Tourists who come to Florida often enjoy renting boats. Some rent personal watercraft just for a fun day on the waves. Others rent fishing boats to take out and do deep-sea fishing. Still others rent pontoon boats or other recreational craft.
These tourists are inevitably involved in accidents every year. People get hurt on the water, and tourists are sometimes responsible for making mistakes that cause avoidable accidents.
One of the reasons for this is that a tourist could be incredibly inexperienced. In fact, it could be their first time even operating a boat. You wouldn’t want to share the road with someone who was driving a car for the very first time, without a license or supervision, but you may be sharing the water with the same type of operator.
You do not need a license in Florida
The issue is that you don’t need a boating license in Florida. A tourist can come from another state and easily rent a boat. They don’t have to prove that they have any experience or ability.
In some cases, people will need to show that they’ve been through a boater’s safety course. This applies to anyone who was born after 1988. So young people still may not have operated a watercraft in a while, but they should at least have some experience.
That said, if someone was born before 1988, even the boater’s safety certificate is not required. All they have to do is want to rent a boat to be approved, whether or not they’ve ever used one in their life.
This means that there are always going to be some risks on the water. Those who get injured in accidents caused by other boaters need to know exactly how to seek financial compensation.