When boating on any waters under the jurisdiction of the US Coast Guard, they have the right to stop and board you at any time. This is true of the Harbor Police and several other law enforcement agencies as well. Mostly they will be looking for the basic safety items, but they don’t need a reason.
Luckily, the USCG Auxiliary offers voluntary safety checks to help you identify any things that might cause trouble if you are boarded for inspection.
When we got the boat, there were several items that I knew would not pass inspection, so some of my first projects were to get those correct. Most were pretty easy, like buying new flares and putting a lock on the Y-valve. In our case, we also had to mark the boat with our USCG official number, since it was documented with USCG, not the state of California.
Just as I was finishing up the list, we got an email that the CGAX would be doing an event at our marina in two weeks. I signed up for a timeslot, and went to work on the last couple of items.
The guy that did the inspection was very helpful and even pointed out a few things that were not part of the official check. When we were finished, we passed, and got a sticker that I put on the traveler pillar, where it would be visible.
I have heard that if an officer is just approaching your boat to do a basic safety inspection, and sees that sticker, that they are much more likely to wave, and go after some other boat. Seems like a win-win to me. They don’t have to waste time on a boat that has already been checked, and you don’t lose valuable sailing time.
