USCG Raises Assumed Average Weight per Person:

[SOUNDBOUNDER]

People are getting fatter:

In this season of expanding waistlines, even the Coast Guard has been forced to monitor midsections: specifically, the drafts of passenger vessels burdened with transporting an increasingly heavy population.

The Coast Guard in December formally put into effect rules requiring certain passenger vessels to comply with its new Assumed Average Weight per Person. That new weight, 185 pounds, is a full 25 pounds more than the previous average, 160, a figure put in place about half a century ago — after French fries were invented but before billions and billions had been served.

“Are people bigger now?” said Mark Cedergreen, who began running a charter sport fishing boat out of Westport, Wash., in the 1970s, when the salmon population was healthier and people apparently were, too. “Yes.”

And so vessel operators across the country have faced a reckoning: shed weight, and potentially revenue, by reducing the number of passengers they carry, or find a way to keep squeezing people on without falling out of compliance with the Coast Guard.

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/us...n.html?_r=1&hp

[Squidd]

That's just sad when you consider they are averaging in young children along with adults...(who did you think was keeping it down in the 160 range)?

[kd3pc]

While a great move, I am not sure that given the quoted sizes the media describes (male 191, female 165 from most recent CDC data - 2002) that they should not have just gone to

200lbs.....

more realistic.

[jameswilson29]

Apparently, the Coast Guard took a trip to WalMart...

[Boasun]

200 lbs Hey! I resem.... er resent that!!

Too many of us have super sized Micky Ds and Whoppers for one thing. And many of us have sedinary jobs where we sit on our asses all day long.
But aside of that, how in the world can we be gaining weight??

[jameswilson29]

We're sailing instead of going to the gym...

[ChuckA]

I just started my diet. I weighed in at 184 on Jan 1, but I don't expect to see 160.

[SlowButSteady]

Sailnet, where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the sailors are above the average weight.

[tommays]

After things like the Ethan Allen rolling on a nice day on Lake George from a different tour boats wake the whole deal got a LOT of looking at

On the Ethan Allen a bunch of windows and covers were changed from plastic to glass and they never did the stability again and it went real bad for the poor souls onboard