[Charlie B]

The boat licence and the safety certificate are two different things. The boat licence is only needed in NJ to run a power boat on non tidal waters. The safety certificate is needed to run a power boat in all NJ waters. For out of state boaters if you have a certificate from your home state that meets certain requirements you can use that for a certain amount of time in NJ. I don't know for sure but there may be some exceptions to the rules like for rental boats but for the most part in NJ you need the certificate for all waters. And in non tidal waters you also need the boat licence which is an endorsement on your regular drivers licence. Which by the way you cannot get without the safety certificate...Charlie