Originally Posted by Drake322
Originally Posted by poorcountrypreacher


I missed being grandfathered in by a matter of days when they passed this nonsense. I drove to Montgomery and took an in-person test in order to get the certification so that I wouldn't be illegal on a trip I had planned. The test back then was hard and I remember that I had to study in order to pass it. I didn't know what some of those buoys in the gulf were about, as I had never operated a boat in salt water.

I have heard that they watered the test down since then, but I don't know if taking it in person and getting immediate certification is still an option, but you might check on it. I will say that I have never once had it checked in the 23 years since they required it.


Don't know how, but I got granfathered in when it became mandatory and I am 51. Never took the test. I think it has something to do with us in shop class years ago and the hunter education & boaters class we took.

Unless the law has changed, you do not have to show the V on your license if you pass the test. You will receive a cert number saying you passed. Just print out the paper and put in water tight bag/box. My wife did this when she passed hers and daughter too when she turned 14 for the jet ski use. They want their money no doubt.



I had never taken hunter education or the boating class. My birthday was less than a week too late to be grandfathered in on age. And I had none of those exemptions that Snuffy mentioned. Ironically, I had been certified to teach the hunter education and did teach several classes, but I never went through it as a student. There are some states that won't let me hunt there, but a moot point, as I don't wanna go there anyway.

But I do have the V on my driver's license now.

All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.