Carriage of Navigation Equipment for Ships on International Voyages

The U.S. Coast Guard announced its policy for resolving conflicts between its own regulations on navigation equipment on ships on international voyages and recent amendments to SOLAS. For ships to which SOLAS applies, the Coast Guard will not require compliance with its own regulation on the same issue where there is a disparity between that regulation and the recent SOLAS amendments. Thus, where SOLAS now allows the use of qualifying ECDIS in lieu of paper charts, the Coast Guard will accept such use as equivalent to compliance with its current regulation requiring use of paper charts. This policy will remain in effect for two years or until USCG regulations are aligned with SOLAS.