Entry & progression
This is the top of the AMSA yacht ladder. There is no MO74 grade above it. The prerequisite is Master <500 GT (Yachts) — see Lesson 1.2, and read it carefully, because the rung most people think is next is not on the ladder at all.
What Schedule 1 actually gives you
- Master or watchkeeper deck officer on yachts of less than 3000 GT, in any operating area.
- Able Seafarer — Deck duties.
That is the whole list. It is short because it is broad. Any operating area means what it says: no near-coastal restriction, no mileage limit, no ocean at which the certificate stops. And note that the command entitlement carries the watchkeeping entitlement inside it — you can stand a bridge watch as OOW on a yacht of the same tonnage. That matters when a rotation is thin and the ticket you hold has to cover two chairs.
What a yacht legally is
Everything above is bounded by one definition. MO74 s4(1) says a yacht is a vessel that:
- is less than 3000 GT; and
- is for commercial use for sport or pleasure; and
- does not carry cargo; and
- does not carry more than 12 passengers.
Four limbs, all of them, together. Fail any one and the vessel is not a yacht, and this certificate does not reach it. That is not a technicality — it is the outer wall of your authority, and Lesson 3.2 walks the wall.
NOTE — Sail is irrelevant to the definition MO74's own note: "A yacht need not be designed to carry sail and may be a training vessel, a sail training vessel or a short range yacht." Whether she has a rig has nothing to do with whether she is a yacht. It has everything to do with whether you need a sailing vessel endorsement on top of this certificate — see Lesson 1.5.
Where the certificate stops
It is a yacht ticket, and it stays one. A Certificate of Recognition issued against a yacht certificate is valid only for service on Australian registered vessels that meet the definition of yacht in Marine Order 74. The grade does not walk sideways into general shipping. An MO71 Master <3000 GT — the non-yacht certificate with a nearly identical name — is a different animal with a different reach, and holding one is not holding the other.
Coming the other way, a foreign yacht certificate of competency issued by an administration AMSA recognises does not convert on paper. AMSA's position: those holders must complete the full diploma course, with any prior learning recognised by an AMSA-approved training provider. There is no stamp-for-stamp swap.
CAUTION — AMSA's own web page cites the wrong Marine Order The AMSA page for this certificate opens by citing Marine Order 70 and Marine Order 71 — MO71 is the general, non-yacht order. The governing instrument for the yacht grades is Marine Order 74. The legislation is authoritative. Read MO74 on legislation.gov.au, and if a web page and the Order disagree, the Order wins.