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Do you need a licence to rent a boat in Miami?
The short answer is no, Florida does not have a boat licence in the European sense. The longer answer has a card in it, and an age rule, and a large deposit you will not get back if you touch a piling.
What Florida actually requires
Florida has no licence to operate a pleasure boat. What it has is a Boating Safety Education Identification Card, required for anyone born on or after 1 January 1988 who operates a vessel of ten horsepower or more. It is obtained by passing an approved course, it does not expire, and it is not a licence: it is proof you sat the course.
Rental companies add their own rules on top, and those are usually stricter than the law: a minimum age, a checkout briefing, a deposit held on a card, and an area you are not allowed to leave. None of that is the state's doing; it is the insurer's.
Why every GlideBlue boat comes with its captain
We took the question off the table. Every boat on GlideBlue is chartered with the professional who runs it, which means no card to hold, no deposit against damage you might do at the helm, and no briefing to sit through before your day starts.
It also changes who carries the risk. A captained charter runs on the captain's commercial insurance, which covers passengers. A bareboat rental usually runs on a policy that assumes an experienced operator and a damage deposit, and the first thing you learn at the desk is what the deposit is for.
The practical difference on the day
With a captain, you say roughly where you would like to go and someone who knows that water tells you honestly whether the day allows it. Sandbars move, channels shoal, and the spot that was perfect last month may be crowded or closed today. That local knowledge is most of what you are paying for, and it is the part no rental agreement can give you.
You also get the docking back. Leaving a slip in a crosswind with an audience is where most rental holidays go wrong, and it is the one manoeuvre nobody practises.
Miami opens on December 14, 2026.
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December 14, 2026
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