We both now hold Marine Radio Operator Permits. We only needed the Restricted Permit, which is like an FCC fund raiser (the FCC keeps no record of Restricted Permit holders and if you fill out the form and pay a fee it's yours) but were required to get the MROP for our Yachtmaster certification. The MROP requires you to take the Commercial Radio Operator Written Element 1 test. Studying for the test was a fairly easy and worthwhile exercise in retrospect. We took the test at the Gordon West School. Gordon and his wife are awesome and they own all of the radios in Costa Mesa as far as I can tell. I haven't gotten such a cool certificate since grade school.

I have reconsidered getting a HAM license now that I have begun to dig into the ICOM 802 SSB we just purchased. The marine high frequency radios operate much like HAM radios but you can only transmit on the marine channels unless you're a HAM. SailMail is an email service that operates over the SSB and is looking like the way we will do most of our email. With HAM transmit capabilities our email options will be broader (and cheaper). The HAM requirements should be dropping the Morse code element any day so I think I'll hold out.

http://www.gordonwestradioschool.com/