Wanna Loop? Even Grandad Will Need a Certificate by 2025
 
Anyone wanting to do the Great Loop—regardless of how many years of actual boating experience—will need to hold a boating New York Boating Safety Certificate or its equivalent by 2025, out-of-state residents included.
 
Brianna’s Law, effective this month, is not specifically aimed at Loopers, but because the Hudson River and Eire Canal are essential segments of the Loop, these cruisers will be definitely be affected. So, too, anyone from New England wanting to take a boat south through New York waters and vice versa.
 
Brianna's Law is named after Brianna Lieneck, an 11-year-old Long Island girl who was killed in a 2005 boating accident. "Boating has become much more popular and our rules and our laws really have not kept pace with it," Governor Cuomo said at the bill’s signing. "There should be a basic level of knowledge that you have before you're given the permission to go out there and operate a boat, and making a safety course mandatory is common sense.”
 
The law is being implement in stages. All motorboat operators in New York waters:

• Born on or after Jan. 1, 1993 will need a boating safety certificate beginning in 2020.
• Born on or after Jan. 1, 1988 will need a boating safety certificate beginning in 2022.
• Born on or after Jan. 1, 1983 will need a boating safety certificate beginning in 2023.
• Born on or after Jan. 1, 1978 will need a boating safety certificate beginning in 2024.
• All motor boat operators regardless of age will need a boating safety certificate beginning in 2025.

Let’s face it, though, most Loopers (and many, if not most cruisers in general) were born before 1978, so most of us have five years before we have to comply. Any boating safety course recognized in your home state will be accepted by New York authorities, but several East Coast states—for example, Maine and Massachusetts—have no mandatory boater education at all. Others literally “grandfather” older boaters, exempting them from the requirement. Florida, for example, does not require anyone born before 1988 to have a certificate.

Nevertheless, these grandfathered mariners will need certification to transit New York in 2025 or face a fine of between $100 and $250.

Besides the out-of-state boater ed certificates, New York authorities will also accept safety certificates issued by the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, the US Power Squadron and the US Powerboating. Boating Safety Certificates from several online course providers are approved for New York State residents and nearly all states have equivalent online offerings.

More good news—because this was not clear when the law was first signed last year—New York will also accept six-pack and Master’s licenses issued by the U.S. Coast Guard, so if you’ve ever considering getting a captain’s license, Brianna’s Law provides another incentive to do so.
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Who is not required to have boater safety certificate? Oddly, it’s anyone who rents a boat in New York waters. Go figure.