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FOGHORN
October 2020: CVC agreed to take up clad welding and 
develop guidance for field evaluators on repair evalua-
tion of pitted material as part of the revision to the Coast 
Guard’s steel repair Navigation and Vessel Inspection Cir-
cular (NVIC) 7-68. Progress, finally.
October 2021: Following a broader QP discussion on 
pitted plate evaluation, a small working group was formed. 
PVA agreed to lead the effort and work with Sector Miami 
on a physical sample of pitted plate—specifically, a section 
of hull plating that had been cropped and renewed during 
a two-year drydock inspection on a vessel operating in 
South Florida’s partially protected, limited coastwise wa-
ters. That removed plate section provided two sample areas 
for hands-on assessment using the SSC-394 methodology. 
The goal: develop easy-to-use tools for both industry and 
the Coast Guard and gain a clearer understanding of alter-
natives to crop and renew for plate assessed to have pitting.
May 2022: PVA announced development of the assess-
ment tool.
October 2022: PVA shared an initial version with CG-
ENG staff and received approval to move forward with 
tool development and testing, given its grounding in 
SSC-394.
May 2023: PVA demonstrated the tool at the QP meeting. 
CG-ENG informed PVA that work on the related NVIC re-
vision had stalled, the contractor had gone out of business.
October 2023: PVA continued sharing the tool with op-
erators and Coast Guard units. Seeking formal input or 
approval from CG-ENG, PVA learned that work on the 
Coast Guard side had been sidelined by higher-priority 
projects. PVA responded by developing and distributing 
an instruction sheet to interested operators and Coast 
Guard contacts.
May 2024: PVA developed a program that fully mir-
rors the original PIT program described in SSC-394 and 
demonstrated it to CG-ENG. PVA formally sought ap-
proval for its use by both the Coast Guard and industry.
FOGHORN FOCUS
The Pitted Plate Assessment Tool can be found at passengervessel.com/ppat

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