[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 81 (Wednesday, April 26, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24536-24537]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-10397]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[Docket Number: MARAD-2000-7273]


Requested Administrative Waiver of the Coastwise Trade Laws

AGENCY: Maritime Administration, Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Invitation for public comments on a requested administrative 
waiver of the Coastwise Trade Laws for the vessel MIMI.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: As authorized by Public Law 105-383, the Secretary of 
Transportation, as represented by the Maritime Administration (MARAD), 
is authorized to grant waivers of the U.S.-build requirement of the 
coastwise laws under certain circumstances. A request for such a waiver 
has been received by MARAD. The vessel, and a description of the 
proposed service, is listed below. Interested parties may comment on 
the effect this action may have on U.S. vessel builders or businesses 
in the U.S. that use U.S.-flag vessels. If MARAD determines that in 
accordance with Pub.L. 105-383 and MARAD's regulations at 46 CFR part 
388 (65 FR 6905; February 11, 2000) that the issuance of the waiver 
will have an unduly adverse effect on a U.S.-vessel builder or a 
business that uses U.S.-flag vessels, a waiver will not be granted.

DATES: Submit comments on or before May 26, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Comments should refer to docket number MARAD-2000-7273. 
Written comments may be submitted by hand or by mail to the Docket 
Clerk,

[[Page 24537]]

U.S. DOT Dockets, Room PL-401, Department of Transportation, 400 7th 
St., SW, Washington, DC 20590-0001. You may also send comments 
electronically via the Internet at http://dmses.dot.gov/submit/. All 
comments will become part of this docket and will be available for 
inspection and copying at the above address between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., 
E.T., Monday through Friday, except federal holidays. An electronic 
version of this document and all documents entered into this docket is 
available on the World Wide Web at http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Hokana, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, Maritime Administration, MAR-832 Room 7201, 400 Seventh 
Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590. Telephone 202-366-0760.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title V of Pub. L. 105-383 provides 
authority to the Secretary of Transportation to administratively waive 
the U.S.-build requirements of the Jones Act, and other statutes, for 
small commercial passenger vessels (less than 12 passengers). This 
authority has been delegated to the Maritime Administration per 49 CFR 
1.66, Delegations to the Maritime Administrator, as amended. By this 
notice, MARAD is publishing information on a vessel for which a request 
for a U.S.-build waiver has been received, and for which MARAD requests 
comments from interested parties. Comments should refer to the docket 
number of this notice and the vessel name in order for MARAD to 
properly consider the comments. Comments should also state the 
commenter's interest in the waiver application, and address the waiver 
criteria given in Sec. 388.4 of MARAD'S regulations at 46 CFR part 388.

Vessel Proposed for Waiver of the U.S.-Build Requirement

    (1) Name of vessel and owner for which waiver is requested: Name of 
vessel: S/V MIMI. Owner: George G. Story, Alan M. Story & Spiro N. 
Cocotas; Three Mates, Inc.
    (2) Size, capacity and tonnage of vessel: According to the 
Applicant: ``LOD: 58.5'--BOD: 19.5'--Draft: 7.7'--Mainmast: 63.5'. 
Gross: 36 Tons--Net: 31 Tons.''
    (3) Intended use for vessel, including geographic region of 
intended operation and trade: According to the applicant: ``Charter; 
revolving around, but not limited to, education and research work. MIMI 
presently works widely along the East Coast, into the Gulf of Mexico 
and rarely beyond twenty miles offshore.'' (4) Date and place of 
construction and (if applicable) rebuilding: Date of construction: 
1931, place of construction: Camaret, France.
    (5) A statement on the impact this waiver will have on other 
commercial passenger vessel operators: According to the applicant: 
``The Sailing Vessel MIMI, for the past seventeen years, has worked 
solely in education. After the filmed production of the educational 
curriculums ``The Voyage of the MIMI'' in 1982 then ``The Second Voyage 
of the MIMI'' two years later, a demand for the curriculum platform, 
the S/V MIMI, to tour the east coast became wide spread. In the course 
of the school year the vessel now sails four thousand nautical miles 
along the Eastern United States and shares the nautical life of it's 
crew, along with other points of related nautical interests, such as 
navigation, mechanical advantage, knot tying and seamanship, with as 
many as forty-five thousand elementary and middle school students. The 
MIMI curriculum, which was originally sponsored through a collaboration 
between the United States Department of Education, Bank Street college 
of Education and the Public Broadcasting System, is today seen by, and 
worked with, well over one million students, through over twenty-one 
thousand schools systems nation wide, annually. Sailing MIMI to all of 
the areas the curriculum services is impossible. Making MIMI available 
to teachers during the vacationing periods of the year, will further 
update and carry the curriculum to the classroom through the teacher's 
experiences aboard the vessel. The S/V MIMI, operating within its not-
for-profit status, will be utilized as an uninspected vessel, carrying 
only six fared passengers, two crewmembers and one cook, in a near 
coastal situation. By the nature of MIMI's reputation and fame, no 
other vessel can deliver this experience; since there is no other 
recognizable MIMI, there is no impact on other existing businesses of 
this kind, simply because there are none to impact upon. Also, ever 
since MIMI's homeport has been Gloucester, Massachusetts, all 
maintenance and repairs, as well as a major rebuilding during the 
summer of 1995, have been made with U.S. materials and U.S. labor, in 
U.S. shipyards, the vessel itself is operated by U.S. personnel and all 
completely paid for with U.S. money earned here in the United States.''
    (6) A statement on the impact this waiver will have on U.S. 
shipyards: According to the applicant: ``For all of the aforementioned 
reasons, it appears as though the impact on United States coastwise 
trade and United States shipyards is a positive impact, not a negative 
one, and will always continue to be.''

    By Order of the Maritime Administrator.

    Dated: April 21, 2000.
Joel C. Richard,
Secretary, Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 00-10397 Filed 4-25-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-81-P