USCG Captains License??...

[Tekk Diver]

Anyone happen to know the going rate (cost) for a USCG Captains license..let's say.. up to a 100ft. vessel.

And..where do you go to get licensed?

Appreciate any info/links...

 

[quimby]

http://www.uscg.mil/stcw/index.htm
http://www.dirauxwest.org/6PACNAVRULES.htm
http://www.seaschool.com/oupv.htm

Well I think you start from 6 pak to 100ton and then looking towards unlimited etc. But its not like PADI it requires experience and the testing progressive and serious.
Might also checkout Chapman's down in VeroBeach
www.chapman.org

 

[Don Burke]

Tekk Diver once bubbled... Anyone happen to know the going rate (cost) for a USCG Captains license..let's say.. up to a 100ft. vessel.

And..where do you go to get licensed?

Appreciate any info/links...

http://www.uscg.mil/stcw/index.htm

As of January 2003, evaluation, examination, and issuance was running $240-255, depending on class of license.

You pay for your own physical, drug test, fingerprints, and first aid and CPR courses.

There are several Regional Exam Centers and they have remote testing sites. Charleston is probably your closest REC and they probably have a remote testing site closer.

The license limits are based on Gross Registered Tonnage.

You can also take a course that walks you through the entire process including exams and you don't have to see much of the Coast Guard. That's probably the better part of an additional $1000.

 

[pipedope]

At the Maritime Academy.
A pretty good 4 year education and you get a license along with a diploma.

 

[Genesis]

that the USCG has gotten far more careful about captain's licenses of late.... 9-11 had a lot to do with that.

The other thing to be aware of is that you need experience in "tonnage" to get the ticket for "tonnage." You need sea time that you can document (your own vessel counts) to get the license, BUT, they will not issue you a ticket with authorization for grossly more tonnage than you have ever run before.

So you can't, for example, have a 20 foot runabout, log your time on it, and then expect to get a 100 ton ticket. It won't happen.

If you don't have your own boat of significant size, this is a problem, and the most reliable way to solve it is to work on a boat in a capacity that doesn't require you to actually hold a ticket.

The OUPV ("six pack") license, which gives you the right to run with six paying passengers on an uninspected vessel, is the "starting point" for commercial licenses. The 100 ton "near coastal" Masters, which is the next most common ticket that people want from there, requires double the sea time.

The exams are not trivial to pass, and you do need to pass a fingerprint, background check, and drug screen as well as a physical (the biggie there that will get you is color blindness; if you can't distinguish red and green reliably at night, you flunk!)

I would recommend looking into the Chapman's program if you're seriously interested, but you need to consider the sea time requirement and find a way to fill it first.

BTW, in USCG parlance, a "day" of sea time is 4 or more contiguous hours away from the dock. So 2 hours of fishing in your boat does not count, but 6 hours does. Also, there are "recency" requirements (some of the time has to be relatively recent) although the total time is a lifetime requirement - provided you can document it somehow. Acceptance of claimed time is largely at the USCG's discretion, and for the 100 Ton Masters they are MUCH more rigorous about it than for the OUPV.

The easiest path is probably to GET the OUPV, work it for a few years, then go back for the 100 Ton Masters with the additional sea time you logged under the OUPV ticket - and keep a log.

 

[Don Burke]

Genesis once bubbled... BTW, in USCG parlance, a "day" of sea time is 4 or more contiguous hours away from the dock. So 2 hours of fishing in your boat does not count, but 6 hours does. Also, there are "recency" requirements (some of the time has to be relatively recent) although the total time is a lifetime requirement - provided you can document it somehow. Acceptance of claimed time is largely at the USCG's discretion, and for the 100 Ton Masters they are MUCH more rigorous about it than for the OUPV.

The easiest path is probably to GET the OUPV, work it for a few years, then go back for the 100 Ton Masters with the additional sea time you logged under the OUPV ticket - and keep a log.

I seem to recall eight hours being considered a day.

It is 360 days for the OUPV and 720 days for 100 ton.

Recency means that 90 days of service must be within the last three years.

Note that the clock starts over once you get a license. My submarine time was not allowed by the REC in Balitmore, so I had to go for a OUPV. Now that I have a license, all the time before the issue date is not allowed. The only exception I found relates to the sailing endorsement. With the weather and scheduling, I'll be hard pressed to accumulate 720 days in less than five years.

 

[Genesis]

Its 4 hours "underway" in any calendar day to count.

"Underway" means time not made fast to a dock, shore, or ground (e.g. anchoring out is not "underway".)

The best way to document sea time is to have a vessel log. For the OUPV and Masters, they ask you to document it on a form you fill out. For your own vessel, you must own it (and they do check.) For another vessel, you must have the signature of the owner attesting that you really did the time.

All sea time from your 15th birthday forward counts.

Note that if you are asking for a license allowing offshore (seaward of the COLREGs demarcation line) you must have sea time that includes offshore operation. If you do not, your license will likely be endorsed for inland operation (landward of the COLREG demarcation line) only.

360 days lifetime isn't really all that many, but it IS a significant amount of experience, and lying on the form can get you 5 years in the slammer if you get caught.

 

[Don Burke]

Genesis once bubbled... Its 4 hours "underway" in any calendar day to count.

"Underway" means time not made fast to a dock, shore, or ground (e.g. anchoring out is not "underway".)

The best way to document sea time is to have a vessel log. For the OUPV and Masters, they ask you to document it on a form you fill out. For your own vessel, you must own it (and they do check.) For another vessel, you must have the signature of the owner attesting that you really did the time.

All sea time from your 15th birthday forward counts.

Note that if you are asking for a license allowing offshore (seaward of the COLREGs demarcation line) you must have sea time that includes offshore operation. If you do not, your license will likely be endorsed for inland operation (landward of the COLREG demarcation line) only.

360 days lifetime isn't really all that many, but it IS a significant amount of experience, and lying on the form can get you 5 years in the slammer if you get caught.

Here's some stuff from 46CFR10.103, named " Definitions of terms used in this part."

"Day means, for the purpose of complying with the service
requirements of this part, eight hours of watchstanding or day-working not to include overtime. On vessels where a 12 hour working day is authorized and practiced, such as on a six-on, six-off watch schedule, each work day may be creditable as one and one half days of service. On vessels of less than 100 gross tons, a day is considered as eight hours unless the Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection determines that the vessel's operating schedule makes this criteria inappropriate, in no case will this period be less than four hours."

Based on my face-to-face discussions with the people at the REC in Baltimore, I've come to the conclusion that getting a period less than eight hours declared as a day would be very tough these days.

There's no mention of being underway in this definition, but for every grade of license the regs specify "days underway service."

For each grade of license, there is an amount of ocean time you need for the ocean endorsement and an amount of Great Lakes time you need for the Great Lakes endorsement.

 

[Genesis]

The definition of "day" depends on what context you're using.

For the purpose of applying for the OUPV or 100 Ton Master, if you currently hold NO license, then it is as stated, with the proviso that you can't count more than one day in a 24 hour period (that is, if you have a three-watch rotation, on two and off one in a 24 hour day, you can't credit TWO days for one CALENDAR day.

The "time and a half" log rules and such apply to other circumstances.

(For instance, I can't "cheat" by going out for 4 or 8 hours, come back to the dock, tie up, and go back out overnight and claim "two days" of sea time in one 24 hour period, even though you definitely COULD do this by the clock.)

The rules you're talking about mostly deal with standing watch and serving your time on a merchant marine ship, where indeed those are the rules. For a private vessel (e.g. yours), where you are logging the time on your own boat, it doesn't work the same way. There are OTHER rules if some of your time is on a Navy ship (specifically, they only count 2 for 3 previously) and from what I understand that was changed sometime in '02 and now NO time on a Navy vessel counts!

Note that they don't FORCE you to produce a log; if you claim the 360 days for a OUPV and have owned the boat for five years, you might well get away with it even if you really haven't done the time. However, they CAN challenge your claim, and lying is a serious federal offense..... if you try something completely implausable you will likely get stomped/caught.

Talk to the various "sea school" folks - every one I've talked to said that the rule is 4 days actually underway makes for a day in the USCG's rule book on this for a personally owned vessel that you're using to log the time.

BTW, the toughest part of the exam is the Rules section. Passing is 90%!

 

[Don Burke]

Genesis once bubbled... The definition of "day" depends on what context you're using.

...and this is the correct context.

Genesis once bubbled... For the purpose of applying for the OUPV or 100 Ton Master, if you currently hold NO license, then it is as stated, with the proviso that you can't count more than one day in a 24 hour period (that is, if you have a three-watch rotation, on two and off one in a 24 hour day, you can't credit TWO days for one CALENDAR day.

I'd be very interested in seeing where the definition of a day is different for OUPV.

Title 46 is online and I'd like to see the applicable section quoted.

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html

Genesis once bubbled... The rules you're talking about mostly deal with standing watch and serving your time on a merchant marine ship, where indeed those are the rules. For a private vessel (e.g. yours), where you are logging the time on your own boat, it doesn't work the same way. There are OTHER rules if some of your time is on a Navy ship (specifically, they only count 2 for 3 previously) and from what I understand that was changed sometime in '02 and now NO time on a Navy vessel counts!

Actually, the only change from big guys to little guys is how big the vessel needs to be and how many days you need.

Genesis once bubbled... Note that they don't FORCE you to produce a log; if you claim the 360 days for a OUPV and have owned the boat for five years, you might well get away with it even if you really haven't done the time. However, they CAN challenge your claim, and lying is a serious federal offense..... if you try something completely implausable you will likely get stomped/caught.

Everything I got credit for was documented on a CG-719S.

Genesis once bubbled... Talk to the various "sea school" folks - every one I've talked to said that the rule is 4 days actually underway makes for a day in the USCG's rule book on this for a personally owned vessel that you're using to log the time.

I spent a couple of months dealing with the people from a couple of those schools. It took me over two months to untangle the misinformation. I had to go to Baltimore twice before I had everything straight.

Genesis once bubbled... BTW, the toughest part of the exam is the Rules section. Passing is 90%!

I bought Charlie Wing's course and beat the Rules of the Road portion to death. It sure helped as I aced that part of the exam.