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Our aim is to build our boats to the highest possible specifications our hulls are among the best available and fully compliant with:-
- ISO/FDIS 12215-5:2005(E) Hull Construction - Scantlings-Part 5: Design Pressures for monohulls, design stresses, scantling determination.
- BS EN ISO 12217-1:2002 Small Craft - Stability and buoyancy assessment and categorisation. Part 1: Non-sailing boats of hull length greater than or equal to 6m.
- ISO/FDIS21487 Small Craft - Permanently installed petrol and diesel fuel tanks.
The above ISO standards are legal requirements for compliance with the Recreational Craft Directives 94/25/EC and 2003/44/EC under UK and European law. (Commonly referred to as the RCD)
The RCD sets a minimum legal standard to be met for the boat building industry we along with other members of the Canal Boatbuilders Association (CBA) also observe the Canal Boatbuilders Association Code Of Practice 2006 For Catergory C & D Metal Boats Of Less Than 24 Metres this code then goes on to demand still higher standards than those required under law by the RCD.
Conformity to the RCD at Category C which most inland waterways craft fall into is achieved using Internal Production Control to prove conformity. Basically this means the builder provides a sheet of paper with is signature on it confirming that all the relevant ISO’s and regulations contained with in the RCD have been complied with fully.
Unfortunately this in effect self policing is subject to much abuse many builders far from embraced the RCD when it was implemented in 1998 and choose to simply ignore it and break the law or to simply issue the piece of paper without actually doing any other work towards achieving actual RCD compliance. Compliance enforcement falls within the remit of Trading Standards and after a number of cases across the UK and Europe of fraudulent certification have been discovers T/S are now taking a proactive approach to enforcement.
If a builder was to be visited by T/S then he would be expected to demonstrate how he achieves conformity this would include asking to view copies of the relevant ISO standards the builder uses as references to prove understanding of what he his putting his name to. Copies of the actual calculations made to prove conformity and the technical file used to support this for each individual craft produced in the last 10 years.
If you would like a clue to how compliant a builder is with the RCD you could ask these questions for yourself, the responses can be quite amusing.
We are equipped with software that allows us to easily check various items of conformity to both the RCD and CBA CoP 2006 for each individual build prior to it commencing.
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