The US Environment Protection Agency (US EPA) finalized in 2008 a rule (40 CFR Part 1045) on exhaust and evaporative emission limits for petrol systems on marine vessels.

While the implementation of the engine exhaust emission limits is mainly down to the engine manufacturer and not subject to this note, fuel systems in boats and PWCs sold in the US will have to be built to comply with the evaporative emission limits from 31 July 2011. Fuel emissions escaping through a vessel's fuel tank and fuel system in the daily (diurnal) cycle need to be drastically reduced.

From 1^stJanuary 2011 on an amendment to Annex VI of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) MARPOL convention will come into force (Tier II emission limits). IMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations and this international treaty controls amongst other things the emissions of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) from Marine Diesel engines above 130 kW. Technically, this is not an issue as most engines are already built to comply with more stringent emission rules from other applications or in other parts of the world. However, registering a boat could become a problem in countries where flag state administrations enforce IMO requirements.

With the latest publication of the Official Journal of the EU (OJ C 99 of 2010-04-17) the standards ISO 12217-1:2002 and ISO 12217-3:2002 were ceased retrospectively on 2009-12-31. See also our listing for all harmonised standards.

Since 2010-04-17 only the amended standards ISO 12217-1:2002 + A1:2009 and ISO 12217-3:2002 + A1:2009 confer  the presumption of conformity with the essential requirements of the Directive in regards to stability. The changes are quite substantial!

Here a short summary of only the main amendments of both standards:

The RSG Guidelines 2010 have been published today. The new format combines all RCD relevant information into one document only !

IMCI has now developed for Manufacturers of Recreational Craft a multilingual version of the Declaration of Conformity (DOC) for Design/Construction & Noise Emissions for their free use.

A Declaration of Conformity has to be issued with every product in compliance with Directive 94/25/EC as amended by Directive 2003/44/EC. The language of the DOC must be one of the official languages of the recipient's country.

In this multilingual version you just fill out the DOC in your language and all other DOCs in other languages are automatically filled out.

On the 20^th and 27^thof April 2010 IMCI is contributing to a design seminar initiated by the Dutch "NHL Hogeschool/Kenniscentrum Jachtbouw" in Leeuwarden.