Safety inspections done by volunteers are voluntary. If done by LEO, not so much. Volunteers: I have been one since the early 90s, through the Coast Guard Auxiliary, until they dropped their CE program (Courtesy Examination) Our YC picked up the responsibility for doing boats wanting moorage in the Club moorage, I continued on as a YC volunteer.
Members of RCMSAR, again volunteers, do Safety Inspections at some of the local clubs, excluding the RVYC outstation on Saltspring, as I have that covered as their resident Safety Inspector.
The forms we use contain a number of sections, Mandatory items, desirable items, informational items. Failures only occur due to non-compliance in the Mandatory sections.
Cards are not in the mandatory section so if a boater tells me he/she has no PCOC or ROCM, I note the deficiency, but no failure is indicated.
In Canada, if you have an electronic means of communicating your position to the CG in an emergency, AIS, Cell phone, DSC radio, only 1/2 as many flares as the regs state are required for a pass.
Those clever SOS floating lights are not acknowledged as meeting any of the Canadian requirements.
Fire extinguishers never needed a tag in the old CE program. In our club, they do.
