Chuck is absolutely right.

I use my Boston Whaler on the Pacific Ocean about 70 days a year. I'm
coming up on
having had it for 8 years. That's 560 days. The engine has 725 hours. I
have maybe six days on the Pacific that
qualify towards a Captain's license.


wrote in message
ups.com...

Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 20:00:13 -0400, PocoLoco
wrote:

On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:19:58 GMT, Shortwave Sportfishing

wrote:

On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 17:08:08 -0400, PocoLoco
wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

I've a strong feeling there are a few folks right here in the group
who will
have a six pack license very soon now! (Or maybe they'll just *say*
they do!)

Is that a really bad thing though?

Even if you go to a school that teaches it's own test (which a lot of
these schools pretty much do), you still have to slog your way through
safety, regs, navigation (which in and of itself is a pretty valuable
education), signal recognition and you actually learn a lot even if it
is only to pass a test.

As to the experience thing, not everyone had a lot of experience and
at that, the OUPV is a qualifier of sorts as there are distance
qualifiers and the like. Around here, you see a lot of OUPV Captains
who has distance limits like 50 or 75miles, Inshore and you very
seldom see OUPV Captains with Near Shore qualifications.

I don't see the get your OUPV Captain's license schools as a bad thing
- I do see the under-qualified Master's as being a bad thing though.

That's one reason I downgraded mine because I really wasn't using it
and there really wasn't a reason for me to have it.

I disagree with using false pretenses to obtain recognition. That was
one of the
main reasons I didn't vote for Kerry.

For OUPV (Six Pack) license, it's 360 days of experience on any water
over any period of time with 90 of those days being within three years
plus passing a recognized school.

That's not hard to obtain even for the most casual boater.


Harder than you might imagine, if you hope to actually follow the
rules. You need to be *underway*, not just aboard, for a minimum of 4
hours. Motor out into the harbor for an hour, drop an anchor, shut down
the boat, fish all afternoon, motor back for an hour: zero time. Sit on
the boat in the marina or motor across the bay to the restuarant dock
for a cocktail? Zero time.

The lowest number of engine hours one could rack up and meet the
qualification would be 1440 hours - and only if the boat were never
operated for more or less than 4 hours. If you operate for 12 hours
straight, you can still only claim 1 day per 24/hour period. Most
people would need to operate 2000 engine hours plus; and for a lot of
pleasure boaters in short season climates we're talking about 20-25
years of operation to get 360 days of at least 4 hours underway
(legitimately).

I would personally be ashamed to "qualify" on the basis on a wink, a
nod, and a lie.