Capt. Licence

[Benchdog]

If you transport a boat for hire, do you need a Captain's License? If so, which license is it. OUPV ? Master ?

[Gary Bergman]

I'm a little confused, what do you mean by transport?..Haul it on a trailer, sail it, or what?....Then, which license depends on a few other issues; ship's build location, vessel's ability, or not, to pass inspections,which would be out of the oupv category. Even a 'six-pack' needs a licensed captain aboard, but not necessarily helming. Clarification, if you please.

[Benchdog]

To Clarify my question -

Transport a boat by sail - say 30ft - down the US East coast. For example - RI to Florida. No passengers. Just crew/help.

I'm not actually about to do this. This is just one of those questions that popped up in conversation, then I found out about some license courses that are local to me.
Thanks.

[Hwyl]

No. The insurance company might like some kind of licence.

RYA yachtmaster usually trumps all.

[sv Lorelei]

Legally, there is no requirement for a license as long as you're not chartering out your crew positions. If you have crew that are paying to make the trip then yes you should have at least a sixpack. From a practical standpoint you're more likely to get hired if you have some sort of paper qualifications.

[Gary Bergman]

My ins. requires a crew of three offshore, but I'm well over 30', and what they said; you can have as many guests as you like, no requirements, but any renumeration, as the CG says,(yep, even a bottle 'o rum) makes the need for a six-pack oupv.

[Benchdog]

Thank you for the answers.

I see that there is also a sea time requirement for a sixpack. How do you prove sea time? Is it only commercial time?

I have alot of coastal experience (Buzzard's Bay, Vineyard sound,etc.). I've sailed on and off for over 20 years and have put in a ton of time in the last 3. I've also worked in a few boat yards and driven various boats there. Looking at the requirements, I don't have the 90 days off shore.

[Bruce Hooke]

As I understand it, and I should say that I do not have a license and have never tried to get one, you just need logged sea time (in other words, you need to have a log that you can produce to document your sea time) in the waters where you wish to be licensed. It does not need to be commercial time.

If you do not have 90 days of offshore time it would seem to suggest that maybe you are not ready to be taking someone else's boat offshore. Maybe you could sign on as crew for some deliveries before you try to be the captain.

I should note that I am presuming when you talk about taking a boat down the east coast that you are talking about going offshore. My impression is that on most deliveries the idea is to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible consistent with prudent seamanship, and this is almost always means going offshore if the boat is capable of handling offshore conditions. It is amazing how much more ground you can cover if you sail in a straight line rather than following the coast and sail 24 hours a day.

[Hwyl]

The small vessel sea service form explains it all and is available here (https://homeport.uscg.mil/mycg/portal/ep/contentView.do?channelId=-23602&contentId=70456&programId=37939&programPage=%2Fep%2Fprogram%2Feditorial.jsp&pageTypeId=13489&contentType=EDITORIAL&BV_SessionID=@@@@0548057424.1190993466@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccccaddmdlljedmcfjgcfgfdffhdghj.0)

[Gary Bergman]

It's seven hundred and some odd hours, of which a percentage has to be within the last 90 days...one of my crew this summer was born on a boat, has tons of time, but it's back to 'documented' time. We sign off on all who do seatime with us. We also log in on a twenty four hour a day schedule, barring things like canal travel, and the CG allows 12 hour days for that. Otherwise, they consider a day to be eight hours. We were in Halifax in July, Quebec in August, Labor Day in Oswego, and we've been in Beaufort almost two weeks. That's a lot of sea time for the crew,eh?...