why is it NECESSARY?

[cproto]

I am curious if anyone really know why it is necessary to have a Captains licence to guide the delta.
Carlo

[JerryInLodi]

Carlo, I'm sure if you check the USCG regs for T Boat (passenger boats) requirements it will answer your question. I can't cite section number but know a section is there. Found this out from a private e-mail from Dan B.

The license, commonly called a "Six Pack" license, is actually an Operator of an Uninspected Passenger Vessel license, (OUPV). The license allows one to skipper an uninspected passenger vessel with a maximum of six passengers, hence, "six pack." Some tonnage restrictions are in effect as well.

What is equally interesting is that a "RESTRICTED" Operator of an Uninspected Passenger Vessel licence is also required of anyone operating a passenger vessel ABOVE the Capital Bridge in Sacramento on the Sacramento all the way to the weir in Red Bluff, the Feather all the way to Oroville, and the American all the way to Nimbus. That means that all of the river guides operating for salmon, drifting for shad, drifting for steelhead, working upriver stripers, sturgeon, bait and otherwise are ALL required to have USCG Restricted Operator of an Uninspected Passenger Vessel license. As far as I know, not a single one of these people possess such a license.

CORRECTION: I WAS CONTACTED BY ONE OF THE UPRIVER GUIDES. APPARENTLY AT LEAST A HALF DOZEN OF THE BOATS OPERATING FOR SALMON IN THE RED BLUFF AREA HAVE USCG LIMITED OUPV GUIDES.

Following Dan's advice and encouragement from guys like Mike McKenzie, I've passed three of the four sections and will take my final section about December 10th or so. If you'd like, I can post all of the hoops you have to jump through to get the license.

It's mostly memory work and most of it rather silly like knowing the bouyage system in the North Sea, steel ship construction, ships documents including crew lists, emergency stations, load watermarks on freighters, all of the names of the cables for barge pushing and towing, charting and tracking hurricanes, etc. Most of it completely useless in the delta.

In addition to the tests there's a lot of paper shuffling, physicals, ID verification etc.

90% of the above has NOTHING to do with operating a 22 foot center console with two fly fishermen aboard but it something that the federal government is involved with. Need I say more.

[Ed Wahl]

Hey Carl, what does your new pram look like? Got a pic? Ed

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I have heard that you need a captain's license (6 pack license?) from the US Coast Guard to be able to take people out for hire in a power boat in a navigable waterway that is open to the ocean.

[JerryInLodi]

Bill, the license comes in a variety of versions, inland only (inside the COLREGS area) or coastal (both coastal waters and within the COLREGS) in addition, one can have a below 5 tons or below 100 tons limitation. Then, there is the RESTRICTED OUPV license for operation above the Capitol Bridge in those navigable waters above that bridge.

As I said, much of the knowledge is questionable as to its application. For example, the practical charting questions I dealt with were for the Eastern Approaches to Long Island Sound.