Special Local Regulation, Temporary Anchorage Ground Suspension, and Security Zones: Sail 4th 250, International Naval Review 250; Port of New York and New Jersey

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 100, 110, and 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2025-0903]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA08, AA01, AA87</RIN> <SUBJECT>Special Local Regulation, Temporary Anchorage Ground Suspension, and Security Zones: Sail 4th 250, International Naval Review 250; Port of New York and New Jersey</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is proposing to establish temporary special local regulations and multiple security zones, and to temporarily suspend certain anchorage grounds in New York Harbor, Sandy Hook Bay, and the Hudson River before, during, and after Sail 4th 250 events, the U.S. Navy's International Naval Review 250 and International Aerial Review, Independence Day fireworks displays, and U.S. Navy Fleet Week events to be held between July 1, 2026 and July 9, 2026. These regulations are necessary to promote the safe navigation of vessels and the safety of life and property during these events. We invite your comments. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments and related material must be received by the Coast Guard on or before February 17, 2026. The dates for the stays and temporary sections are listed in the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To submit comments and view available documents, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and search for USCG-2025-0903. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this proposed rulemaking, call or email: Mr. Craig Lapiejko, Waterways Management, Coast Guard Northeast District, telephone 571-607-6314, email <E T="03">Craig.D.Lapiejko@uscg.mil,</E> or CDR Timothy Bonner, Sector New York Waterways Management Division, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 571-610-1808, email <E T="03">Timothy.A.Bonner@uscg.mil.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CGD-NE Coast Guard Northeast District Commander</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">COTP Captain of the Port, New York</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">IAR International Aerial Review INR 250 International Naval Review 250</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NJ New Jersey</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NY New York NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S. United States</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">VTS Vessel Traffic Service, New York</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background and Authority</HD> On June 1, 2025, Sail250®  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> and the United States Navy formally notified the Coast Guard Captain of the Port, New York (COTP) that, from July 1, 2026, through July 9, 2026, they will be conducting a series of major marine events in New York Harbor. Tall Ship Parade of Sail, <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> an International Naval Review 250 (INR 250), <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> an International Aerial Review (IAR), <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> and U.S. Navy Fleet Week events in New York Harbor in celebration of America's 250th birthday. The Sail250® Tall Ships tour, which also includes the ports of New Orleans, LA; Norfolk, VA; Baltimore, MD; and Boston, MA, has been designated as a Marine Event of National Significance. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">https://www.sail250.org/.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">https://sail4th.org/.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">https://www.navy.mil/Navy-250/Events/.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">https://www.navy.mil/Navy-250/Events/as part of the America 250th</E> celebration, headlined by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-46/section-26.03-8.</E> </FTNT> The purpose of this rulemaking is to ensure the safety of vessels and spectators in the vicinity of New York Harbor, before, during, and after the scheduled events are completed. The Coast Guard anticipates thousands of spectator crafts will attend the events. The proposed regulations would create temporary spectator areas, temporary participant staging areas, vessel movement control measures, and security zones around all U.S. Naval Vessels, and foreign naval vessels while anchored, transiting, and moored in various berths around the Port of New York and New Jersey. Additionally, these proposed regulations will temporarily suspend certain anchorage grounds. The proposed regulations would be enforced at various times between July 1, 2026, through July 9, 2026. Due to a high concentration of expected spectator vessels and the series of events, the Coast Guard Northeast District Commander (CGD-NE) and the COTP, have determined these regulations are necessary for the safety of Sail 4th 250 participants, INR 250 participants, spectator vessels, non-participant and non-spectator vessels operating in and around Port of New York and New Jersey, and life and property. While this rulemaking does not propose establishing any safety zones, it is important to note that after the Sail 4th 250 Tall Ship Parade of Sail, INR 250, IAR, and U.S. Navy Fleet Week events, we anticipate that numerous safety zones would be promulgated for fireworks displays occurring in the harbor through separate rulemaking projects or that safety zones would be enforced under our authorities in 33 CFR 165.160—Table 1. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-33/section-165.160.</E> </FTNT> The Coast Guard is proposing this rulemaking under authorities in 33 U.S.C. 2071; 46 U.S.C. 70006, 70034, 70041, 70051, 70124; 33 CFR 1.05-1, 6.04-1, 6.04-6, and 160.5; Department of Homeland Security Delegation No. 00170.1, Revision No. 01.4. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Discussion of the Rule</HD> Sail250® and INR 250 are international events that bring together tall ships and military vessels to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. Sail 4th 250 comprises the Sail250® events in the Port of New York and New Jersey. Additional information about Sail 4th 250 can be found at <E T="03">https://sail4th.org/.</E> INR 250, hosted by the U.S. Navy in the Port of New York and New Jersey concurrent with Sail 4th 250, will include a series of events to commemorate this historic occasion. Additional information about INR 250 can be found at <E T="03">https://www.navy.mil/Navy-250/Events/.</E> The regulations would be subject to enforcement upon the arrival of U.S. Naval Vessels, and foreign naval vessels at the Port of New York and New Jersey. These vessels would anchor in the Upper Bay and Hudson River on July 1, 2026, prior to the Sail 4th 250 Tall Ship Parade of Sail, INR 250, IAR, and Independence Day fireworks displays within the regulated areas established within Port of New York and New Jersey on July 4, 2026. Participating tall ships, U.S. Naval Vessels, and foreign naval vessels will be mooring and anchoring in various areas throughout the Port of New York and New Jersey until their departure on July 9, 2026. The Sail 4th 250 Tall Ship Parade of Sail, INR 250, IAR, and the Independence Day fireworks displays are expected to be extraordinary marine events, celebrating maritime heritage and honoring the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. These events will offer unique opportunities to witness impressive parades and celebrations on the water. The Coast Guard typically establishes special local regulations and spectator areas to ensure safer viewing during marine events, and as discussed in this document, this event is no exception. The Coast Guard has collaborated with port partners, area stakeholders, Sail250® and the U.S. Navy, and numerous federal, state, and local agencies, as well as law enforcement organizations, to develop and propose regulations that will support a safe and secure event. However, it is worth mentioning, due to the scale of the event, its heightened security posture, the anticipated crowd size, and limited spectator areas, viewing the Sail 4th 250 Tall Ship Parade of Sail, the INR 250, the IAR, and Independence Day fireworks displays from shore may provide a safer and more convenient alternative, particularly for smaller vessels or less experienced mariners. Mariners transiting the regulated areas to and from spectator areas should use extra caution, ensure proper watch and assess all risk factors. Large marine events present new challenges to safe navigation, but proper voyage planning and access to relevant information should ensure that safety is not compromised. In general, mariners transiting within the Port of New York and New Jersey during this event should make a careful assessment of all factors associated with their voyage. These factors at a minimum should include: (1) The operator's qualifications—which should include their level of experience, physical fitness, and alertness, ensuring they are well-rested and capable of safely operating the vessel. (2) The vessel's characteristics—which should include the following: appropriate size to safely accommodate passengers and equipment, sufficient maneuverability to navigate the crowded waterway, and sea-keeping ability to handle expected water and weather conditions. The vessel must be capable of remaining in a designated spectator area for extended periods. The vessel should be equipped with required essential safety gear, including U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets, functioning navigation li ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 73k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━