Changes to OOW 3000 pre-requisite
At the Monaco Yacht Show a couple years ago, it was announced that the
RYA Yachtmaster Coastal CoC (formerly called Coastal Skipper) would be accepted instead of the Yachtmaster Offshore CoC for candidates studying for their
OOW 3000 (Yacht).
The requirement that RYA Yachtmaster Offshore candidates should have half of their sea time, and all their qualifying passages, on vessels under 24m, and that any sea time on vessels over 500GT would not be counted, has very severely restricted the pipeline of OOW 3000 (Yacht) candidates.
The RYA Yachtmaster Coastal CoC may be attained by those who have more sea time on larger vessels, and when commercially endorsed it qualifies the holder to skipper a commercial vessel up to 24m in length in Category 3 waters (20 miles from a safe haven).
Once this is approved, candidates will be able to take an RYA Yachtmaster/Coastal Skipper shorebased course, an RYA Coastal Skipper practical course and a Yachtmaster prep week.
Those, combined with superyacht and tender operations experience, will provide the necessary pre-requisite experience to sit the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Coastal exam.
It can then be upgraded from Coastal to Offshore to Ocean, just by taking the relevant exam in due time.
Please email
thebuzz@bluewateryachting.com for further details if you would be interested in the YM Coastal or if you have any comments on these courses. We would be interested to hear your views!
