Boat Captain question...

[Seaservice]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MN

I could not access the "Admiralty Law" area to submit my issue, so hopefully someone will see my question here. I am a 15+ year boat operator with a U.S.C.G. issued Captain's license for up to 100 ton vessels. My license expired June 9th, 2009 and I did not think it was that soon (5 years goes by fast). I operated a Pilot boat several times (my job), bringing a maritime Pilot out to a ship. The U.S.C.G. rules state you must have a licensed operator on board when operating a boat "For Hire". I did have a licensed Captain aboard (the Pilot) when doing the work. I am meeting with the local U.S.C.G. Marine Safety Unit to discuss my inadvertently operating the boat with an expired license. Yes, my license was technically expired a few days past it's 5 year expiration date, but I did have a licensed Captain on board the vessel while operating 'for hire'. They have told me I could expect to receive a $5,000.00 fine for operate 'after expiration' -- which I seriously cannot afford. I did nothing wrong otherwise. No type of incident, accident, operating under the influence, operating dangerously or such happened. Didn't I meet the letter of the law by having another licensed Captain aboard?

[Zigner]

Was the licensed captain operating the boat?

I mean, per YOUR spin on the regulations, *I* (with my 19.5 minutes of 8-foot motorboat experience) could have operated the boat so long as a licensed captain was somewhere -anywhere- on the boat.

Originally Posted by Seaservice

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MN

I could not access the "Admiralty Law" area to submit my issue, so hopefully someone will see my question here. I am a 15+ year boat operator with a U.S.C.G. issued Captain's license for up to 100 ton vessels. My license expired June 9th, 2009 and I did not think it was that soon (5 years goes by fast). I operated a Pilot boat several times (my job), bringing a maritime Pilot out to a ship. The U.S.C.G. rules state you must have a licensed operator on board when operating a boat "For Hire". I did have a licensed Captain aboard (the Pilot) when doing the work. I am meeting with the local U.S.C.G. Marine Safety Unit to discuss my inadvertently operating the boat with an expired license. Yes, my license was technically expired a few days past it's 5 year expiration date, but I did have a licensed Captain on board the vessel while operating 'for hire'. They have told me I could expect to receive a $5,000.00 fine for operate 'after expiration' -- which I seriously cannot afford. I did nothing wrong otherwise. No type of incident, accident, operating under the influence, operating dangerously or such happened. Didn't I meet the letter of the law by having another licensed Captain aboard?

[Stevef]

Originally Posted by Seaservice

I operated a Pilot boat several times (my job), bringing a maritime Pilot out to a ship.

Unless you dropped anchor when the pilot got off your boat and waited for him/her to swim back to your boat, I suspect YOU were operating the boat for hire without another captain aboard for at least some period of time.