A number of comments were made on that proposal and we have now modified those guidelines to incorporate many of the comments. We are now proposing these modified guidelines here for use as the final guidelines for assessing proficiency.
The guidelines are set up as follows: First, we set forth the Competency within the STCW a mariner should demonstrate to meet the STCW section. Next we give a series of examples of Performance Conditions, a set of Performance Behaviors for each Performance Condition, and a set of Performance Standards for each Performance Behavior.
For example, if the Competency to demonstrate is: “Use appropriate tools for fabrication and repair * * * typically performed on ships”—
A Performance Condition for that competency demonstrating knowledge, understanding, and proficiency is: In a workshop [or] laboratory or other safe working environment, given proper tools, lighting, [and] ventilation, and a thin steel plate of no less than
A Performance Behavior for that Condition is: * * * the candidate will plan, prepare, and safely cut out a circular blank flange with four 7/16″ bolt-holes 90 degrees apart and corresponding to the dimensions of a two-inch pipe flange, or similar multi-tasked project using oxyacetylene process, and describe actions as they are being performed.
A Performance Standard for that Behavior is—or, in this example, the Standards are—“The applicant (1) correctly plans for and lays out the job, in proper sequence, and incorporates all safety considerations; (2) sets up all required equipment; (3) cuts the hole uniformly according to plan within tolerance of +/−
If the mariner properly meets all of the Performance Standards, he or she passes the practical demonstration. If he or she fails to carry out any of the Standards, he or she fails it.
The Coast Guard is taking this action to comply with STCW, as amended in 1995 and 1997 and incorporated into domestic regulations at 46 CFR parts 10, 12, and 15 in 1997 and since. Guidance from the International Maritime Organization on shipboard assessments of proficiency suggests that Parties develop standards and measures of
We are requesting your comments on these proposed national performance measures. You may participate in this action by submitting comments and related material on the national performance-measures proposed here. (Although the Coast Guard does not seek public comment on the measures recommended by MERPAC, as distinct from the measures proposed here, those measures are available on the Internet at the home page of MERPAC,
• Your name and address;
• The docket number for this notice [USCG 2001–9269];
• The specific section of the measures to which each comment applies; and
• The reason for each comment.
You may mail, deliver, fax, or electronically submit your comments and related material to the Docket Management Facility, using an address or fax number listed in
Your comments will be considered in preparing the final version of the national performance measures which will be used as guidelines by the general public. Individuals and institutions assessing the competence of mariners may refine the final version of these measures and develop innovative alternatives. If you vary from the final version of these measures, however, you should submit your alternative to the National Maritime Center for approval by the Coast Guard under 46 CFR 10.303(e) before you use it as part of an approved course or training program.