How each state rule is checked

Every page and every tool reads one state file, built from one record per jurisdiction. No cut-off date, horsepower or fee is typed into a page. The file was last built on October 24, 2026; it covers the 51 jurisdictions (50 states and DC). The rule of 49 states and DC is verified, that is, who needs the card was confirmed on an official sentence; it does not mean every field is known. Of the 510 values tracked (10 per jurisdiction), 301 are filled from an official sentence; the others are shown as "not confirmed" or do not apply (no horsepower threshold, no requirement). The file holds 353 quoted passages from official pages.

6 jurisdictions were read on archived copies of their official pages, because the agency site refuses automated reading: Arizona (April 7, 2026), Florida (February 8, 2026 and June 6, 2026), Idaho (January 25, 2026 and October 17, 2026), Nebraska (October 13, 2025 and January 9, 2026), Rhode Island (March 28, 2025) and Tennessee (September 14, 2026). Each copy is on web.archive.org and is dated by the day it was archived, not by the day we read it; the source list of the state page gives its address.

1. What we read

For each state and DC: the boating education page of the state agency (fish and wildlife, natural resources, parks or the state police, depending on the state), its boating handbook when it publishes one, and the statute or administrative rule when the agency page is unclear. Each value is stored with the address of the page and the exact sentence it was read in, so anyone can check it. Course vendors, insurers, law firms, news articles and other guide sites are never a source, however well they rank.

2. What is recorded

• whether a general education requirement exists, and whom it covers: everyone, people born on or after a date, or an age band;
• the power threshold (and whether "10 hp" means more than 10 or 10 and more), personal watercraft and sailboats;
• phase-in schedules, with the date each stage starts;
• the minimum age to operate alone, the exemptions, the rules for visitors and rentals;
• the name of the credential, the fee the state itself charges, its validity, and whether an online course or a proctored exam is allowed or required.

A value the official pages do not state stays empty and the site says "not confirmed". 1 jurisdictions are not verified yet (Arizona): the check answers "not verified yet" for them and points to the agency.

3. The free course

Whether the free online course of the BoatUS Foundation is approved in a state is read on the Foundation's state list, which marks each state approved, not approved or not available. We take no commission and the course page is linked as the free route only where it is approved. The Foundation marks the course "Free*": on some state pages it states a payment, collected at enrollment (for example in Texas, Pennsylvania and Washington), a state card to buy after the course (New York, Oregon) or an optional plastic card. Those amounts are read on each state page of the Foundation and shown with the free route.

4. How the check answers

The tool takes a state, a date of birth, a boat type, an engine power and the day of the outing. It first finds the rule in force that day: for a phase-in, the last stage that has started. Then it tests, in this order: whether the boat is covered (power above the threshold, PWC, sail length), whether the birth date is on or after the cut-off, whether an age band applies. The answer comes with its reason. Age is counted in whole years on the day of the outing, the birthday counting as the day itself. The cheapest route is the free course where it is approved plus the state fee, or, where the Foundation's state page says it collects a fee at enrollment or that the state card must be bought, that amount; where it is not, the price of a paid course is left to the provider and not guessed.

5. The practice test

The 47 general questions were written by us, each from a federal text in the public domain: the Inland Navigation Rules, the aids to navigation system, 33 CFR part 175 on life jackets and distress signals, 33 CFR part 173 on numbers and accident reports, 33 CFR part 183 on capacity and ventilation, 33 CFR part 95 on alcohol, 46 CFR part 25 on extinguishers and 46 U.S.C. 4312 on cut-off switches. 143 more are generated from the verified state records: cut-off date, power threshold, minimum age, free course, state fee. A test has 20 questions and marks a pass at 80%, a practice target: each approved course sets its own exam and pass mark.

6. Checks on every build

Every record must cite at least one official page and carry its reading date; the cut-off of a set of known cases (Texas, Florida, California, Minnesota) is tested against the rule; every question has four distinct options and an explanation in both languages. A script re-reads each official page and flags any quote that is no longer found, so a rule change is read again by a person.

7. What the site does not do

• It does not issue, replace or look up a card, and it is not a course.
• It does not cover commercial licenses (Coast Guard captain's credentials), registration fees or titling.
• It gives general information, not legal advice; the state agency has the last word.

Method version: 2026-10-24. A rule that looks wrong: contact.