A number of members and non members have requested info on the US Coast Guard “Captians” or O.U.P.V. License. I thought I would hammer out my experience in hopes of saving some headaches for others.
About a year ago I was toying around with the thought of guiding for catfish on the Mississippi River as a hobby. Then in January of last year, I found out my real job was going to be eliminated do to down sizing. It seemed like the perfect time to have Fisher Sherry build a Catfishing guide service website and obtain a U.S Coast Guard O.U.P.V. (commonly called a Captains) License. This is required to charge a fee while boating on federally controlled waterways, like the Mississippi, Minnesota and St Croix Rivers.
Sherry did a wonderful job on the website and that went up quickly and smoothly. The Coast Guard License, well that was another story.
I went to the Coast Guard web site and down loaded the paperwork 
. There were so many forms, some I knew I didn’t need, others I thought I needed and some I didn’t know if I needed. Then I found out that I would have to travel to Toledo Ohio to have my fingerprints taken! One would think that any police station could do this…but the requirement was to go to a Coast Guard Regional Office…Toledo or St Louis was the closest!
The other major headache was the testing. I could buy the books, study and then take the test in St Paul…or take a 56-hour class geared for the O.U.P.V. license. Unfortunately the only classes were well out of town, Milwaukee is the first one that comes to mind.
I made a number of phone calls to Toledo trying to get the info that I needed sorted out and what the easiest way to approach this was. The head of the Examinations office was very helpful although to be blunt, they don’t have time to be walking everyone through the forms, requirements and other red tape that it takes to get going on any license. I started my application in Febuary of 2006.
To fast forward to December of last year, I figured I better get this finished. Did a little searching and found to my amazement that Capt Gary Kulibert from Explorer’s Guide LLC was setting up a class with Customized Training & Consulting, part of St Paul College IN St Paul! Finally! A break!
In fact, Gary directed me to his website and I downloaded all (and ONLY) the forms I needed for my Captain’s license! He walked me through each one ensuring that I didn’t make the common mistakes that would lead to forms being sent back. (In December, I dated my check to the Coast Guard for 2007 by accident. They sent it back…so I figured I would just use a credit card…that was sent back too as once I started with a check, I had to finish with a check. )
Everything started to fall into place very quickly once I started talking to Gary. Truth is, once I contacted Gary, I was licensed in just over a month. I found out that I could now go to the Coast Guard Station in Duluth and have my prints taken and oath given. That was a relief!
Taken right out of a 
US Post Office!
Gary’s class itself was very informational and covered everything that was required by the Coast Guard and more. Everything I needed was included in his fee. From charting and plotting to knots to using publications to aid a person in our day to day boating operations. A number of us needed our CPR and First Aid certificates. Gary held a class after our regular classes and we got those out of the way! After six and a half days of classroom, our class was ready for the final test!
About 3 hours later we had 14 ready to be approved Captains!
This link will take you to the website of St Paul College and a class picture along with dates of the 2008 classes. If there’s enough interest, there might be a class in late spring of 2007.
http://training.saintpaul.edu/education/mariners.aspx
Capt. Gary Kuliberts Explorer’s Guide website:
Gary is happy to field any and all of your questions!
He’s just started an on-line course for people in remote locations.
Please tell him that you saw this on In-DepthAngling!
My only regret is that I didn’t hook up with Gary a year ago, it would have save me a headache or two and a lot of time!
Brian…..I’ve also seen that look….
Authority goes right to their heads. 
.
