0.2 Eligibility & Sea Service Requirements

The Two Halves of Eligibility

Qualifying for an OUPV has two independent halves: who you are (age and citizenship) and what you have done on the water (sea service). You must satisfy both, and the sea-service half is where most applicants stumble — usually because they under-counted or under-documented their time.

Age and Citizenship

• You must be at least 18 years old on the date the credential is issued.
• You must be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident alien. Resident aliens qualify because the OUPV is a national (domestic) endorsement; certain higher officer endorsements demand citizenship, but the six-pack does not.

The Sea-Service Requirement

The core requirement is 360 days of sea service, governed by a critical recency rule:

At least 90 of the 360 days must fall within the past 7 years.

This 7-year window reflects current NMC policy (Policy Letter 02-25). Older study guides and even some school websites still say "90 days in the last 3 years" — that is the former standard and is now out of date. Rely on the 7-year figure.

For a Near Coastal OUPV there is a second layer: at least 90 of your days must be earned on near-coastal or ocean waters. If all of your time is inland, the Coast Guard will still issue a license — but it will be limited to Inland only. So two different 90-day tests can apply at once: 90 days recent (within 7 years) and, for near coastal, 90 days offshore.

What Counts as a "Day"

A creditable day on a vessel under 100 GRT is defined by hours underway, not hours aboard:

• A day = at least 4 hours underway within a single calendar day.
• You may claim a maximum of one day per calendar day, no matter how many trips or how many different boats you ran.
• Underway means not moored, anchored, or aground — it does not require the engine to be running, so time actively sailing counts.
• Time at the dock, on a mooring, or at anchor does not count.

Worked example — the 4-hour bar. Over three seasons you log: 140 full days guiding (each 6+ hours underway), 60 half-days of exactly 5 hours underway, and 40 short outings of only 2 hours. The 140 and the 60 each clear the 4-hour bar, so they count as 200 days. The 40 two-hour outings count for zero. You would still need 160 more qualifying days to reach 360 — a deflating surprise for anyone who assumed every trip counted.

Worked example — recency. You have 400 lifetime days, but only 70 fall within the last 7 years. You fail the recency test and must log 20 more recent days before applying, even though your lifetime total comfortably exceeds 360.

Small-Boat vs. Larger-Vessel Days

Not all sea time is logged the same way, and OUPV candidates draw from two pools:

• Small vessels (under 100 GRT). The 4-hour underway rule above applies. This is the pool most six-pack applicants build from — private boats, charter boats, and delivery trips — and it is documented on the CG-719S.
• Larger vessels or documented crew positions. Time served aboard larger, inspected, or documented vessels (for example, as crew on a ferry, tug, or commercial fishing boat) is generally credited as an 8-hour workday equals one day, and is documented by a company sea-service letter rather than a self-signed CG-719S.

Two practical points follow. First, any tonnage under 100 GRT counts equally toward the OUPV — you do not get "more" credit for a bigger boat, because the OUPV carries no tonnage rating (that matters only for a Master). Second, you may mix small-boat and larger-vessel days to reach 360, as long as each pool is documented on the correct form and the 90-day recency and, for near coastal, 90-day offshore tests are still met. Keep the two record types separate and clearly labeled so the evaluator can add them without guessing.

Documenting Your Time

Sea service must be proven on paper, not merely claimed:

• CG-719S, Small Vessel Sea Service form — the standard vehicle for six-pack time. It records each vessel (name, official/registration number, length, gross tonnage, propulsion) and the days served.
• Owner/operator certification. Time on someone else's boat must be certified by that vessel's owner or operator. Time on your own documented vessel you may self-certify, but the Coast Guard scrutinizes self-certified time closely and may ask for corroboration.
• A sea-service letter on company letterhead is accepted for time worked for an employer.

The practical lesson: keep a contemporaneous logbook with the date, vessel, and hours underway for every trip. Reconstructing years of outings from memory in the month before you apply is the single most common cause of an application stalling in the NMC's "Awaiting Information" queue.