Entry & progression
Toward near-coastal certificates, AMSA says yacht time counts — in terms. Toward international certificates, AMSA says nothing at all. That silence is the single biggest planning risk in this course.
Toward near-coastal certificates: AMSA says it plainly
From AMSA's qualifying near-coastal sea service page, verbatim: *We may accept commercial sea service accrued on luxury yachts if: you are being paid to work on the vessel, and the duties you are performing relate directly to the certificate you have applied for. This sea service does not need to be completed within Australian waters."*
Three things fall out of that sentence. It must be paid. The duties must relate to the certificate. And it does not have to be Australian water — a Mediterranean season counts on the same footing as a Whitsundays one.
The evidence AMSA wants
- A safety management system with a signed induction, or a crew or muster list with your name on it
- Plus an owner or operator letter, an employment contract, or pay slips
WARNING — Unpaid and private time fails the gate The word AMSA uses is paid. A delivery you did as a favour, a season on a friend's boat, a private (non-commercial) yacht where you were not employed — these do not pass the paid test, however many miles you covered and however much you learned. Keep your contracts and your pay slips. They are your sea service.
Toward international certificates: AMSA is silent
There is no AMSA statement, on any page or in any instrument, confirming that superyacht service is accepted toward an international certificate. The near-coastal concession is expressly a near-coastal concession. It does not carry across.
MO72's engineering service filter says service must be performed as an engineer, trainee engineer or engineer cadet, or in an equivalent capacity regularly engaged in engine-room watchkeeping on vessels of the relevant propulsion power. It says "vessels" and "ships". It never says "merchant ship", and a superyacht is not excluded by the text. But no primary source states whether AMSA accepts or rejects superyacht time toward MO72 in practice. We will not guess.
The live risk, and it has a name
CAUTION — MO70 s18 discounting, and the port-time sentence MO70 section 18, verbatim: "If AMSA considers that a period of qualifying seagoing service was completed at a time that is, or in circumstances that are, of little or no relevance to the seafarer certificate being applied for, AMSA may discount all or part of the service."
AMSA on yacht time, verbatim: *"We consider sea service (work experience) very important ... Service on vessels that spend considerable time in port will not be accepted."*
Dockside and seasonal yacht time is precisely what section 18 targets. This is not a prediction that your service will be discounted — it is a statement of the discretion that exists and the attitude AMSA has published. Plan for it. Document sea days, not days employed.
What to do about it
Keep a personal log of sea days — days under way — separately from days employed. Get the company letter at the end of every contract, not years later. And if a large part of your career plan rests on international credit for yacht time, write to AMSA and ask, before you commit five years to it.
AMSA has told you what counts near-coastally. On the international side it has told you only what it can take away.