On Tue, 1 Apr 2008 06:08:14 -0400, in message

"Roger Long" wrote:

wrote

The USCG doesn't test devices and approve them. They publish standards,
and a
laboratory tests your product and charges you a fee to attest that it
meets the
standards. If you have an unapproved device and it becomes an issue in
court,
you can still retroactively have the device examined and declared
compliant.


Yes, but in the US legal system, the issue is not whether you are right or
wrong but whether you can afford to prove it. When that guy who Teeboned
you on the port side claims it was because he couldn't see your red nav
light, how much do you think it's going to cost to prove it's compliance
with his lawyer obstructing, questioning, and protesting every step of the
process?

One morning last summer, just towards dawn, I was very puzzled by a
green light that seemed to moving in the wrong direction. As it got a
little lighter I could make out the hull and passed fairly close
astern, giving way as a port tack boat should. I was able to read the
name off the transom and radioed to ask why they were showing green on
the port side...

Attention to detail is important ;-)

Ryk