Entry & progression
The certificate alone gives you no command. The Master <200 GT (Yachts) endorsement does — and it costs a separate, second oral examination. The medical for initial issue must be done in Australia. And you cannot book the oral until AMSA tells you to.
The Master <200 GT (Yachts) endorsement
This is an endorsement, not a certificate. Endorsed onto a Watchkeeper Deck <3000 GT (Yachts), it permits you to act as master on yachts <200 GT and <24 m long, in any operating area. That is a real command — a 23-metre charter boat crossing the Coral Sea — and it is why this certificate is worth more than its name suggests.
WARNING — The endorsement requires a SEPARATE, SECOND oral examination It is not folded into the oral for the certificate. It is another oral, on another day, on the syllabus of command rather than watchkeeping. Budget for it — in time, in money, and in preparation. People assume the endorsement is a box on a form. It is not.
Two different lengths in one instrument
CAUTION — '<24 m' and '≥12 m' are measured differently The <24 m in the Master <200 GT (Yachts) endorsement means load line length, per MO74 Schedule 1's note and Marine Order 1.
But MO74 s4 defines length for other purposes as overall length — so the 12 m and 20 m sea-service thresholds are overall length.
Two measures, one instrument. A vessel can be under 24 m on one and over on the other. Do not eyeball it. Take the figure from the vessel's certificates, and if the answer matters to your application, ask AMSA which measure applies before you sail.
The medical
An international certificate of medical fitness — AMSA form 303 — under Marine Order 76. Only an authorised Medical Inspector of Seafarers can perform it, and it must be booked through the central booking system. AMSA is blunt about this: examinations booked directly with an inspector, rather than via the central booking number, will be deemed invalid.
- Validity is generally 2 years — 1 year if you are under 18, or 55 or over
- The medical for initial issue must be done IN AUSTRALIA. Only revalidation medicals may be done overseas, in an agreement country
- If you are red-green colour impaired, a master or coxswain certificate is restricted to daylight hours — removable by re-test
That Australian-medical rule catches the entire diaspora of Australian yacht crew working out of the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. If you are applying for your first AMSA certificate, you are coming home for the medical. Build it into the trip.
The workflow — and the order matters
How the application actually runs
- Submit seafarer form 419 with your evidence — sea service, courses, medical.
- AMSA assesses it and issues you an assessment letter.
- That letter is what instructs you to book the oral examination — MO74 calls it a final assessment; AMSA calls it an oral.
- Sit the oral. If you want command, sit the second oral for the Master <200 GT (Yachts) endorsement.
NOTE — You cannot book the oral first The assessment letter is the trigger. Candidates who try to line the oral up in advance to save time discover they cannot, and lose the weeks they were trying to save.
Sailing vessels
MO74 s8(1): a yacht-certificate holder performing master duties on a sailing vessel must also hold a sailing vessel endorsement. AMSA issues two — sailing vessels — fore and aft, and sailing vessels — square rigged. An OICNW on a sailing vessel does not need it, but must have completed the training required by the vessel's safety management system and be considered competent by the master. Command under sail is a separate permission. Watchkeeping under sail is not.