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As the July 1, 2017 date for the start of the 2018 model year draws closer, boat builders will need to begin the California Air Resources Board (CARB) evaporative emission certification process. CARB staff will be receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of applications as boat builders who plan to sell or offer for sale a vessel with an installed gasoline fuel tank in California after July 1, 2017 will need to install CARB certified evaporative emissions components and apply for and receive an executive order. It is highly recommended that boat builders begin the application process early to ensure that there is no disruption to commerce. NMMA also directs boat builders to the design-based conditional certification compliance letter that can be accessed via the link below.

NMMA pushed for including this letter in the rulemaking process to provide boat builders with a mechanism to continue to sell boats after the rulemaking implementation date if for any reason CARB had not yet approved an application and issued an executive order. The note below from CARB staff explains the California evaporative emission vessel certification process and contains the information boat builders will need to start the process. If you have any questions, you can follow-up with CARB staff or contact me at [email protected] or 202-257-3754.

From CARB:

To assist boat builders in complying with the 2018 and later MY SIMW evaporative requirements, CARB certification staff has compiled all the evaporative certification and support documents and added it to the marine certification web-page. These documents are available at this link.

The evaporative certification portion for boat builders is in the top portion of the page while the lower portion is for marine exhaust certification for engine manufacturers. Please share it with all boat builders who want to sell their products in California.

Also, CARB has set up a special e-mail account for boat builders to send in their boat evaporative certification applications to: [email protected].

Finally, a simple form is available (download "CARB Contact Sheet" here from NMMA) for manufacturers to fill-out with their contact info, and e-mail back to CARB ahead of sending in their first certification application, which would be useful in assigning the boat manufacturer a designated CARB certification representative. Please request your boat manufacturers to send this form in as soon as they can.