You may notice the small metal label when you first sit behind the helm of a new boat in a showroom. It reads: "This boat complies with U.S. Coast Guard Safety Standards...." and, further down, "Design Compliance With NMMA Requirements Is Verified...."

When browsing the glossy brochures for another runabout, you'll encounter the sales pitch: "Built to meet or exceed all NMMA and ABYC standards." And, while looking through a boating magazine, you'll discover that a boat builder is certified to ISO standards.

What, if anything, does this veritable alphabet soup mean to you as a boatbuyer? We all know the U.S. Coast Guard, but who are the NMMA, ABYC, ISO, and how do they affect the boats we buy?

The starting point for this seeming mumbo-jumbo is the Motorboat Act of 1940 and the Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971, which set minimum safety standards for boats and associated equipment. These rules are issued by the United States Coast Guard which, along with individual states, have the power to enforce them.

These are safety standards, covering everything from lifejackets to distress signals, and every boat owner knows that he must have the proper items on board or he'll get a citation from the Coast Guard or local authorities if he is stopped. But most boat owners don't realize that there are other standards over which they have little or no control, such as the ventilation systems, the navigation lights and even the flotation of the boat. Every boat under 20 feet, for example, has to have sufficient flotation so that it will float level if swamped. But does the Coast Guard test every new boat?

No, and here's the first time we hear the phrase "self-certification," which we'll be using often. "For the most part," says Philip J. Cappel, Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard Recreational Boating Product Assurance Division, "the flotation program is self certification by the manufacturer, and we don't really have a lot of enforcement teeth. We do have a program where we buy boats and test them for the flotation standards, but the boats we buy don't have a good record. That's because we've gotten very good at knowing which boats are likely to fail so we don't spend our money buying boats that will pass. It's a good use of taxpayer dollars to only buy the ones we think will fail."

The Coast Guard has also initiated programs with manufacturers to donate boats for the testing process, which allows even more testing. But the bottom line is that, in most cases, the manufacturer is the one who certifies that the boat will float level.

Cappel's team also visits the Miami International Boat Show and the International Marine Trade Expo and Conference each year, where they look at boats for compliance to other standards ranging from navigation lights to ventilation systems. They compile a list and send letters to those manufacturers noting how their boats were out of compliance. But, again, the Coast Guard isn't able to enforce compliance other than by issuing a recall notice if the defect is safety related. One key point to remember here is that the U.S. Coast Guard does not "certify" a boat.

On the other hand, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, does certify boats as you saw on the plaque by the helm. The starting point for NMMA certification is a manual of standards that takes up where the Coast Guard left off. Not only does an NMMA-certified boat have to meet all the applicable USCG standards, but a much longer list of items such as steering, fuel systems, bilge pumps and more. In addition, the NMMA has stiffer requirements for flotation, upping the maximum size to 26' and increasing the weight that must be supported when swamped.

Even more important, the NMMA actually inspects a sample boat before issuing an official certification. An independent inspector is sent to the manufacturer, where he examines boats on the assembly line and checks for compliance of all the standards on a completed model.

Does the NMMA spot check certified boats for compliance? "Once a production model is certified," says Thomas Marhevko, Director of Technical Services for the NMMA, "our agreement with the manufacturer is that they will continue to build just like the certified model. If we find any problems, they have to send us affirmation that they've corrected the problem or we insist they remove the certified plaque."

Established in 1968, the NMMA certification program allows a manufacturer to advertise his products as "NMMA certified" and, in addition, the NMMA provides "type certification" for products such as navigation lights, fuel tanks and hoses, bilge pumps, horns and more. To have a boat certified, manufacturers must use either type-certified products or have the parts tested by an outside lab.

Of the 300-plus boat manufacturers who belong to the NMMA, about half certify their boats, a situation that irks NMMA interim president Ham Hamburger. "We have members of the NMMA selling products that are not certified," he noted recently at an industry gathering, suggesting that certification should be mandatory for NMMA membership.

How does the NMMA determine the standards for certification? That brings us to the American Boat and Yacht Council, a non-profit organization founded in 1954 which develops voluntary safety standards for the design, construction and maintenance of boats and their accessory equipment. The NMMA has adopted 27 of the most safety-oriented chapters from the ABYC Standards And Recommended Practices For Small Craft, a thick and highly technical treatise. According to Thomas Hale, Technical Director of ABYC, "Our standards are developed by over 450 volunteer experts serving on 20 different committees. The standards are updated regularly, and we add new standards as needed. Fuel systems, for example, are in constant evolution as fuel injection and EPA spillage concerns have brought new issues."

Unquestionably the closest thing to a building code for boats, the ABYC standards are tough and comprehensive. Not only does the NMMA use some of them, but the ABYC standards also served as the basis for the present Federal standards as well, although in much abbreviated form. "Where the Federal electrical standards are only a few pages," says Hale, "the ABYC section is more than 90 pages alone."

Nevertheless, and this is a large caveat, the ABYC does not certify boats. Like the NMMA, the ABYC relies on voluntary compliance with their standards and they do not inspect boats that claim to meet their standards. "About 10 to 20 percentof all the boat manufacturers are members of ABYC," says Hale, "but they account for more than 80 percent of all the boats built in the U.S. We can't prove it, but I suspect that the increased adherence to ABYC standards has resulted in far fewer product liability cases recently."

boat builders, however, are a relatively small portion of the ABYC membership. The largest group, marine surveyors, rely on the ABYC standards as a basis for their work, followed by boatyards and accessory manufacturers.

As the leader in the U.S., the ABYC has been intimately involved in the new standards being compiled by the International Standards Organization. Now that many European countries have joined together to form the European Community, there is an ongoing attempt to create boatbuilding standards that are truly international in scope.

"The ABYC standards have been the basis for many ISO standards," says Hale, "but people should understand that ISO are not concerned with safety — are manufacturing standards. You can make cement lifejackets that are ISO certified — you just have to have the paperwork in order and they all have to sink at the same rate. ISO 9000 is not a quality control standard, but a process control. IBM has said that ISO has actually hurt their quality control because they aren't able to correct manufacturing problems without a laborious process."

"If there are two identical boats," asks Hale, "and one is built to international standards and the other is built to ABYC standards, which would you be more comfortable buying?" Most boaters would probably pick the international standard, but they'd be wrong. "ABYC standards are far tougher than any other international standards," says Hale. "Take gas systems, for example. We've had fuel tank standards for years because we knew that there were fires and explosions, but we can prove that they've dropped off to practically nothing since the ABYC standards have been followed. In Europe, they don't even have a mechanical fuel tank test!"

So where does that leave the prospective boat buyer? Well, it's obvious that there are three levels of standards for U.S. boats. The first, the Federal requirements administered by the U.S. Coast Guard, are the absolute minimum level. While you can be cited for not having the equipment required, there is little actual testing done for the standards such as flotation, and each manufacturer simply certifies that a boat is legal. The Coast Guard does not have sharp teeth when it comes to enforcing those standards against manufacturers, and has to rely on recall notices.

The boating industry wasn't comfortable with those standards, and so the NMMA has not only adopted a higher level of standards, but provides a certification process to ensure that an inspected boat meets the requirements. Once again, the phrase "self-certification" pops up and it is the manufacturer who vouches that all the boats built are also meeting the standards. The NMMA also does not spot check boats, although they remove the certification labels if an offender is discovered.

At the top of the standards pyramid is the ABYC which not only has the most sophisticated and comprehensive manual available, but arguably the highest standards in the world. The ABYC does not certify boats and they also rely on voluntary compliance by the manufacturers who claim to meet ABYC standards.

Now that you know how the standards work, it's still caveat emptor for the boatbuyer, but you do have an assurance that three organizations are watching out for your safety afloat. It's not a perfect system, but the bottom line is that boats have never been better built, better equipped,or safer than as a result of the work of the USCG, NMMA and ABYC.