Equipment Auditors frequently deal with equipment where determination of compliance requires judgement.

The National Safety Committee adopted the following policy:

Where judgement is required to audit the compliance of an item, an Equipment Auditor shall rely primarily on the opinion of the person in charge of the boat. The Equipment Auditor may still decline to complete the audit. In the event the Equipment Auditor declines to complete the audit they must note the reasons for the declinature on the audit form.

Reasons
1.    Special Regulation 1.02.1 explicitly places the responsibility of the soundness of all gear, its maintenance and stowage, and the boat’s seaworthiness on the person in charge.
2.    Special Regulations 1.02.2 whilst providing for inspection of a boat does not limit or reduce the responsibilities of the person in charge.
3.    An example of needing to apply judgement is determining what stout buckets are under Special Regulation 3.20.9. The Equipment Auditor shall rely primarily on the opinion of the person in charge of the boat as to whether the buckets presented to the audit are stout or not.