As a Marine Surveyor specializing in commercial vessels, I have been including recommendations regarding oily rag handling for years. This always seems to be an issue. I expect that is because people rarely experience spontaneous combustion first hand.

This weekend as part of spring cleanup and preparations I applied oil to the back deck. I used a Cabot product called Australian Timber Oil, which they recommend to apply, let soak, then wipe off excess after 30 minutes or so.  The directions on the can said "Danger: rags steel woo or waste soaked with this product may spontaneously catch fire if improperly discarded. Immediately after each use, place rags, steel wool or waste in a sealed, water filled metal container and dispose of according to local regulations". Instead, I gathered up the used rags put into a plastic bag for disposal.

When I picked up the plastic bag containing the rags it was hot to the touch. I opened the sealed bag and smoke was emitted. An infrared thermometer showed 348 degrees on the outside and a digital probe showed pulp temperature of 329.5.

Spontaneous combustion in action!

I filled the bag with water and everything cooled down.

According to the American Waterways Operators the Department of Homeland Security has approved the Towing Vessel Inspection Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The AWO Letter dated 4/1/2011 states that the NPRM was signed by Janet Napolitano and sent to the office of Management and Budget on 3/30/2011. The OMB review will take about 90 days and the NPRM will be published in the Federal Register in July 2011.

According to Pamela Glass of Workboat Magazine "It is not yet clear if DHS has made changes to the draft, (AWO's) Carpenter said, as it has not been made public. But new standards will likely cover a range of towboat operations, including fuel transfer procedures, safety training and environmental policies, and will probably mirror AWO’s Responsible Carrier Program that has been in place since 1998.

This is good news for the towing industry. The inspection process, first surfacing in the USCG Act of 2004, is finally taking shape and should be on the books by 2012.

Tugboat Compliance Systems software allows any size of company a simple and cost effective means to establish and administer a Towing Safety Management System. For more information contact Dana Teicheira at dana@tugcomp.com, or by telephone at 707-769-9171.

The USCG has issued a Policy Letter regarding electronic versions of navigation publications onboard US vessels.  The letter provides that US vessels may maintain required navigation publications (such as the Light List and Coast Pilot) in an electronic format on the vessel so long as it is reasonably accessible to the crew.  A back-up copy must also be maintained on the vessel.  This does not include nautical charts.

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Congress enacted the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 on Oct. 15, 2010 and ordered the Department of Homeland Security, parent agency of the Coast Guard, to finish its work and release the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the inspection of towing vessels within 90 days and complete its final rulemaking within one year of the date of enactment.

The 90 day mark was on Jan. 13, 2011 and has come and gone, with no notice of proposed rulemaking released.

The American Waterway Operators reported "Last week, DHS informed Congress that neither the statutory deadline nor the January 2011 projection for publication would be met. The Department anticipates completing its review of the NPRM and sending it on to the Office of Management and Budget – the last stop prior to publication in the Federal Register – “in the near future,” DHS said.

On March 1, U.S. Representative Jeff Landry (R-LA), Vice Chairman of the Coast Guard and Marine Transportation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, asked U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Robert J. Papp why, “after two congressional directives and countless industry contacts,” the Department of Homeland Security has yet to publish the notice of proposed rulemaking for towing vessel inspection, which has been under review by the Department for more than two years.

In response, the Commandant cited the significant culture change and resource commitment the proposed rule would pose for both the Coast Guard and the towing industry as the primary factor in the lengthy review process. He noted that the rule has been subject to some revision over the last year and has gone back and forth between the Coast Guard and DHS, where it currently resides".

The desktop software will download at different speeds, depending on the type of computer being used, and the type of internet connection.

If you are using a new pc with Windows 7 and 4GB of memory, or a newer Mac with 4GB memory, the company data will download pretty quickly, usually within a minute (depending on the type of connection). You can leave the "Download Company Data at Startup" checked (located at the bottom of the Home page). Every time that the desktop software is opened the company data will be synched with the data on the server.

If you are using an older pc, running Windows XP with 1GB memory, then the download will be slower. We recommend that you uncheck the box so that the software will load quickly. The company data can then be manually downloaded at a convenient time.

The NTSB Most Wanted List 2009-2010 includes a recommendation that the USCG require all domestic commercial vessels to have a Safety Management System.

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Summary of software enhancements for Tugboat Compliance Systems currently in the works

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Tugcomp Software as "Cloud Computing"

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Excerpt from interview titled "Inspection Time"

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Article outlining Tugboat Compliance Systems software that appeared in the September 2009 issue (Issue # 128) of Professional Mariner magazine

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