OUPV (Six-Pack) and Master credential paths for charter boats, tour boats, and passenger-for-hire operators in Utah.
It isn't a state license — it's the same federal USCG Merchant Mariner Credential with an OUPV or Master endorsement, used nationwide.
Utah reservoir guides on Lake Powell and Flaming Gorge pursue OUPV Inland. The nearest REC is Long Beach.
The nearest USCG Regional Examination Center is Long Beach, CA. Compare centers and appointment rules in the USCG REC locations guide.
Major Utah charter hubs
Every one of Utah's three charter waters crosses a state line. Lake Powell runs into Arizona, Flaming Gorge into Wyoming, Bear Lake into Idaho — and Powell and Flaming Gorge are Green and Colorado impoundments, so nothing here is in the Mississippi system and 33 CFR 83.03(n) Western Rivers reaches none of it. No Part 80 line is drawn in Utah, which leaves plain Inland Rules under 83.03(q). The interesting consequence is that the border is invisible to the credential and very visible to everything else: the same houseboat trip up Powell can begin in Utah and end in Arizona under one federal endorsement, while the guide licence, the sales tax and the launch permit change at a line the Rules of the Road do not recognise. Keep the sea-service record on the federal side of that distinction — water, vessel, tonnage, dates — and REC Long Beach can read it without the state detail at all.
33 CFR Part 80 draws no demarcation line in Utah. 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.
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.
Inspected small-passenger-vessel authority — that is a Master.
Master requirementsDocument 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 Long Beach, CA
Or an approved course provider — what it covers and the score you need.
There is no Utah captain's license to get — you earn a federal USCG credential, in the five steps set out above, and sit the exam at REC Long Beach, CA.
The same — a federal Merchant Mariner Credential endorsement, valid in every state. Utah licenses the business, the guide and local fishing separately.
The minimum age is federal, not set by Utah: 18 for OUPV, 19 for most Master endorsements, 21 for higher-tonnage and ocean routes (46 CFR 11.201(e)).
At REC Long Beach, CA once the NMC approves the application, or through an approved course provider that administers the exam itself.
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