Argh! Canada Licenses

[Amgine]

I'm getting frustrated with the Canadian Coast Guard websites, looking for what I thought was relatively simple information: what is the minimal commercial master's license? In the USA this is the Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels, the OPUV more commonly known as the "six-pack".

Anyone have any suggestions as to where to find information about training and licensure for Canadian boats?

[Capct]

Originally Posted by Amgine

I'm getting frustrated with the Canadian Coast Guard websites, looking for what I thought was relatively simple information: what is the minimal commercial master's license? In the USA this is the Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels, the OPUV more commonly known as the "six-pack".

Anyone have any suggestions as to where to find information about training and licensure for Canadian boats?

The CCG doesnt register boats....try Transport Canada.If that fails there is a federal building in North Van on Esplanade...just down from the mosquito creek marina.Where you can actually register your boat.I think its a Transport Canada office.Insurance on boats is not mandetory in BC but most marinas require it for liability at least a milllion public liability
AS for training if you were born after 1983 you need a POC [pleasure boaters operating card]
If you were born before 1983 you have until 2009 to obtain one.
I hope that helps a bit

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by Amgine

I'm getting frustrated with the Canadian Coast Guard websites, looking for what I thought was relatively simple information: what is the minimal commercial master's license? In the USA this is the Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels, the OPUV more commonly known as the "six-pack".

Anyone have any suggestions as to where to find information about training and licensure for Canadian boats?

Commercial certification of mariners was/is/and always shall be the responsibility of Transport Canada. Up until 1995 Coast Guard was part of Transport Canada and the roles of Commercial steamship inspectors were within Coast Guard. When the fleet and programs of CCG were merged with those of Fisheries and Oceans in 1995 almost all the regulatory programs such as Steamship Inspectors, ships registry, commercial certifications etc. stayed with TC. Two years ago the remaining regulatory programs of "boating safety" and "navigable waterways development" were returned to TC.

The Marine Services Online portal is your "one stop shop" for all things marine. Here's the link to the commercial mariners info page.

Marine Services On-line

Amongst the million other duties I have one is the maintenance of the CCG web site and I agree it is a POS. There has been no investment in it's development or improvement in at least 7 years, the last time I was the webmaster. When the organization is under pressure to find money for fuel and uniforms it's hard to justify spending 10's of thousands of $$$ on web sites. It doesn't look good but what can you do with out resources. I stopped working miracles a long time ago.

Licensing of boats and registration of commercial vessels are two different things. You'll find the info you need on the MSO portal.

Rick

[Lodesman]

Amgine,

The minimal commercial Master license is the Master, Limited - see here: http://www.tc.gc.ca/MarineSafety/TP/...CHAPTER-15.pdf

It's not so much a general license, as a permit for a particular operation. You can probably gather that from the myriad sub-categories defined in chap 15.

Kevin

[Amgine]

I should probably have asked here in the first place, as I knew some of you are well-connected with CCG...

Some excellent links, and I'm working my way through some of it now! (Am doing research on a novella starring a Queenship Passagemaker 60, and I need to know what would be required of a skipper of one of these boats if used for dinner cruises in English Bay where guests can be murder, murders investigated, and romances thrive under the microscope of cheesy paperback authors...)

[wayzer]

In Canada there is a Small Craft Masters Ticket that lets you operate vessels under 65 feet, 40 tons and less than 12 passengers.

[Brent Swain]

What the new licensing system is saying is that someone who has just arrived from a non stop trip from Europe via Cape horn is less qualified than someone who has never set foot on a boat, but has answered questions properly on a sheet of paper in a classroom. Duhhh!
It also says that equivalent proof of competency is accepted. Does 9 singlehanded Pacific crossings count more that a question and answer session in a classroom. It would be an interesting court challenge.
Any legal opinions?
Brent

[rsn48]

Louis don't sweat the unimportant stuff, we have as many idiots on the water as you probably do where you are from. The competency idea is a good one but it doesn't go far enough. I took a challenge exam and I felt my dog could have taken the exam and had a resonable chance of passing. I took the challenge exam after 15 years of being away from the water and I believe my score was 95%. The challenge exam was administered at our local equivelent of the State fair. I had done no prep work for the exam and hadn't looked at a book for years.

I support the basic idea but feel it should be toughened up and there should be two levels 1) Great Lakes and Ocean licensing and 2) a fresh water license. Needless to say, the guy water skiing on a smaller lake doesn't need to know what the other guy living in Nanaiom BC, taking his boat out into the great salt chuck with international shipping all around; this chap faces more challenging navigation requiring a greater water sense.

A new person to Canada has 45 days to obtain the boater's license. We are also required to have a VHF license, now also demonstrating we were trained in "DSC."

All these rules sound great but in all the boating I have done in the past two years (I must confess somewhat limited due to my hip replacement one year ago on 18 May), I haven't seen one coast guard boat, RCMP boat or Vancouver Cop boat in areas I have cruised. And I know the new requirement isn't been taken seriously. My son was hired by a company last year for his university summer employment, part of the job required running a power boat, they didn't even ask if he had a boater's license.

My son who is 20, under present rules, can't even run our Walker Bay dingy with Rib and 3.3 Merc legally. This may seem harsh but in Vancouver more is done on boats than in many areas in Canada. Our famour International fireworks displays in the summer are watched from hundreds and hundreds of boats. One year I was looking at a guy's boat and something struck me as odd, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It dawned on me that he had installed his red Port light and green Starboard lights backwards - green on the red side, etc - which meant they were focused towards the stern of the boat instead of forward. When I talked to him from the boat I was on, he couldn't figure out why I felt his navigational light problem was an issue at all; he pulled away thinking I was an idiot.

I'm all for increasing the requiremens of the exam, creating more levels, and increasing the support - budget, manpower, vessels, stations, and arming - of the Canadian Coast Guard. I always say: "If you have a law, but you don't have the police, then you don't have a law."

[Pblais]

The competency idea is a good one but it doesn't go far enough. I took a challenge exam and I felt my dog could have taken the exam and had a reasonable chance of passing.

All certification exams are for "minimal" certification. Won't you just feel great if you know that everyone on the water is minimally certified? It's been added here in Virginia. I have some time before I have to be certified. Some times it is the least that can be done so this is it. They even have a web site you can take the course and be tested. You only pay for it after you pass.

Rules of the road, fundamental stupidity, and capacity plates are the bulk of the course. The leading problems are overloaded small power boats with gasoline. Add enough alcohol and you pretty much have a disaster. They really do want to cut down on those fatalities.