Blue sticker returns, fewer controls at sea (and on lakes, too)

For an easier summer at sea and with fewer controls, the “Blue Seal” is back, with some new features. What is it all about? For those who may not remember, for the past two years police forces operating at sea have already been issuing shipowners, after on-board boat inspections (which can also be carried out in port), with a blue sticker to be affixed to the boat, so as to avoid the multiple holiday-ruining inspections. Italian major lakes and charter/charter units will also be affected by the directive this year. Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Graziano Delrio has already sent to all law enforcement agencies operating at sea the Directive for the issuance of the Blue Seal, “a tool that in the past summer seasons has made recreational boating easier by avoiding repeated checks,” he explained.

WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR
This year’s “Blue Stamp,” as the minister himself writes in his note, “identifies and consolidates coordination tools for carrying out inspections.” In fact, its issuance is also planned for the Great Lakes, and its application is also extended to units in rental and lease use, which until now were excluded. Coordination tools are also more incisive: “controls must be mainly and primarily carried out with the aim of preventing and repressing behavior that may endanger human life at sea.”

FROM UCINA PRESS RELEASE
Thanks to the action taken by UCINA, including monitoring during the 2014 season, last year’s initiative yielded excellent results, halving the phenomenon of reiteration of inspections on the same units. However, its application has not always been uniform, and the Association has punctually reported to the relevant authorities those phenomena that appeared to be out of line.

About the modalities, upon the eventual and successful visit, officers will issue a report and sticker to be applied prominently on the boat, which for 2015 also bears a reminder of the 150th anniversary of the Port Authorities-Coast Guard. Chief Inspector Admiral Felicio Angrisano, Commanding General of the Port Authority, was the first to motivate his offices and fully implement the minister’s directions. “Once again, for this further demonstration of attention to boating I express all of us’ heartfelt thanks to the Minister, whom I hope to meet soon, and to all the marine corps,” commented UCINA Confindustria Nautica President Carla Demaria, “I am convinced that a new awareness of the value of the recreational boating tourism industry will see all operators act with the utmost attention.”