Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology

Contact: John Adey, ABYC President

(410) 990-4460, x117

Ed Sherman, ABYC Director of Educational Programming

(410) 990-4460, x45

ABYC and Westlawn Institute Announce a New ABYC Certified Marine Technician Online Forum, The ABYC Tech Forum

June 27, 2012, Annapolis, MD: We are very pleased to announce that ABYC and Westlawn Institute have created a new online forum for ABYC certified marine technicians. We’ve done this to enable certified techs to have a place to share information and questions with each other and with ABYC education and technical department staff. Exchanging and sharing information in this way will help marine technicians grow their skills while become ever better able to recognize and solve problems. It will also help ABYC/Westlawn to keep its education programs and standards up to date and enable ABYC and Westlawn to answer questions more effectively.

Even better, the ABYC Certified Marine Technician Forum (the ABYC Tech Forum) is part of the extensive Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology boat-design forum. This way, Westlawn boat design students and alumni can share ideas with practicing marine techs and marine techs will have access to the vast store of technical information found on the Westlawn design forum.

To access the new ABYC Certified Tech Forum, ABYC certified marine technicians can log onto the ABYC website home page and click on the link for ABYC Tech Forum. The ABYC Certified Tech Forum login username is your ID #. Your password is your last name (begining with a capital letter). If you have any questions or login issues, contact ABYC Education:

Cris Gardner: 410-990-4460, ext 104

Email: cgardner@abycinc.org

Sandy Brown: 410-990-4460, ext 101

Email: sbrown@abycinc.org

Upon login, users have a choice of entering either the ABYC Certified Tech Forum or the Westlawn design forum. They may select, whichever they wish. Once in the forum selected, users can switch back and forth between these two forums at any time. They are really one large forum, separated only to keep the subject matter clearly divided for ease of reference. Only certified ABYC marine techs and active Westlawn boat design students and alumni can access the forum.

Any and all questions, information, experiences, stories about boats are welcome:

- Posts on some handy equipment, tools or test instruments, or questions about test procedures, or problems with specific models or gear.

- Posts with questions about standards or about certification courses.

- Posts of photos of interesting boats or of horrible (or wonderful) installations.

- Posts of stories about odd or interesting problems or repairs.

- Posts on any other issues of interest to practicing marine technicians.

All will help enhance the knowledge and ability of ABYC certified marine technicians and their ability to deliver the highest standard of service possible to their customers.

Founded in 1954, The mission of The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) is to develop quality technical practices and engineering standards for the design, construction, maintenance and repair of small craft with reference to their safety. The Council shall also disseminate these standards and be the principal source of related technical information and education for the marine industry.

Founded in 1930, the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology is the only nationally accredited distance-learning school of small-craft design in the United States. Westlawn is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council, in Washington DC, and is listed as an accredited school by the U.S. Department of Education and by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As the not-for-profit educational affiliate of the American Boat and Yacht Council, the mission of the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology is threefold:

· To provide our students with the skills and knowledge required to build a rewarding career in the profession of yacht and small-craft naval architecture.

· To support continued growth of the recreational and small-craft marine community through the development of well-trained, safety-oriented, boat designers developing better products for the benefit of the boating public.

· To provide continuing education to marine-industry professionals.

To learn more about Westlawn, please call (207) 853-6600 or visit the Westlawn website at: www.westlawn.edu.