Entry & progression
Entry: workshop skills training plus seagoing service, or an approved programme. Progression: and a shortcut at 11.335(c) if you already hold an engineering endorsement.
46 CFR 11.335(a)(1) — the two routes
NOTE — Verbatim "36 months combined workshop skills training and approved seagoing service of which not less than 30 months must be seagoing service in the engine department… deck department may be creditable for up to 3 months; or completion of an approved training program… of not less than 12 months."
| Route | Total | Of which seagoing | Deck credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| (i) Service route | 36 months combined workshop skills + approved seagoing service | Not less than 30 months seagoing, engine department | Up to 3 months |
| (ii) Approved programme | Not less than 12 months | Per the programme | — |
Read the 30 months
The headline is 36 months, and the word combined invites you to think a large chunk of it can be shore-based workshop training. It cannot. Not less than 30 months must be seagoing service in the engine department. That leaves, at most, six months of workshop skills inside the 36 — and the deck credit of up to three months comes out of the same total.
Two and a half years at sea, in the engine department. The ETO is a seagoing endorsement for seagoing people. It is not a certificate for a shoreside electrician with a good CV.
The approved-programme route
As with the OICEW, an approved training programme of not less than 12 months collapses the requirement dramatically. And as with the OICEW, the word doing the work is approved — it must be a Coast Guard-approved programme, not a course you assembled yourself.
The shortcut — 46 CFR 11.335(c)
TIP — If you already hold an engineering endorsement, the door is much closer 11.335(c): a holder of an OICEW, a Second Engineer Officer or a Chief Engineer Officer endorsement "will be allowed to receive the ETO endorsement upon completion of the requirements in Section A-III/6."
You do not repeat the sea service. You demonstrate the A-III/6 competences — which means the professional training at 11.335(a)(4) and the associated assessments — and the ETO is added to a credential you already hold.
That is a genuinely useful provision, and it points at a sensible career shape for a yacht engineer. Build the watchkeeping ticket first. Then add the electrical one on top of it, without serving another three years to get there. An engineer holding both OICEW and ETO is a considerably more employable person than one holding either.
Counting, as always, per 10.107
Year = 360 days. Month = 30 days. Day = 8 hours of watchstanding or day-working, not including overtime. Thirty months of seagoing service is 900 eight-hour days. Get the service letters written contemporaneously, with the vessel's propulsion power on them — you will need to prove the 750 kW floor as well as the months.
CAUTION — Check the checklist before you file The NMC publishes an application checklist for each endorsement, and it is the document your file will actually be worked against. Pull the current ETO checklist from the NMC before you assemble the package.