Boat Crashes and Licensing

I hold a US 1600T Oceans, with endorsements for MCA 3000T Oceans, Jamaica 3000T Oceans, and Marshall Islands 3000T Oceans. The only time I've ever had to show I can drive a boat was for a Fast Rescue Boat certificate; I had to retrieve a coconut with a RIB from a pond!

How did the coconut fare?

That wasn't my problem. Handed it over to the First Aid/CPR class and went for a rip around the pond!

I do like the states requiring now a minimum licensing. Beyond that, I have a couple of thoughts. The only real effective licensing on the average recreational boater is the insurance industry. I do think insurance should be mandatory. Then the insurer takes the risk and they manage. As it is now, they're the ones preventing someone from starting out in a 70' boat with no experience.

I also think far more needs to be done about operating under the influence as well as other unsafe operation. So many of those boats you're complaining about have operators who are drinking. But then we're one of the few countries that doesn't take driving a car under the influence seriously.

This is an interesting subject. On its face, the notion of licenses sounds great. But then I factor in the reality that even with a license requirement they have to make it so easy any idiot can pass. Then you get to the enforcement part. Do we want water cops stopping us to check for a license? Maybe we should, I don;t know. Do you only get checked if you are boarded for something else? Maybe we have mandatory safety inspections with a license check and they put a sticker on the boat to identify you are licensed and inspected?
And then there is the reality that there are far far more accidents and injuries in small craft and jet skis then on yachts.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of licensing. I would even be willing to spend the money and time for a mandatory class. It just needs to be effective and work to resolve the issue. My concern is it will not solve the problem. Hope to be proven wrong.

But law enforcement has to see him do that and all the licensing in the world doesn't accomplish that. You have so little law enforcement on the water compared to the huge area they have to cover. If an LEO observes they can ticket but the odds of them observing are extremely slim.

While ever automobile driver says "Oh I never speed. I don't know what got into me" when they're stopped, the reality is they do it all the time, just got caught once. We don't catch 1% of the violators on the road. The odds of catching more than 0.1% on the water are slim. You'd need 50 times as many agents as we have. You can't yank a license if no one catches him and you don't count, must be law enforcement.

I'm surprised that there aren't more boating accidents. I overlook a waterway called the "crossroads" where the ICW/St. Lucie Inlet/St. Lucie River intersect and on nice weekends it is a maelstrom of center consoles, pontoon boats, jetskis and other craft playing dodgem cars at 25 knots. I have yet to see a collision here, although a small powerboat rammed into a channel marker nearby at speed in an accident that killed two people including an infant and the driver's wife. The boat driver has just been charged with murder I believe.

We've had similar discussions in the past. Common sense should be mandatory equipment...

https://www.yachtforums.com/threads/a-good-case-for-mandatory-licensing.29730/

https://www.yachtforums.com/threads/license-requirements.16080/#post-126774

For decades I've been calling for state (NOT federal) boating licenses. The test should be one question: "Have you taken a basic boating course?" Insurance companies should require proof of experience (and maybe it needs to be through law) as boaters move up in footage, tonnage and speed. Right now they generally will when boats get over about 50', but a guy can buy a 35' boat that'll do 70mph and all he needs is enough money.
Boat owners also need to get educated. Like Ken, in 30 years as a captain I've only been asked to show my license when I did commercial work. Personally I'd never hire a captain on his 1st issue. I've met too many 1st issue captains whose only qualifications were that they had a 26' boat registered in their name and were good at taking tests..

One impression some are attempting to give is that this is somehow a new and worse problem. You've had this since the beginning of time. You may have more fast boaters, but at one time you had more boaters without any equipment, more running at night without lights. I've seen this on a thirty mile lake stretch with three game wardens on a weekend day and they still could only see a small portion of the dangerous activity. I've seen a bass boat cross there at night at 60 mph with no lights. No LEO on duty then to see it. We still have, as we always have, the man who heads out to the Gulf in his jon boat or small skiff with his two kids.

Most states now have some form of licensing. I am sure it's helped in some way, but it won't solve the problem anymore than it has on the roads. Most of them require an online boating course. They don't require any on water proof as there are no people to administer such and no one wants the cost, plus who can't drive ok one time for a test.

We have all the laws needed except one requiring insurance, but we don't have the enforcement. Are you willing to increase your taxes to have ten times the LEO's on the water?

Why not licensing based on minimum written standards, and either annual or bi-annual mandatory online course work that features practical safety, navigation and handling issues and examples. Education works, corporations do it all the time for ethics and it makes a difference. Tie the registration to the license as well as insurance. Low cost and a lot easier to implement than policing every lake, river and coastal body of water.