[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 46, Volume 4]
[Revised as of October 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 46CFR131.220]

[Page 453]
 
                           TITLE 46--SHIPPING
 
    CHAPTER I--COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED)
 
PART 131--OPERATIONS--Table of Contents
 
                     Subpart B--Markings on Vessels
 
Sec. 131.220  Drafts.

    (a) Each vessel must have the drafts of the vessel plainly and 
legibly marked upon the stem and upon the sternpost or rudderpost, or at 
any place at the stern of the vessel that may be necessary for easy 
observance. The bottom of each mark must indicate the draft.
    (b) Each draft must be taken from the bottom of the keel to the 
surface of the water at the location of the marks.
    (c) When, because of raked stem or cutaway skeg, the keel does not 
extend forward or aft to the draft markings, the datum line from which 
the draft is taken must be the line of the bottom of the keel projected 
forward or aft, as the case may be, to where the line meets that of the 
draft markings projected downward.
    (d) When a skeg or other appendage extends below the line of the 
keel, the draft at the end of the vessel adjacent to that appendage must 
be measured to a line tangent to the lowest part of the appendage and 
parallel to the line of the bottom of the keel.
    (e) Drafts must be separated so that the projections of the marks 
onto a vertical plane are of uniform height, equal to the vertical 
spacing between consecutive marks.
    (f) Marks must be painted in a color contrasting with that of the 
hull.
    (g) Where marks are obscured because of operational constraints or 
by protrusions, the vessel must be fitted with a reliable draft-
indicating system from which the drafts at bow and stern can be 
determined.