MARAD small vessel waiver questions

[Jan D]

Hello, I have searched and didn't find much regarding this question so I'm appealing to your collective knowledge to help me out here. We have a currently active charter business in Alaska with a vessel that is US built but have recently purchased a second vessel that is not US built and would like to apply for a Jones Act Waiver for that vessel.

I've been trying to figure out exactly what they are looking for in these 2 questions on the waiver application form. Given that we are already a long time established charter operator in our area, I don't feel we would have any negative impact on other operators by adding another vessel or replacing the current vessel with another one. (We will not be running both vessels at the same time, we are a husband/wife team who work together, so whichever vessel is booked will go out, which decreases impact regarding question 10). At least that is my interpretation of Question 10 which is: A statement on the impact this waiver will have on other commercial passenger vessel operators.

But, Question 11 is a bit more difficult to answer: A statement on the impact this waiver will have on U.S. shipyards.

Are they talking about ship building yards? There are none up in Alaska. Or are they referring to the impact on shipyards as in marinas, or haulouts, or maintenance, or bringing revenue to the community, or what??? Any help from someone who has an idea, or has applied and received a waiver would be appreciated. How the heck do you answer that question????

Actually any insight anyone can give me regarding applying for the waiver, would be wonderful. It's a lot of money to apply now ($500 non-refundable) so I want to answer these questions as best I can to get approved. I doubt anyone local would object to us getting approved as we are well known in our area and have been in operation for about 12 years now, without impacting anyone. We actually all work cooperatively to get clients out on the water, helping each other when someone has a mechanical issue and can't get clients out or referring to each other when we're already booked, so I don't think there's a problem there, but the shipyard question has me stumped!!! HELP!!!!

 

[STB]

The act exists to protect the US shipyard industry from closing due to overseas competition. The reason for this is to protect the industry for wartime such that there are enough US shipbuilding to train more shipbuilding to rapidly spin up capacity to what is needed for war.

Each waiver means a boat not bought from a US yard or an entrant into the market that devalues a used boat that was, decreasing the resale value of US built boats and therefore the incentive to buy US made boats.

The idea behind the 1st question is thst the other operators in the area have paid for US made boats. If you buying a cheaper foreign boat unfairly undercuts their earlier investment in a US made boat, thst isn't fair to them and ultimately increases pressure for waivers.

Basically, each waiver is one unit less support for US yards, one unit of unfairness for those who bought US boats without a waiver, and one unit more support for future waivers, each of which is viewed as adding up to less business for US yards, fewer and small US yards, less domestic shipbuilding talent, and a greater challenge spinning up to support a future war effort.

They are looking for you to tell them this won't do any of that.

Mostly I think they are looking for no nearby businesses to object during the comment period.

 

[jungpeter]

I've been trying to figure out exactly what they are looking for in these 2 questions on the waiver application form. Given that we are already a long time established charter operator in our area, I don't feel we would have any negative impact on other operators by adding another vessel or replacing the current vessel with another one. (We will not be running both vessels at the same time, we are a husband/wife team who work together, so whichever vessel is booked will go out, which decreases impact regarding question 10). At least that is my interpretation of Question 10 which is: A statement on the impact this waiver will have on other commercial passenger vessel operators.

HELP!!!!

When I attempted to obtain a Jones Act exemption for my Canadian-built vessel about 10 years ago, I was met by a resounding NO from the AK respondents to the MARAD query of impact. They felt, as there was a plethora of charter vessels already operating in AK waters, a Jones Act exemption for yet another one was not appropriate. Hence, MARAD granted my exemption for CA, OR, and WA waters, but NOT for AK. As my business plan was SEAK-centric, the business went nowhere.

With all due respect, I'm not sure how you would convince the current AK charter fleet that you wouldn't operate both your vessels in charter, despite your admonition to the contrary. Stuffing a new crew aboard, even for a mom-and-pop operation, is pretty straight forward.

Regards,

Pete

 

[Jan D]

Thank you. We’ll give it a try. We searched for over 6 years for the next vessel after we decided that our sportfisher just wasn’t large enough or comfortable enough for us long term. We chose a vessel we both like. Buying a US built vessel would have been nice but we didn’t find one we wanted to buy. We try to choose US built for most things we buy, when it’s possible. But this time it wasn’t. It’s a big purchase and we bought what we like.

We didn’t buy it for the purpose of chartering with it. We bought but for us. But since it is more comfortable we thought we’d try to get a waiver to use it for our multiday customers. If not, so be it. We wouldn’t change our decision to buy.

Thank you for the info. I’ll try to formulate a response on the form. Whatever happens is fine.

 

[Jan D]

I realize you don’t know us, but if we don’t get the waiver, we will NOT charter with this vessel. We purchased it for us and our enjoyment.

Also we will NOT split up to take both vessels out if we do get a waiver. We work together. If we don’t get a waiver we’ll use the new one when we aren’t booked or when family comes up and as our primary residence all summer. We’ll charter with our US built sportfisher as long as we want to continue to charter.

If it’s local area people who get to decide if we can get the waiver, they know us well. If it’s the whole state, well obviously they don’t all know us. We’re fine either way but we are absolutely not going to do anything we shouldn’t.

 

[Duke 239]

That is a tough situation. The Jones Act was written to specifically outlaw exactly what you want to do. If you want them to approve an exemption you will have to say why your situation is different from everyone else, but it isn't. I realize the approval process is a little lax and it will depend on the comments from the public. If you ask me, that is no way to run a legitimate federal agency.