Professional BoatBuilder - February-March 2018

4 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER

switch indicator module.

Properly wired, these detectors will

globally sound when one is triggered, and

they also report to the Maretron N2kview

PC soware, which can sound a ship

alarm, and e-mail or text the alert. ere

are excellent solutions available, despite

what some say. Not a single one of my

detectors has ever been exposed to salt,

fog, or spray, and I have bigger problems

to deal with if that happens. As former

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said,

“You go to war with the army you have,

not the one you might want.”

Ron Micjan

Portland, Oregon

Uncertain About Certication

To the Editor:

Here at the ABYC we are always look-

ing for constructive criticism. No pro-

gram, or product for that matter, can

thrive without constant and targeted

improvement to meet the needs of those

it serves. at is why I read with interest

ABYC member Gregory Group’s Parting

Shot, “Uncertain About Certication”

(PBB No. 170).

He makes some salient points, and the

piece is an excellent incentive for ABYC to

dispel some myths and legends about our

education program. You can imagine that

with more than 3,000 certied individuals,

we get many comments that shape our

program as we equip our students to make

boating safer through standards-based

education. I’d like to answer some com-

mon questions and misconceptions.

Content: ABYC uses a third party, the

National Occupational Competency Test-

ing Institute (www.nocti.org), to develop

and maintain our certifications. This

group does similar work for many major

industries in the U.S. Working with

NOCTI gives credibility to the content

and the process that enhances the validity

of the certications, even in a court of law.

With this, we have experts create the cur-

riculum and content of each and every

certication. Note that the standards are a

“oor” not a “ceiling” teaching to the stan-

dards, oering a basic understanding of

what a tech will be seeing out in the eld.

We also describe the course in detail so

Internal Combustion’s

Backside

To the Editor:

I would just like to add a minor note to

Steve D’Antonio’s excellent and compre-

hensive article about exhaust fundamen-

tals (“Internal Combustion’s Backside,”

Professional BoatBuilder No. 170).

At Fleming Yachts, we have found it to

be benecial to have smaller holes at the

bottom and larger holes at the top where

water is injected from the dry part of the

exhaust into the wet section. ese holes

are well illustrated in the opening photo

on page 60 of the article, where all the

holes appear to be of the same diameter.

is is, of course, to encourage water to

enter at the top of the pipe rather than all

run out the bottom, thereby meeting the

requirement to spray water around the

exhaust gas stream, as mentioned on

page 61 of the article.

Tony Fleming

Founder, Fleming Yachts

Costa Mesa, California

Steve D’Antonio responds:

I agree wholeheartedly with Tony

Fleming’s excellent observation. This

technique is especially beneficial for

exhaust systems that are closer to hori-

zontal (but hopefully still within the

engine manufacturer’s minimum-angle

requirement), wherein injected water

runs to the bottom of the hose too quickly,

thereby creating a hot hose “backbone.”

Smoke Detectors: What’s It

Going to Take?

To the Editor:

e letters on the smoke detector

dilemma are a good read (PBB No. 168,

Letters, Etc., pp. 6–13). I originally had

o-the-shelf big-box-store smoke detec-

tors in our research vessel because I

believe that something is better than

nothing. ese are still working aer

three years in service and are tested with

“smoke in a can.” I supplemented these

detectors with commercial mon itored

four-wire photoelectric smoke and heat

detectors with annunciators from Inter-

logix (Model 541NCSXTE) hardwired

for power and alert to a Maretron SIM

there will be no surprises in content or

subject matter. Items such as a dripless

sha seal are in the content; we leave to the

National Marine Electronics Association

items such as CAN bus technology, and to

the original equipment manufacturers,

specic engine/drive technology.

Classes and testing: While our classes

are popular, “challenging” the test happens

all the time. is can be done by arranging

a testing time and proctored location and

taking an online exam at your conve-

nience. Hundreds of our exams have been

taken at local libraries and community

colleges. Not only can you challenge

online, but you can recertify online as

well. While we would love to oer online

testing at the classes, there are many

obstacles here. ABYC would have to pro-

vide the device (e.g., tablet or laptop), and

have 100%-reliable Internet, because an

outage causes problems. We are looking

into ways of doing this, so stand by. e

only other option is the ll-in-the-bubble.

Anyone with a child in school knows this

is still the norm for anything from stan-

dardized state testing to the SAT and the

GRE, etc. I am sure someday we’ll get out of

this technology, but for now, a #2 pencil is

still the tool of the testing trade.

Questions and answers: As I noted

above, experts help ABYC build a core-

knowledge base. Out of that base the same

experts help design test questions. It is the

test that comes rst; the study guide and

class curriculum come second. We oen

have to explain our inability to tell stu-

dents which questions they answered

incorrectly on the exam. With a nite

number of questions, there is no way for

us to provide evidence of those questions

answered in error. e security of the test

is paramount to assure a respected and

frankly dicult-to-achieve certication. If

just one student had a list of the questions

he or she answered incorrectly and

decided to post them with the correct

answers on a website, etc., then the test

becomes senseless. Anyone could pass,

devaluing your certication and ABYC’s

condence in our certied technicians.

CEUs and available content: is is a

great discussion we are chipping away at.

ABYC’s goal in joining the rest of the

LETTERS,

ETC.

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