Entry & progression
24 months in charge of a navigation watch on vessels ≥12 m, of which at least 8 months on vessels ≥20 m — held while you hold WK Deck <3000 (Y), Master <500 (Y) or Chief Mate <3000 (Y), or an AMSA-considered equivalent. Read the whole lesson: what is absent from that sentence matters as much as what is in it.
- 24 months of documented qualifying seagoing service in charge of a navigation watch;
- on vessels of 12 metres or more in length;
- of which at least 8 months on vessels of 20 metres or more;
- while holding a Watchkeeper Deck <3000 GT (Yachts), Master <500 GT (Yachts) or Chief Mate <3000 GT (Yachts) certificate — or an AMSA-considered equivalent.
The 24-hour voyage element is NOT here
This catches experienced people. At Watchkeeper Deck, 8 of the months must be on vessels ≥20 m on voyages of at least 24 hours duration. At Master <500 GT (Yachts), 4 months must be on voyages of ≥24 hours. At Master <3000 GT (Yachts) there is no voyage-duration element at all. The 8 months at ≥20 m stands alone. Do not import a requirement from a lower grade and then panic that you cannot meet it.
Service is measured in METRES, all the way up
NOTE — You never need to have served on a 3000 GT anything Every sea-service threshold in MO74 Schedule 2 — at all four grades — is ≥12 m or ≥20 m. There is no tonnage threshold anywhere in the service requirements. The certificate is scoped in gross tonnage; the service that earns it is scoped in metres. A master who has spent a career on 40 m yachts has served on nothing near 3000 GT, and qualifies perfectly.
How a day is counted — Schedule 3
- Performing master or deck officer duties for at least 8 hours in a 24-hour period — the service counts as a whole day.
- Less than 8 hours — you get the actual hours served plus 25% of that time.
- Eight hours or more in any 24 counts as a whole day and no more than a whole day. There is no double-dipping a long day.
- Schedule 3 cl 3.1 restricts the role: service must be performed as a master, deck officer, trainee deck officer, deck cadet or rating.
The discretion nobody tells you about
MO70 s18 lets AMSA discount all or part of your service if it considers the service was completed in circumstances of little or no relevance to the certificate applied for. MO70 s19 lets AMSA recognise service it would not otherwise recognise. MO70 s20 says service is qualifying to the extent AMSA considers appropriate. And AMSA has said, in terms: "Service on vessels that spend considerable time in port will not be accepted." A yacht that does two charters and a boat show is exactly what that sentence is aimed at.
WARNING — Get the letter from the company, not the master For international certificates, AMSA requires the sea service to be confirmed by a letter issued by the company, and states plainly that letters issued on board by a master will not be accepted. (For domestic near-coastal service the rule is the opposite — a master, owner, operator or chief engineer letter is accepted.) Getting this backwards invalidates the time. Ask for the company letter while you are still employed there.
CAUTION — Can the Master <500 service be counted twice? Whether the 12 months of watchkeeping used to obtain Master <500 GT (Yachts) may be counted again toward the 24 months for this certificate is not answered by MO74, and AMSA does not say. It is an open question. Do not plan a career on either assumption — write to AMSA and get the answer in writing before you count a day twice.