Boat Rentals and safety courses

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Originally Posted by Misty Blue

"Got a call from MP last year to assist a jet ski on the rocks at Stonedam I.

When I got there the PWC operator who had just (an hour before) received his temporary permit seemed a bit underqualified. He was Japanese, spoke no english, did not know where he was or who or where he rented the jet ski from.

I guess that if you throw enough yen at an "authroized agent" you get the boat.

Misty Blue.

Misty Blue raises an interesting point. There is no legal requirement that a rental agent check or verify for a certificate before renting a boat. Logistically it would probably be prohibitive for a variety of reasons to allow every rental agent access to the State data bases to verify certificates or check for suspensions. Furthermore, the person that rents the vessel is not necessarily the operator.....Granny may be using her credit card to rent that jet-ski for little grandson Kenny on his 18th birthday....the rental agent really has no control over who is operating once the boat leaves the dock.

And then there are the (hopefully few) unscrupulous dealers that could easily grant the 14 day permit to someone not yet quite ready for prime time.

That said, the while the issuing dealer or rental agent has little criminal code liabilites to worry about here (except for falsifying permits) he always has a significant civil liability exposure!

[Belkin]

Of course the car rental agencies seem to have no trouble checking everyone's drivers license. Did you ever try to rent a car without a license? You are supposed to keep your certificate with you at all times while boating, so showing it to the rental agency (or obtaining a temporary certificate) should be no problem.