Lauren and I brainstormed for weeks on creative ways we could get this article out there as a Father’s Day gift for our dad. We thought of different boating magazines and websites and ultimately came to the conclusion that posting this to Powerboatnation would be the only thing that would make sense.

We first want to give a huge thank you to all of the PBN staff for keeping this a secret and letting us do this for our dad on such a special day.

Father’s Day is a day when children typically honor their fathers with gifts or cards, but for any of you that truly know our dad he is certainly not the easiest person to shop for nor do gifts really make him happy. So this year we chose to do something different. Instead of doing the typical cards that say “Happy Father’s Day Dad! Thanks for being the greatest dad ever!” We decided to do this because our dad is so much more than just a card on fathers day, or a text to wish him happiness on a “special day,” or a night out at dinner to “celebrate” him being a great dad. We feel this every single day.

Growing up, our childhood was like no other. From jet skiing in Guam, to rollerblading the boardwalk in Redondo beach to rainy days sitting at Starbucks with a hot chocolate and cookies doing homework after school, getting to snorkel and dive every weekend in the Virgin Islands, getting to go to summer camp in St. John, surfing (or should we say being forced to surf) in Puerto Rico. Even though we cried while putting surf wax on our boards our dad told us to get out there. And of course our sailing lessons which were probably regretted afterwards because we ran the sailboat into the mangroves. With all of these great things came some flaws that we (unfortunately/fortunately) inherited from our parents, growing up we noticed it was something that happened to our dad/mom quite often. We are both givers who are loyal to the people we love and care for, even when you give us a reason not too, as our parents always were/are. We are strong believers in that you are a product of your environment and how you are raised has a HUGE impact on the people we grow up to be. We happen to be lucky that we were raised in an environment with loving and supportive parents.

There are people who look at our dad and see someone who goes on “vacations” all the time and goes to these boating events for “fun.” When we look at our dad we see someone who works his ASS off, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for as long as we can remember. Our father is someone who is not satisfied with a simple work week. Another flaw we have inherited. We always joke about never being able to be a stay at home moms because we are not satisfied with sitting at home or working the minimum. We always laugh when people tell us how tired they are when they have no idea what tired actually is, watching our fathers work ethic has shown us the meaning of tired. Some may say that it is a choice, that you CHOOSE to work as much as you do and it is true it is a CHOICE. We believe it also determines your DRIVE, your PASSION, your WANT to do BETTER, to be BETTER, to not be satisfied with simplicity and settle. Our dad has taught us people may always look for the “easy” way out. Some get lucky and it works for them but most of the time it does not. We may have to work hard and do things the right way and it may take awhile but it will always work out and will speak volumes of your character. With that being said, we have also learned that you can always do the right thing, be a good person, be a good friend, but at the end of the day there will still be people that are unhappy with their own lives and try to bring you down,but as our dad has taught us you cant let them. “You can be the ripest juiciest peach, and there will still be people who HATE peaches.”-Dita Von Teese.

We could write a novel on how wonderful and great our dad is and we know how much you all would love to continue reading about our dad but we wanted to list a few things that have resonated with us both over the years that our father has taught us;

-Just because you are wealthy does NOT mean you are rich in life.
-There is a difference between a job and a career.
-There will always be fair-weather friends-Friends that are in your life when the weather is good and will leave when the weather is bad.
-Blood makes you related-LOYALTY makes you family.
-Work smart, NOT hard.

To our intelligent, hard working and amazing dad. We love you so incredibly much and are thankful for you and the life you have given us. And of course our dad would not be the person he is today without the unconditional love and support from our beautiful mother. We are blessed to have been raised by such amazing people.

We also want to wish a Happy Father’s Day to all of the PBN members and staff…as our dad would say keep L-I-V-I-N!

Love you always,
Carra & Lauren

“The door of yesterday is closed forever with the prospect of what today brings going to the top of the list because tomorrow is not guaranteed to come, live and love today like it is your last.” –Brad Schoenwald

Recently I assisted in yet another legal review following an accident involving serious injury to a passenger on a Center Console.  The consequences will be with some of the involved parties for the remainder of their lives, and some of the people aboard one of the boats will likely just forget about all of it and move on.

Illegal charterboat Operations have been going on for years, and in many cases the US Coast Guard has known about it. But due to limited resources, little to no consequences of outcome, and optics they have not actively pursued operations to crack down on illegal charterboat operations.

In areas like Miami these operations are everywhere, and often the operators don’t even know what they are offering is illegal. And if they do they know, they have a good chance of getting away with it because if they are caught the consequences are minimal.  Craigslist and vacation brokers have many charter options, and most are illegal.

The Basics:  If you own a boat and charge any type of consideration for carriage aboard the boat you must, at minimum, have a Uninspected Passenger Vessel Operators (UPV)  license commonly refereed to as a 6-pack, and operate the boat as a Uninspected Passenger Vessel complying with the provisions of 46 CFR Subchapter C. If you wish to carry more than 6 persons you have to complete a Certificate of Inspection process that usually begins with reviewing all of the boats plans to prescriptive standards before the boat is built.

Since the US Coast Guard has allowed third party private schools to offer licenses, for some who offer guarantees of completion to obtain a Coast Guard license, the knowledge, skill, and competency of the license holders around the country has dropped significantly, while the number of license holders has grown well beyond exponential value.  The result is average day rates for qualified license holders has dropped to all time lows. Additionally, since the course of instruction is knowledge only and held to a terribly low standard of oversight and review by the US Coast Guard, many of these new license holders just don’t know what the correct information and law is.

I sat in the back of one of these sessions and witnessed the instructors confuse U.S. regulations with international SOLAS standards, cite old regulations that have been cancelled or superseded, and tell students they could carry up to 12 people on their boats no problem, again a international standard, not the US law. My review and written critique of this course was ignored and disregarded.

Something must have happened at a higher level because yesterday the U.S. Coast Guard  issued Safety Alert 05-16 seeking to raise awareness about the requirements for vessels carrying paying passengers on U.S. Navigable Waters. I can also tell you enforcement in the Miami area has already been increased and will continue to until the illegal operations cease and legal operators are no longer forced to compete in an active market place with illegal operations that can afford offer boat rides at a much cheaper price.

More information can be obtained from the U.S. Coast Guards National Maritime Center