"Dennis Pogson" wrote:

Please excuse my ignorance in posing this question. As a UK sailor of many
years experience in racing and cruising yachts, I am curious to know, since
the subject rarely turns up, whether our US cousins have a similar series of
qualifications to those administered in the UK by the Royal Yachting
Association (Yachmaster, at various levels).

I am not extolling the virtues of such "official"qualifications, indeed many
UK sailors think they are less than useful, just curious to know if such
training and examination facilities exist in the US, as the subject never
seems to be discussed in this NG.

Dennis.

There are at least 43 states that require a boat operator's license or
have similar requirements, but these are not federal requirements.
Canada also has requirements for boat operator licenses. In the US
the courses are usually run by the Coast Guard Auxiliary (volunteers
who are not actually part of the Coast Guard) or the Power Boat people
and requires the person (depending on the state) to have a certain
number of hours and pass some kind of multiple choice test. There are
on-line courses available in some states. These are obviously VERY
basic courses.

I'm not sure whether this is analogous to the Yachtmaster training -
it probably is not. Although the CGAux and the US Power Squadrons do
give additional courses beyond the basic Seamanship courses.