OUPV logging questions and barriers questions

[ScubaRob]

First post but have spent time researching the forums before posting.

A little background...
1. I grew up with allot of lake time in north Texas on my Dad's and Grandad's boats, 15-20 foot bass and ski boats. I have a love for the water.
2. I have been a scuba instructor for 25 years and a dive master for 30.
3. I have also had a ton of kayaks, pontoon row boats, small electric powered boats on a private lake, and now own an 18' dive (SIB) boat
4.Working towards a larger craft but will only have maximum of 5-6 divers or 4-6 evening dinner cruisers

Issue:
1. I can conservatively track my time in power boats from age 16-21 with my grandfather (who has passed) and my father (who is in not great mental shape) and potentially log days. Unfortunately I don't have ID numbers of anyone to sign off as the owner/operator even though most of the time I was driving and crewing their boats.
2. I can go back through personal journals, adventure journals, blogs, and dive logs and pretty accurately track human powered boats (row, kayak, pontoon) on open lakes.
3. I can do the same with an electric propelled boat used on a private lake that did not require registration.

Question:
What can I log?
1. Boat operator from 16-21 without the reg numbers or owners available to sign?
2. Human powered vessels- is this a thing?
3. Motorized boat but without reg numbers?

As an avid outdoorsman, boater, diver, and future operator of something larger I'm interested in properly documenting 45 years of history on the water. In the past 6 years aloneI have been on the water 3-5 days a week about 9 months out of the year and the remaining 3 months an average of 4 days a month. In the past 18 months I have logged 95 days in just my new boat.

Any input is appreciated and I continue my journey to OUPV 6 pack.

Thanks in advanced!

[murofsresiurc]

I was in a similar situation although I was the owner of the boat many years ago and had no record of registration numbers that I could find. I ordered a Lexis Nexis background report on myself and guess what? It was in their records! Maybe you could do this for your father. Texas has a searchable database but I think it only goes back 20 years or so.

I believe you really need registration numbers for the form. Look up the USCG sea time form and its instructions.

[ScubaRob]

Yeah unless there is a known work around it looks like all that time is useless for documentation.
I looked at the form and did some more research and found what I think are the answers
https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/NMC/pdfs/professional_qualifications/crediting_sea_service.pdf

[ScubaRob]

A little more research looks like 5hp is the minimum motor to count.
Still need to see how to count the time when I was 16-21 and no reg numbers.

[CSY Man]

I think you have to document time on boats with minimum 5 tons volume. (Not displacement)
Also 4 hours per day to log Sea Time.
Open boats with no tonnage for renewals only if you are the owner.
The above from the top of my head, rules may have changed since I got my tickets.

[capt jgw]

The 5 gross tons thing is the minimum for a 50 Ton Master credential. For 25 Ton or OUPV I don't thing there is a minimum. Best advice I can give is call the NMC and ask them. They're usually very helpful and are the ones that have to say yes or no to your application. Back when I was teaching the Master Course I had a couple students with similar situations but don't know how they resolved them. We didn't handle the application process for them.

[sailingharry]

I have on occasion looked into getting my license. As a Naval Academy trained and qualified Surface Warfare Officer, I'm not terribly worried about the test. But the sea time is a real conundrum.
The good news is that from the best of my understanding there is very little requirement to actually document the days. You fill out a table with number of days for each month in the table. You don't need logs, you don't need any proof of those days. Obviously, from a moral standpoint, you need to be honest. But if you legitimately believe that you are out 3 to 5 days a week all summer long, you could put 15 or 20 days in each month all summer long for the last 5 years and meet the legal and moral intent of the form.
The 4-hour minimum is a serious impediment if you are being honest. I have done a lot of racing in my life, and very very frequently those days are just short of 4 hours. Even when doing distance cruising, many of our days are under 4 hours. Consider that at six knots 4 hours is a 24-mile day, we do many 15 Mile days.
I feel your pain for getting records from the past. I have crossed the Atlantic twice on a 98 ft sailboat, meeting some big hurdles for higher class licenses -- but I couldn't begin to find somebody to sign off on that. I have also sailed many thousands of miles on the family boat as a kid, but the documentation number is lost to time and my father has passed.
But I sort of lost interest in the effort. As challenging as it is to get the license, it is harder to keep it. The sea time requirements for renewal are more onerous then for the original license, and the administrative things like a TWIC card and a drug testing program made it hard to justify unless I was actually making money on the ticket.

[dfelsent]

I got my 50 ton and learned a lot on the process. Primarily colregs.
Maybe worth taking the class and in class test just for that. Nothing says you must apply once you pass.