Bear Islander is right in this matter. New Hampshire has a resiprocity statue that agrees to accept among other things such as drivers license, a legal safe boating certificate (legal as defined by the issuing state) from any other state. This is designed to allow for free movement and travel about the country as required by the constitution and more so to get the torista bucks. Now the fly in the ointment might be that someone moves say from Maine to New Hampshire. Once a resident they would have to comply with the law in effect at that time in New Hampshire.
The end result is that if you can buy a state issued safe boaters certificate in Nevada from a hot dog vendor then New Hampshire is bound to accept it as meeting their requirement when presented by a non resident visiting the state. When the certificate is obtained, today or 10 years ago is of no consideration.
The legal argument is bull to. You would have just as big a legal problem if your proctored coarse certificate was over 5 years old and you had not attended any refresher coarse. Believe me if you are negligent in the operation of your boat, the more training and experience you have will hurt your pocket more in a court settlement than your ignorance. A violation by a novice is a mistake. A violation by an experienced trained person is willful.
I for one have a certificate from New Hampshire and my home state of NJ. We have always had a 16 hour class and 100 question proctored test. Soon we will have boat operator listed on our drivers license. Then boating infractions will go against our drivers license. This will also require an operator of a power boat over 10 HP to be at least 17.
As Bear Islander said the simple answer is YES a legal Maine certificate must be recognized by NH.
|