OUPV (Six-Pack) and Master credential paths for charter boats, tour boats, and passenger-for-hire operators in Kansas.
It isn't a state license — it's the same federal USCG Merchant Mariner Credential with an OUPV or Master endorsement, used nationwide.
Kansas is landlocked. Reservoir guide operations may pursue OUPV Inland for paid-charter compliance.
The nearest USCG Regional Examination Center is St. Louis, MO. Compare centers and appointment rules in the USCG REC locations guide.
Major Kansas charter hubs
Kansas gets a narrow answer and it is worth stating narrowly. The Missouri River clips the state's northeastern corner and is Western Rivers water under 33 CFR 83.03(n); nothing else in Kansas is classed that way here. Milford Lake and Wilson Lake sit on the Republican and the Saline, well up the Kansas River system, and while every drop of that eventually reaches the Mississippi, "eventually reaches" is not what 83.03(n) says — the reach a reservoir sits on is what the cognizant Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection rules on. Absent that ruling they are plain inland water under 83.03(q), with no Part 80 line anywhere in the state. For most Kansas applicants the underlying sea time was earned on salt water in another life, and the useful discipline is a record that names each water plainly enough that REC St. Louis never has to guess which regime it fell under.
33 CFR Part 80 draws no demarcation line in Kansas. Its 106 sections cover the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the Pacific islands and Alaska; a state with no coast has no section, which is itself the answer.
Western Rivers (the Missouri River) are defined at 33 CFR 83.03(n) and carry Inland Rules provisions the rest of inland water does not: 83.09(a)(ii), 83.14(d), 83.15(b) and the towing-light exception at 83.24(j).
This decides which rulebook you steer by, not where your credential may operate: the route limit is the 46 CFR Part 7 Boundary Line, and the two lines are not drawn in the same place. How the two lines differ · International Rules · Inland Rules
33 CFR Part 80 and the Part 83 definitions above read from eCFR on 12 Aug 2026. Any specific water is a determination for the cognizant Coast Guard Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection.
Not sure the trip needs a credential at all? The captain's-license trigger guide.
Document your sea service
Pass the medical & drug test
CG-719K and CG-719P — medical certificate guide.
Get a TWIC + CPR / First Aid
Submit your application to the NMC
Pass the exam at REC St. Louis, MO
Or an approved course provider — what it covers and the score you need.
There is no Kansas captain's license to get — you earn a federal USCG credential, in the five steps set out above, and sit the exam at REC St. Louis, MO.
The same — a federal Merchant Mariner Credential endorsement, valid in every state. Kansas licenses the business, the guide and local fishing separately.
The minimum age is federal, not set by Kansas: 18 for OUPV, 19 for most Master endorsements, 21 for higher-tonnage and ocean routes (46 CFR 11.201(e)).
At REC St. Louis, MO once the NMC approves the application, or through an approved course provider that administers the exam itself.
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