Entry & progression
A superyacht master coming home to Australia is, legally, a coxswain. This is not an exaggeration. It is a table in Marine Order 505, and almost nobody gets it right.
The table
| STCW certificate held | Corresponding near-coastal certificate |
|---|---|
| Watchkeeper Deck <3000 GT (Yachts) | Coxswain Grade 1 NC |
| Chief Mate <3000 GT (Yachts) | Coxswain Grade 1 NC |
| Master <500 GT (Yachts) | Coxswain Grade 1 NC |
| Master <3000 GT (Yachts) | Coxswain Grade 1 NC |
| Watchkeeper (Deck) <500 GT (non-yacht) | Master <24 m NC |
| Master <500 GT / Master <3000 GT (non-yacht) | Master <100 m NC |
| Any rating (NWR, AB-Deck, IR) | General Purpose Hand NC |
Read the first four rows again. All four yacht certificates map to Coxswain Grade 1 and nothing more. The top of the yacht ladder and the bottom of the yacht ladder land in exactly the same place.
What a Coxswain Grade 1 actually is
A vessel under 12 metres, inboard engine under 500 kW, outboard unlimited, in inshore waters. You may also act as chief mate or deck watchkeeper on a vessel under 24 metres in inshore waters. It is, in the domestic ladder, the fourth rung from the bottom — above General Purpose Hand and Coxswain Grades 3 and 2.
So a mariner holding Master less than 3000 GT (Yachts) — a ticket that permits command of a 2,999 GT yacht in any operating area, anywhere in the world — comes home and may command a twelve-metre boat inside the inshore line.
The asymmetry
Now look at the non-yacht rows. A non-yacht STCW Master less than 3000 GT maps to Master less than 100 m NC. Same tonnage. Same convention. Different Marine Order — and a completely different domestic outcome.
NOTE — This asymmetry is real and it is in the legislation It is not an urban legend and it is not a misprint. MO505 Schedule 2 maps every one of the four MO74 yacht certificates to Coxswain Grade 1 NC, while mapping the MO71 non-yacht Master certificates to Master <100 m NC. If you are planning to come home and work domestically, this table — not your yacht ticket's tonnage — is what decides what you can command.
The one thing that does travel
Sea service. MO505 Schedule 3, for Master less than 100 m NC, allows sea service accrued while holding a "non command seafarer certificate" — and the Note defines those to include Watchkeeper Deck less than 3000 GT (Yachts) and Chief Mate less than 3000 GT (Yachts).
So yacht STCW sea service explicitly counts toward Master less than 100 m NC. This is stated. It is not an inference. If you have spent years on the yacht ladder and want a serious domestic command ticket, the route is not to lean on the equivalence table — it is to use your accrued time to climb the domestic ladder on its own terms.
The traffic flows one way: into the domestic system. Your certificate arrives as a coxswain. Your sea time arrives worth considerably more.