USCG prep

"USCG Port State Control Prep" is the page for a foreign-flag ship calling the United States. The US Coast Guard runs its own port state control, separate from the Paris and Tokyo MoUs: its own way of picking ships, its own arrival notice, and US rules on ballast water, fuel in the emission control areas, oil spill response plans and navigation equipment that catch ships out.

The page has eight sections — how the Coast Guard picks ships (with a self-check and QUALSHIP 21 / E-Zero), before arrival (the 96-hour Notice of Arrival, reports and crew visas), security, environment, navigation safety, what the examiners test on board, what to do if things go wrong, and extra items for your ship type (for example the Certificate of Compliance examination for tankers, gas carriers and passenger ships). Each section has "Know the rule" in plain words, a "Check on board" list answered the same way as SIRE 2.0 and CDI — Ready, Needs work, Not ready or N/A, with a note, photos, a voice note and a critical flag — and the official source with the date we checked it. Every item says what the USCG examiner asks to see or tests, and "detention risk" marks the common detention grounds. Only the items for the ship type in Settings are shown.

Everyone, on every plan. Free: read everything and answer the first 2 items of each section. On a ship licence each section belongs to a rank — targeting, arrival and detention to the Master, security to the Master and SSO (or Chief Officer), environment to the Chief Officer and Chief Engineer, navigation to the Master and Second Officer, the on-board exam and the ship-type items to the Master, Chief Officer and Chief Engineer; everyone else reads, and the Master can give someone extra sections.

1. Open "USCG prep" from the menu (Inspection prep), from the PSC readiness page, or from Next-port PSC when you pick the US Coast Guard as the regime.
2. In section 1 answer the self-check — targeted flag, company, class, detentions, last US exam, ship type and age, QUALSHIP 21. The pill shows "Likely PSC A", "B" or "C" with the reasons. Leave a question empty if you do not know.
3. Work down each section: read "Know the rule", then answer each "Check on board" item — Ready, Needs work, Not ready or N/A — and add a note on where the evidence is, a photo or a voice note. Turn on "Critical risk" for anything that could stop the ship. The amber line under each item says what the USCG examiner asks to see or tests.
4. Watch the readiness percentage at the top and on each section; "critical open" counts the critical items not yet ready.
5. Open the source links when you need the exact rule — each section shows where it comes from and the date SeaReady last checked it.
6. Tap "Print" for the whole checklist with your ticks, the ship’s name and the date — for the bridge file or the agent.

• Do the 33 CFR 164 steering and equipment tests in the 12 hours before entering US waters and log them — it is one of the first things the boarding officer asks for.
• Check the arrival notice crew list against the people actually on board the day before arrival; a mismatch is a common delay.
• If anything in "Not confirmed — please check manually" applies to your ship, ask your agent or company before relying on it.

• Coast Guard examiners usually start with the certificates, the arrival notice and the 12-hour test records, then ask for a fire and abandon-ship drill and test equipment themselves — emergency generator, fire pumps, lifeboat lowering, the oily water separator.
• They also talk to the crew: can the person on watch explain the alarm, the muster station, the security level? A drill that falls apart is a common route to detention.

• SeaReady is not connected with the US Coast Guard. The text is our own words and a preparation aid; the regulations and the Coast Guard’s pages (linked in every section) are what count.
• The self-check is a rough guide: the Coast Guard publishes the risk factors but not their weights. Your answers stay on this device.
• The answers, notes and photos are ship data and sync with the ship’s file through the SeaReady server when the device has internet; they print with the page, and each answer has a change history on a ship.
• "Print" is a counted document on the Free plan (3 main PDFs a month, watermarked); paid plans print without limit.
• The facts were checked in October 2026 and are re-checked by a weekly job; the date under each section shows when.