The American Boat &Yacht Council (ABYC) is a non-profit, member organization that develops voluntary global safety standards for the design, construction, maintenance and repair of recreational boats.
ABYC has a long-established commitment to providing technical education, training, certification and professional development for marine technicians. Our seminars, workshops and technician certification courses are instrumental in increasing the level of knowledge and professionalism throughout the boating industry.
The Standards are the core of ABYC as they are continuously researched, developed and revised by over 400 volunteer marine professionals on 16 Project Technical Committees (PTCs) from all fields of the industry including the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), trade organizations and private entities. ABYC collaborates with safety organizations worldwide such as Transport Canada and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). As an independent consensus-based body, these industry experts work together to develop standards with the sole purpose of protecting the safety of the boating public.
The Standards and Technical Information Reports for Small Craft covers all the major boat systems and the development and annual review of these standards provide boat building guidelines which correlate directly to the significant reduction in the number of boating accidents over the past seven decades.