NMMA seminar draws record number
CHICAGO – Nearly 200 people participated in the NMMA Engineering Compliance Seminar held Dec. 6-9 in Nashville, Tenn., a record number of attendees for the event, NMMA said in a press release today.
The seminar reviewed updates to USCG regulations and ABYC standards that are used to certify boats and yachts in the NMMA Certified program.
“There were a number of attendees at this year’s seminar who are not currently involved in the NMMA Certification program,” said NMMA manager of Engineering Standards David DeHorn. “That tells us that our boat manufacturer members are getting prepared for mandatory certification.”
Starting with the 2007 model year, being NMMA Certified will be a requirement for all NMMA boat manufacturer members. The NMMA Certification program will also require participants to have a Customer Satisfaction Index program instituted at their company in order to be certified.
There are currently 140 boat manufacturers participating in the NMMA Certified program, representing 75 percent of all boats produced in the U.S. each year. The goal of the NMMA board, the ABYC and the USCG is that all boat manufacturers be NMMA certified.
With that in mind, DeHorn estimated that attendance at next year’s seminar will increase by more than 50 percent, as each participating manufacturer in the program is required to send at least one representative from their company to receive updates on ABYC standards and USCG requirements for the 2007 model year.
The 2005 NMMA Engineering Compliance Seminar will be held in Nashville from Dec. 5-8.
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