Product Review – MM-SEAS
“It takes 360 sea days to get your first Captain’s License, and a lot of avid boaters actually have those days if they count up their time on the water over the past four or five years,” said Nate Gilman, Co-Founder and President of MM-SEAS. “One of the things keeping boaters from getting their license was figuring out how to fill out the Coast Guard forms properly. This free tool creates the perfect form, lets you email it to the boat owner for digital signature, and stores it online so you never lose your paperwork.”
“Tracking down sea service is one of the biggest frustrations when getting and maintaining your USCG license,” said Nate Gilman. “This new feature makes this once complex and error prone process simple, with perfect forms that are able to be signed digitally in seconds. This solves a huge problem in the boating community as getting sea service documentation from people you used to boat with is now easier than sending an email.”
A sea service day is every day you are away from the pier and assisting in the safe navigation of the vessel for over 4 hours within a 24-hour period. Young boaters can start accumulating sea service days once they turn 16. That means all of your water days, days fishing, or spending time boating with the family, count as sea service days for anyone who was helping keep a lookout even if they weren’t driving.
Documenting all of your sea time is the first step to following the dream of becoming a charter fishing captain, running your own sunset cruise business, or even becoming a professional delivery captain.
Turning time on the water boating into the right documentation for your Captain’s license is typically a huge chore, but MM-SEAS software now offers boaters the ability to create and store digital sea service letters to convert their time on any vessel they have served on. These digital sea service letters (Coast Guard Form CG-719S) can then be signed digitally by the owner, captain, or owner’s representative, and safely stored on the MM-SEAS site.
Owners, captains, or owner’s representatives receive an email notification with a specialized invite to view, verify, and sign the CG-719S sea service forms sent to them inside of MM-SEAS. If the owner, captain, or owner’s representative disagrees with the information on the CG-719S letter, they can easily update the information and then sign the form.
Mariners can use MM-SEAS on their own for free or get live expert help for $99 a year. Either way, when a mariner is ready to submit their application, mariners can choose to have the MM-SEAS staff create a perfect application, pay the USCG pay.gov application fees, and work with the USCG on their behalf to resolve any issues for a flat fee of $299, or they can choose to submit on their own.
