About
About Captain's License Prep
Captain's License Prep is an independent study resource for people pursuing or renewing a U.S. Coast Guard captain's license: the Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels (OUPV, the six-pack) and the Master 25/50/100 Gross Register Ton endorsements. We build free tools and neutral guides for the part that actually stalls applicants: eligibility, paperwork, and the wait.
Who publishes this
This site is published by Urban Algorithm LLC. We are not the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Maritime Center, or the Transportation Security Administration, and we are not a Coast Guard-approved course provider. We do not issue, certify, or process any credential. The National Maritime Center makes the final determination on every application. You can reach the publisher through the Urban Algorithm contact page.
Why we exist
The established course sellers own the head terms and sell a $500 to $1,000 course. They are less motivated to answer the questions that do not close a sale: whether your record disqualifies you, how to count your sea time, and how long the National Maritime Center is actually taking right now. Those are the questions we answer, without a course pitch.
How we source and date facts
Every load-bearing number on the site is registered in a fact list with its official source and the date it was last verified. Sea-time and eligibility rules come from 46 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 11 and the public National Maritime Center checklists. Processing times come from the National Maritime Center bulletins and the TSA TWIC page. State charter facts come from state fish-and-wildlife agencies and NOAA Fisheries. Every figure carries the date it was last checked against its source. We do not promise a fixed re-verification cadence we cannot guarantee; we show you the date each figure was verified so you can judge how current it is.
Original work
Every worked example, the sea-time calculator logic, the processing tracker, and the state charter map are original compilations authored from the underlying public rules and government sources. Facts are not copyrightable; we do not copy any course seller's materials or any competitor's question bank. Images are original SVG or original data tables, never stock photography.
Last reviewed .