Boaters’ License Course and Test: Why Getting Certified is Important

 

The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission offers excellent boaters’ license course and test. Course material includes Know Your Boat, Before Heading Out, Operating Your Boat, Legal Requirements, Boat Emergencies, and Enjoy Water Sports. Most states offer similar certification courses to promote safety on their waterways. These courses can be categorized into three stages – beginner or basic stage, intermediate stage and advanced stage.

 

The boaters’ license course and test is an excellent way to start a lifetime of boating and sailing. It’s also becoming mandatory in more and more states: in 2008 a proposal to create a driver’s license for boaters won an 11-0 vote in an Assembly committee in California. Boaters will be required to take a written test, based on a safety course available from the Department of Boating and Waterways.

 

In some parts of the country, recreational boaters must take and pass the boaters’ license course and test in order to operate recreational vessels, with the exception of personal watercraft such as jet skis. In Connecticut, if you intend to operate personal watercraft, you’ll also need to take an approved personal watercraft class. The certificates obtained from these classes must be kept on board once the watercraft is in operation.

 

Any boater thinking about carrying passengers for hire or starting their own charter business in the United States will need to take the boaters’ license course and test offered by the Coast Guard. Many states now require fishing charter operators to hold a Coast Guard license. The time to complete the process can reach six months in some parts of the country.

 

New Jersey recently passed legislation calling for certification after a three-year effort by the Marine Trades Association. Boating safety would be improved in New Jersey, they argued, if a strong standard, based on national review and research, were implemented.