USCG Risk Mitigation Series 11: EnLIGHTening the Industry on Lights and Batteries

Join us at Risk Mitigation Series 11, where expert speakers join together to cover major industry topics. This time, we’re proud to present two multi-speaker panels: one detailing potential problems and considerations for navigation lights, and the other covering the do’s and don’t’s of connecting batteries. 

Webinar Time: November 5 - 1 PM - 3:00 PM (ET)

CEUs: 2

The webinar topics include:

Intro and Update from USCG 
ABYC’s Vice President of Standards and Compliance will be kicking of our 11th Risk Mitigation Series with updates on standards development, while Jeff Ludwig, Chief of the USCG’s Recreational Boating Product Assurance Branch, shares more information about the latest USCG’s activities, policies, and testing procedures.

Navigation Lights
In our first session, a panel of three industry experts enlighten us about the most important issues pertaining to navigation lights today, including visibility, wiring, interference, and more. Learn what goes into designing and building a C-5 compliant navigation light, boat manufacturer installation and application considerations, and about common installation mistakes and how to avoid them.

Battery Do’s and Don’t’s
Join three electrical experts for the day’s second panel as they discuss battery system best practices and common mistakes. Topics will include battery and system design, selection, testing, and installation. This will help answer questions around battery-bank architecture, systems protection, switching, and integrating lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries in the same system.

The Risk Mitigation Series 11 Speakers Include:

Jochen Czabke, Partner at Seaman Consultants, grew up at the Ammersee (Lake Ammer), Germany’s sixth largest lake, located southwest of Munich. Sailing dinghies and participating in all types of water sports quickly became some of his main hobbies from an early age.

As a young adult he acquired an engineering degree in wood technology (Dipl. Ing. (Fh)) from the University of Applied Sciences in Rosenheim. To further round out his academic career he achieved a Masters Degree of Science at Oregon State University with a focus on production management and strategic marketing.

With degrees in hand he worked for a good decade as a consultant in the automotive and marine industry for two boutique consulting firms located in Munich. The various and international projects—mainly in the field of development, production, and quality—has truly given him a broad view across industries. His passion for boats and the marine industry led him to the position of product manager for sailing yachts at Bavaria Yachts. He became VP quality and later SVP product development and global service at Torqeedo, the world leader in electric boat propulsion.

Today Jochen is working as a marine consultant in partnership with Seaman Consultants. Jochen is the vice chair of the ABYC Electrical Project Technical Committee and a member of ABYC's Technical Board. He is also the project leader for ISO for ISO23625: Small craft — Lithium-ion batteries and ISO16315: Small craft — Electric propulsion systems.

Mike Pendleton is Technical Director, Consumer and Industrials at Element Materials Technology, where he leads battery testing, inspection, and certification across Element's global battery laboratory network. He has spent more than 15 years in testing across aerospace, energy, automotive, and electrification, working as a test technician and test engineer before leading teams. His focus is abuse, environmental, and performance testing of cells, modules, and packs, including thermal runaway and off-gas characterization. He brings a hands-on, evidence based view of what test data can and cannot tell you about a system in service.

Kim Horn is the Product Safety & Compliance Manager for Malibu Boats Inc., where she leads product safety and regulatory compliance across the company’s portfolio of marine brands. Prior to joining Malibu in 2026, Kim spent nearly 14 years with Brunswick Corporation, supporting product compliance and safety for brands including Boston Whaler and Sea Ray. Before joining Brunswick, she spent more than a decade as a marine surveyor, gaining extensive hands-on experience evaluating recreational vessels and their systems in the field. 

Kim is an ABYC Master Certified professional and an active contributor to ABYC standards development, serving on multiple Project Technical Committees, including the Navigation Lights and Sound Systems Appliances PTC. She was honored with the 2026 Bolling Fortson Douglas Memorial Award for her contributions to safety and standards development in the recreational marine industry. Kim holds a Master of Engineering in Advanced Safety Engineering and Management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, with a focus on safety engineering, systems thinking, Prevention through Design, and Human and Organizational Potential. She is also a USCG-licensed captain.

Kim brings a unique boat-builder and field perspective to marine safety—connecting regulatory intent and ABYC standards with the practical realities of design, engineering, manufacturing, installation, validation, and real-world use. Her experience spans the product lifecycle—from early design and engineering through prototype validation, certification, and manufacturing - with a focus on translating regulatory requirements and standards into practical solutions for the manufacturing environment. She is particularly passionate about positioning compliance not simply as a gatekeeping function, but as a strategic tool for safer design, stronger systems, and better outcomes for manufacturers and boaters.

Chris Bostwick is a Senior Product Manager at Navico Group. He has been in the marine industry for approximately 17 years, spending time in engineering and product management in lighting, fuel, and water systems—all based out of Lowell, Michigan. Chris is currently the Vice Chair of the ABYC Fuel and Ventilation Systems PTC and has also been involved with his industry colleagues in developing the latest lighting standards. Before entering the marine industry, he gained experience in design and development in the automotive industry for 12 years at Chrysler / Stellantis. Outside of work, he enjoys time with his wife and four boys, spending as much time as possible on the water in northern Michigan. Growing up, Chris had his first boating experiences by helping his father restore a 1934 Chris Craft and later contributing to various jobs at his family’s Sea Ray dealership in the 90’s while in high school and college. He loves being in this industry—where you can use hands-on experience to directly improve the safety, reliability and user experience for so many different types of boats and boating lifestyles.

Will Hillyer joined the Coast Guard in January of 1995. During 23 years of active duty, he served as a Boatswain’s Mate in various positions in both law enforcement and aids to navigation and was stationed in New Jersey, Maryland, Louisiana, Florida, and Alaska. He spent 10 years in south Florida conducting counter-drug and alien migrant interdiction operations in the Florida Straits, Bahamas, and off the coast of Cuba and Central America. His last tour landed him at Coast Guard Headquarters in the Office of Auxiliary and Boating Safety. During this time, he served as the primary point of contact for MIC requests, HIN fraud investigations, and boating accident investigations resulting from recreational vessel defects. Will retired from active duty in February of 2018 and stayed on with the Office of Auxiliary and Boating Safety in a civilian position doing much of the same work he did on active duty. 

Ben Stein is the editor of marine technology publication Panbo.com. Stein is also a member of ABYC’s Electrical Project Technical Committee (PTC). He also writes a monthly Getting Technical column for Soundings Trade Only and serves as electronics editor for Power & Motoryacht. Stein chairs the NMMA’s Innovation awards at IBEX and co-chairs the awards at the Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show. Additionally, he is a member of DAME design awards jury at Metstrade and chairs the National Marine Electronics Associations new product awards. After 15 years in financial services technology, he left the corporate world to pursue his passion in boating. Stein is a past president of Boating Writers International, holds a USCG 100-Ton Master, and is an ABYC Certified Marine Electrical Technician.

Risk Mitigation Series

U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters 2703 Martin Luther King, JR Ave SE Stop 7501 Washington, DC 20593-7501 Email: [email protected] Conference Support Line: (410) 990-4460 x180

ABYC’s Vice President of Standards and Compliance will be kicking of our 11th Risk Mitigation Series with updates on standards development, while Jeff Ludwig, Chief of the USCG’s Recreational Boating Product Assurance Branch, shares more information about the latest USCG’s activities, policies, and testing procedures.

In our first session, a panel of three industry experts enlighten us about the most important issues pertaining to navigation lights today, including visibility, wiring, interference, and more. Learn what goes into designing and building a C-5 compliant navigation light, boat manufacturer installation and application considerations, and about common installation mistakes and how to avoid them.

Join three electrical experts for the day’s second panel as they discuss battery system best practices and common mistakes. Topics will include battery and system design, selection, testing, and installation. This will help answer questions around battery-bank architecture, systems protection, switching, and integrating lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries in the same system.