Prerequisites
ASA 101 to 104 or equivalent sailing experience, and the lesson The Merchant Mariner Credential. The figures below are the usual minimums from 46 CFR Part 11 and Coast Guard guidance. The regulations, and the National Maritime Center's evaluation of your own record, are the final word.
Learning Objectives
- Explain why an ASA certificate is not a licence to carry passengers for hire, and what counts as a passenger for hire.
- Tell uninspected from inspected passenger vessels.
- Compare the OUPV (six-pack) licence with Master 25, 50 and 100 GRT, including sea time, age and route.
- Add the endorsements a sailing captain usually needs: sail, assistance towing.
- Plan the steps, the course and the paperwork for your first captain's licence.
- Avoid the mistakes that lead to illegal charters, fines and accidents.
ASA Certificates Versus a USCG Licence
An ASA certificate shows a sailing school has trained and assessed you to a standard. Charter companies accept ASA 104 or 114 to rent you a bareboat. It is a valuable record of skill, but it is not a government licence.
In the United States, carrying even one passenger for hire requires a US Coast Guard credential. Running paid trips on an ASA certificate alone is illegal. Fines can reach many thousands of dollars per day, the Coast Guard can stop the trip at sea, and your insurance almost certainly does not cover a commercial trip run without a licence.
What is a passenger for hire
The rules define a passenger for hire as a passenger for whom consideration is contributed, directly or indirectly. Consideration means any economic benefit, not just a ticket price:
- money paid to you or to the owner,
- sharing the cost of fuel, food or the mooring,
- a favour, a discount or other goods in return,
- payments to a third party, such as a club or a booking agent.
Friends who sail with you for free are not passengers for hire. Friends who chip in for fuel may be. The decision chart below shows the questions to ask.
Uninspected and Inspected Vessels
The licence you need depends on how many passengers you carry and on whether the vessel has been inspected by the Coast Guard.
Uninspected passenger vessels
A typical private yacht, sportfishing boat or small sailboat has never been through Coast Guard inspection. Under 100 GRT, it may carry no more than six passengers, at least one of them for hire. The master needs at least an OUPV licence: this is where the name six-pack comes from. (Crew are not passengers, and a vessel of US build can be a little different from a foreign-built one: see below.)
Inspected small passenger vessels
To carry more than six passengers, the vessel must be inspected and hold a Certificate of Inspection (COI). Small passenger vessels under 100 GT are inspected under the rules known as Subchapter T. The COI sets:
- the maximum number of passengers and crew,
- the route (for example, "Lakes, Bays and Sounds" or "Limited Coastwise"),
- the required lifesaving and fire equipment,
- the licence the master must hold.
The master of an inspected vessel needs a Master licence of the right tonnage and route, not an OUPV.
Windjammers and passenger schooners like the one below are inspected sailing vessels. Their captains hold Master licences with a sail endorsement.
Why inspection exists: the Lady D
On 6 March 2004 the Lady D, a small pontoon water taxi, capsized in a sudden squall in Baltimore's Inner Harbor with 25 people aboard. Five passengers died.
The National Transportation Safety Board found that the boat's passenger limit had been calculated with an average passenger weight of 140 pounds, far less than real American adults weighed. The Coast Guard later raised the assumed average weight used in stability calculations to 185 pounds, which lowered the passenger limits of many small vessels. The lesson for a new captain: the passenger number on a COI or your own judgement is about stability and survival, not a sales target.
The Six-Pack: OUPV
The Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels licence lets you carry up to six passengers for hire on uninspected vessels of less than 100 GRT.
| OUPV Inland | OUPV Near Coastal | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum age | 18 | 18 |
| Total sea service | 360 days | 360 days |
| Of which on ocean or near coastal waters | none needed | 90 days |
| Recent sea service | 90 days in the last 3 years | 90 days in the last 3 years |
| Route | Inland waters | Up to 100 nm offshore |
| Exam or approved course | Yes | Yes |
| First aid and CPR | Yes | Yes |
There is also a Great Lakes version, and in some cases a limited OUPV for a specific local area, such as a sailing school's own waters, with less sea time.
Master 25, 50 or 100 GRT
A Master licence lets you command inspected vessels, so you can carry more than six passengers, as well as uninspected ones.
| Master Inland | Master Near Coastal | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum age | 19 | 19 |
| Total sea service | 360 days | 720 days |
| Of which on ocean or near coastal waters | none needed | 360 days |
| Recent sea service | 90 days in the last 3 years | 90 days in the last 3 years |
| Exam or approved course | Yes | Yes |
The bar chart shows the four licences side by side. The extra near-coastal sea time is what takes most people longest.
Tonnage
Whether you get 25, 50 or 100 GRT depends mainly on the size of the vessels your sea time was on. Time on small sailboats often leads to a lower tonnage first. The tonnage can be raised later with more time on larger vessels. Keep the tonnage and length of each boat in your log.
Many people take both
A common path is a Master Inland licence with an OUPV Near Coastal endorsement: the Master licence lets you work on inspected boats in bays and harbours, and the OUPV lets you take six-pack charters offshore.
Endorsements a Sailing Captain Needs
Sail and auxiliary sail
To be master of a sailing vessel carrying passengers for hire you need a sail or auxiliary sail endorsement on top of OUPV or Master. It needs documented sea time on sailing vessels: this is where your ASA years count. Roughly, auxiliary sail needs about half the sail time of the full sail endorsement. Log which days were on sailboats.
Assistance towing
Towing a disabled recreational boat for hire, the work of commercial towing companies, needs an assistance towing endorsement and a short approved course. It does not let you tow barges.
Commercial assistance and others
Some sailing schools and clubs need nothing extra, but if you plan unusual work, such as towing water-skiers commercially or carrying passengers on a foreign-built vessel, check the specific rules.
Foreign-Built Boats and the Passenger Laws
Many cruising sailboats and catamarans in US charter fleets were built abroad. US law reserves carrying passengers between US places to US-built vessels with a coastwise endorsement. MARAD can grant a small vessel waiver to let a foreign-built boat carry up to 12 passengers on a coastwise endorsement. Without the right endorsement or waiver, even a properly licensed captain cannot legally run paid trips on that boat. Check before you buy a boat for chartering.
Bareboat Charters Are Not a Loophole
A genuine bareboat charter hands the whole boat to the charterer, who takes command and chooses the crew. The charterers are not passengers, so no licence is needed for the owner.
But if the owner supplies or requires a particular captain, or the deal does not meet the legal tests for a bareboat charter, the Coast Guard treats it as a passenger vessel trip: every rule in this lesson applies, and the owner and captain can both be fined. Uber-style "boat sharing" apps have produced many such illegal charters. If someone asks you to skipper a "bareboat charter" for paying guests, ask to see the licence that covers you.
The Usual Path to Your First Licence
- Log your sea time. Every day of four hours or more counts, as owner, crew or delivery skipper. Get CG-719S forms signed by owners each season.
- Choose your target: OUPV or Master; inland or near coastal; sail endorsement.
- Take an approved course. Private captain's schools run OUPV and Master courses, often over two or three weekends or online with an in-person exam. The course exams replace the Coast Guard exam. Typical modules:
- Rules of the Road (the Inland and International rules; the pass mark is high, often 90 percent),
- Deck General and Safety,
- Navigation General,
- Chart Plotting.
- First aid and CPR: current certificates from an approved provider.
- TWIC if needed, medical certificate and drug test, as in the previous lesson.
- Apply with form CG-719B to a Regional Exam Center.
- Join a drug-testing consortium before carrying passengers commercially. Employers, including you as an owner-operator, must be in a random drug-testing programme.
- Set up the business: commercial insurance, a written safety briefing, a passenger list, and the Coast Guard's required safety equipment for a vessel carrying passengers.
Running a Safe Six-Pack Trip
Once licensed, the rules follow you on every trip:
- Safety briefing before departure: lifejacket locations and use, emergency procedures, man overboard, fire, where the radio and flares are, and that passengers must obey the master.
- Lifejackets for every person aboard, of suitable sizes including children.
- Weather judgement: the Lady D capsized in a forecast squall line. Cancel or shorten trips when the weather is marginal. Your licence is for your judgement as much as your skills.
- Alcohol: a credentialed mariner operating a commercial vessel is held to a strict blood alcohol limit (0.04 percent), half the usual road limit. Stay sober.
- Reporting: marine casualties, such as groundings, injuries needing more than first aid and serious damage, must be reported to the Coast Guard, and drug and alcohol testing after a serious casualty is mandatory.
Worked Example
Maria has sailed for six years on her own 32-foot sloop on Chesapeake Bay and spent two summers on deliveries down the East Coast. Her log shows:
- 410 days of four hours or more, all as owner or crew,
- 70 of those days on ocean waters (the deliveries),
- 120 days in the last three years,
- all on sailing vessels between 6 and 15 GRT.
Which licences does she qualify for?
- OUPV Inland: 360 days needed. Yes.
- OUPV Near Coastal: needs 90 ocean or near coastal days; she has 70. Not yet: 20 more ocean days.
- Master Inland: 360 days needed, age 19. Yes, probably at a lower tonnage given her small boats.
- Master Near Coastal: 720 days needed, 360 offshore. No.
- Sail endorsement: all her days were on sailing vessels. Yes.
Maria applies for Master Inland with sail, and books a fall delivery to add 20 ocean days for an OUPV Near Coastal endorsement next year.
Common Mistakes
- Taking "gas money" without a licence. Shared costs can be consideration.
- Ignoring the sail endorsement and then being unable to captain a sailing charter.
- Buying a foreign-built boat to charter without checking the coastwise rules or a MARAD waiver.
- Skippering a fake bareboat charter arranged through an app.
- Overloading. The passenger number is set for stability, not profit.
- Forgetting the drug-testing programme after you get the licence.
Summary
- An ASA certificate is not a licence. Any passenger for hire needs a USCG credential.
- Consideration means any economic benefit, not just a ticket price.
- OUPV: up to six passengers on uninspected vessels, 360 days of sea time, age 18; near coastal needs 90 of them offshore.
- Master 25 to 100 GRT: inspected vessels, age 19, 360 days inland or 720 days near coastal with 360 offshore.
- A sail or auxiliary sail endorsement is needed to captain a sailing vessel with passengers.
- Foreign-built boats need the right endorsement or a MARAD waiver to carry passengers.
- Bareboat charters with an owner-supplied captain are passenger trips under the law.
Check Your Understanding
- Can you legally take paying guests on a day sail with only an ASA 104 certificate?
Answer: No. Any passenger for hire needs a USCG credential such as an OUPV.
- Your friends split the fuel and mooring costs of a weekend sail. Could they be passengers for hire?
Answer: Yes. Sharing costs can be consideration, which can make them passengers for hire.
- How many passengers may an uninspected passenger vessel carry?
Answer: No more than six, at least one of them for hire.
- What document sets the passenger limit and route of an inspected vessel?
Answer: Its Certificate of Inspection (COI).
- What is the minimum age for OUPV and for Master?
Answer: 18 for OUPV, 19 for Master.
- How much sea service does Master Near Coastal need?
Answer: 720 days, including 360 on ocean or near coastal waters, with 90 days in the last three years.
- What sets the tonnage on a Master licence?
Answer: Mainly the size of the vessels your sea time was on.
- What endorsement do you need to captain a sailing charter, and what sea time does it need?
Answer: A sail or auxiliary sail endorsement, which needs documented time on sailing vessels.
- Why did the Coast Guard raise the assumed average passenger weight after the Lady D capsize?
Answer: The old 140-pound figure gave passenger limits that were too high for real passengers, so boats were less stable than their limits suggested.
- An owner offers you a "bareboat charter" job, skippering paying guests on the owner's boat. Is it a bareboat charter?
Answer: No. If the owner supplies the captain it is a passenger-for-hire trip, and you need the right licence and vessel status.