New York safe boating course requirements
Compiled text through Sep 15, 2021
Register checked through Jul 29, 2026
No later Register activity identified in this check.
Dates and status
- Compiling agency
- Executive Department
- Text status
- Source receipt
- Compiled text through
- Sep 15, 2021
- Register checked through
- July 29, 2026/Vol. XLVIII, Issue 30 (2026-07-29)
- Activity status
- No later Register activity identified in this check.
- Source snapshot
- Jun 6, 2026
Only persons who have received an instructor certification issued by the agency may teach the course. The instructor or the commercial organization must comply with the following requirements:
At least two weeks before a course is scheduled to begin and before it is advertised the instructor or the commercial organization shall pre-register the course with the agency by providing the following information: dates, times, name of training facility and its location, names of lead instructor and names of any additional instructors that are scheduled to teach the course, number of classroom sessions, age restrictions (if any), class sizes, total enrollment; instructional fees charged to students (if any) and any other information required by the agency.
A minimum eight hours total classroom instruction taught by an instructor with at least one 10-minute break per hour is required. During an all-day session three 10-minute breaks may be accumulated and a 30-minute meal substituted for the breaks. The eight hours of instruction must include a review period and the final examination. Instructors-in-training or qualified and recognized experts in the safe boating field may occasionally teach all or part of the lessons but a certified instructor must be present and the lesson plans must be followed.
Instructors must follow the lesson plans, policies, procedures and use the textbook supplied by the agency. These course materials are based on or meet the current requirements of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) and the New York Safe Boating Instructor Guide issued by the agency. Instructors shall not focus the instruction to cover only points covered on the final examination nor provide students with the answers to questions in lieu of following the lesson plans. The New York course materials provided by the agency may not be used to satisfy any other certificate required by any other commercial or governmental entity.
The final examination shall be a closed-book test supplied by the agency and administered only after the instructional phase of the course has been completed. No examinations for other certificates or licenses may be administered or taken during the course. The student must obtain a 76 percent grade on the examination.
The commercial instructor or commercial organization must provide a receipt to the student for any fee collected. The volunteer instructor must provide a receipt to the student for any charge or donation collected. All instructors must maintain copies of these receipts for five years after issuance and make them available to the agency when requested. Alternatively, commercial instructors’ receipts may be maintained for five years by their affiliated commercial organizations.