DIN EN ISO 16180:2013-07

Directive 94/25/EC of 16 July 1994, the so-called "Sportboot-Richtlinie" in Germany, applies for small craft (recreational craft) in connection with the amendment by Directive 2003/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the council of 16 June 2003. It includes the following text: "Where navigation lights are fitted, they shall comply with the 1972 Colreg or CEVNI regulations, as appropriate." The Colregs are the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea of the IMO, the International Maritime Organization. The IMO is a suborganization of the UNO. CEVNI is for "European Code for Inland Waterways". To comply with the essential safety requirements of the Directive it was necessary to specify requirements for the placement and installation of navigation lights in addition to the requirements for the lights themselves. To this end, starting in 2003 ISO/TC 188 "Small craft" (secretariat: SIS, Sweden) published several draft standards as ISO/DIS 16180, Small craft - Navigation lights. Despite intensive German participation in the work of ISO/TC 188/WG 19, ISO/FDIS 16180:2007 did not correspond to the requirements of German law. Criticism related mainly to missing safety margins regarding visibility which was also to be tested with increased nominal voltage. Furthermore the usage of the applicable requirements and tests from DIN IEC 60945 regarding the resistance against environmental influences have not been mandatorily specified, but extenuated with the addition "or in accordance with the corresponding national standard". As a result, the draft standard was declared as being unsuitable for application in Germany. Other European countries had similar reservations which were not reflected in their voting behaviour, however. For this purpose this is a citation from a DIN document regarding the 38. meeting of the CEN/BT/TC Management Group (TCMG): For the final draft of FprEN 16180, DIN introduced appeal proceedings due to safety concerns in 2008. The final draft has been prepared within the framework of the Vienna Agreement, ISO chairmanship and did not pass the ISO vote, but was accepted during formal vote on CEN level. DIN demanded also not to publish the standard on the European level. After the DIN request was not followed by the majority of BT members after an enquiry, DIN withdrew its appeal proceedings. This however under consideration of safety considerations with regard to the standard and the advice not to publish the standard. At request of NEN (national standardization institute of the Netherlands) the upcoming publication of the final draft has been put on the agenda of the TCMG meeting. After presentation of their arguments by DIN and NEN and after further discussions it was decided also not to publish the final draft on the European level. Finally the negative votes during ISO/FDIS voting and the continued objections of DIN and NEN lead to withdrawal of ISO/FDIS 16180:2007 and as a result also the draft standard DIN EN ISO 16180:2007-01 were withdrawn without any replacement in 2009, see also Resolution BT 5/2009. In Germany there is consideration to also apply DIN EN 14744 "Inland navigation vessels and sea-going vessels - Navigation light" to the navigation lights for vessels with a length of less than 20 m. This standard has been prepared in parallel by CEN/TC 15 "Inland navigation vessels" (secretariat: DIN) and was published in 2005. It does not apply to navigation lights on recreational craft having a hull length less than 20 m which are only covered by the COLREGs. The aim would be a supplemented DIN EN 14744 which applies to all navigation lights. The scope would have to be amended and, for example, modified requirements for lights for application on recreational craft could be specified in a normative annex. These considerations have not been finalized yet. Furthermore, DIN EN 14744 does not contain any requirement for the installation and placement of navigation lights. The CEN Consultant responsible for implementing the Recreational Craft Directive thus suggested that a standard be developed covering only the "performance and installation" of the lights. For this, requirements and tests for the size, design and performance of navigation lights were deleted from the withdrawn standard ISO/FDIS 16180. Only requirements on placement and installation remained. The latter have been brought up to the current state of the art. The standard in its current version is in compliance with German national legislation. The responsible German national agencies are the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) and the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH). Regarding requirements for and tests on navigation lights reference is made to DIN EN 14744 "Inland navigation vessels and sea-going vessels - Navigation light". Furthermore it is indicated that in the German versions for the subject of standardization various terms such as Navigationsleuchten, Navigationslichter, Positionslaternen, Positionslichter are used. The first two of this list are the result of the literal translation of the English term "navigation light". But also in the English language, further terms are usual, for example "navigation lantern". In this standard the English term "navigation light/s" has been translated with "Positionslaterne/n" in order to establish consistency with DIN 89950 "Navigation lantern for sea-going ships and inland vessels; summary, principal dimensions, structural members" and to clarify the purpose of the lights: the optical recognition of the position of the vessel in order to avoid collisions.