Captain's license requirements

You need the course work and sea time for a comercial ticket. An American need not go to university to operate an oil supply boat in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

or read and write..lol
I spoke with a guy the other day, who is incharge of a 243' supply boat that measures 99grt so no licences required..nice

 

Hawspipers.

Something like 50 percent of engineers are hawspipers.

 

yes the USCG allows hawspipers which I firmly believe in but the part that gets zero in the US is the use of written exams and not orals
The good part is you can get your great grandfather to coach you as the questions are still the same

 

At any rate the US really should refine its licensing procedure to encourage young people into the superyacht industry and increase the competence of the general small craft boating public.

I rarely meet a dumb as a cleat British yachtmaster. The knowledge gained in that simple licensing procedure creates competent small craft seaman.

Nothing wrong with that since these competent young yachtmaster seaman may well decide to follow the maritime career path, rather them becoming real estate agents , ambulance chasers , agents, consultants, pimps, dope heads........

 

Yes the yachtmaster was/is a great system that many have copied, some paper exam and some practical that includes orals.
The US only has one system so its easy for yacht agencys to say sorry you only have a100t license so we cant let you on board our MCA rules red ensign vessel.
Then the MCA who issues commercial licenses in the UK/flag state, also issue the 'yacht licences, that creates massive confusion for all.
The MCA pulled a fast one and supposedly got the yachmaster with a gmdss and bosiet into the IMO as a 200t commercial license. Not may flag states happy with that as a person that has only ever boated for pleasure has a 'commercial license' but it goes nowhere from there unlike a USCG one.

 

The MCA had to adapt. 30 years ago yachts were 20 meters, now they are 50 meters. Some type of license had to be developed to grandfather the old yachtmasters with decades of yacht sea time and create enough new young crew to man these megayachts.

Its logical...good to see that the MCA responded to change.

 

Didnt quite happen like that, the PYA begged the MSA ( what the MCA was) to issue some form of licenses to the crew of these 50+ meter yachts that either had nothing or a yachtmaster.
The industry got nervous that one day the hammer would drop and we ( I was there then) would all need commercial licenses.
The industry slipped in the cracks of private registration so do what you like. Boats and charter fees getting larger every year.
So the PYA attempted to see a friendly English speaking body ask ask for help
They said piss off youre a bunch of amateurs.
The industry reacted and said ok we will self regulate, as it always did, so we all ( voluntarily) did our sea survival firefighting etc etc.
They then worked out the MSA would allow guys to attempt the oral exams for engineerings tickets up tp class 4, therefore the engineers would have a commercial ticket.
I was in the first group that attempted this, myself and one other guy ( I think) passed all the other failed. It was a grilling by the MSA examiner which for a class 4 included steam and slow speed engines.
This still left the bridge crew no-where. I left the industry soon after and the MSA became the MCA, STCW95 was ratified so that meant no chance for the deck officers so somehow the MCA invented yacht tickets and here we are today.
Due to the fact that almost no yacht engineers could pass the orals that became a 6 weeks zero to hero yacht ticket..
All through this the insurance industry, which are really the guys that make the rules and they said, yachts are money for old rope so we dont care.
There is no requirement to have a yacht MCA classed unless your flag state says so but most of the flags of convenience have. The charter agencies have also used it to try to hide behind what was un unregulated industry that was lucky not to have its Zeppelin moment.
Now yachts have gotten to the size where some flag states say its commercial we dont care what you call it and hence trouble for crew and lake of solas compliance.

 

That too is not correct. Every licence from every country is "good" if it allows you to leave the country and go to the open seas. Every licence of every country has to comply with SOLAS convention requirements for the skipper/master/captain, otherwise it could be invalid in countries that are signatories of all those conventions.

Burundi's licence that allows you to leave local waters is just as good as the usanian licence. Or just as bad, if you prefer. The same is true for Seychelles or Maldives licence. If a country is not a signatory to all the current international maritime rules, it could be ten times stricter and better and you could still be refused the entry, if a local maritime authority of a country you are trying to enter decides so.

By the way the usanian licence is not recognised worldwide. There's a surprisingly large number of countries that do not recognise it. But chances are even if one gets the usanian licence, s/he may never go to one of those countries...

And the circle of friends is shrinking fast, as Angela, my german friend, told me yesterday ( in a spied on cell phone conversation...)

 

licenses are not solas compliant they are STCW-95 compliant, if they are that is....
The USA has also not signed up to MLC 2006

 

Really...no MLC 2006.

Hmm, does MLC interfere with the Jones Act

 

not connected
BUT if a US vessel enters a country that is MLC 2006 compliant then they will need to be mlc 2006 compliant
Cruise ships have always run mlc 2006 compliant

 

Guess there are only a handfull of American ships without missles, so its probably not a big deal

MLC is bad for the yacht is all I know

 

Is it true that the US has been removed from the White List ?

 

all that happened was due to the level of detentions in foreign ports the vessels dropped from the white list last year
the IMO said is was basically due to them having the oldest fleet in the world