US NOWS

About the National On-Water Standards Program

The mission of the National On-Water Standards (NOWS) Program is to advance the overall level of quality, availability, and consistency of On-Water, skills-based instruction in recreational boat operation through the development, integration and application of On-Water Standards within a National System of Standards for Recreational Boat Operation.

The US Coast Guard's National Boating Safety Advisory Council (NBSAC) developed a strategic plan in 2012 designed to reduce the number of injuries, accidents and fatalities that take place each year in recreational boating. In the plan, NBSAC referenced a significant lack of On-Water instruction aimed at skills development in recreational boat operation and set one of the plan's objectives to fill that gap. The NOWS Program is the direct result of that strategic objective. 

The NOWS Program was funded in part by a grant from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund administered by the U.S. Coast Guard.  It brings together subject matter experts from across the SAIL, POWER and HUMAN-propelled domains of the recreational boating to collaborate on the content development and application of consensus-based entry-level recreational boat operation standards. These standards are designed to work in conjunction with recreational boating knowledge and other standards as part of a national system of standards.