USCG to STCW

I sail on SOLAS class vessels outside the boundary line with minimum manning as stated on the Certificate of Inspection. A "National Only" MMC would be useless to me. And just because never once has anyone ever asked to see your license or STCW, does not necessarily mean you aren't supposed to have it.

I thought the deck side required some effort until looking at the engineer side. All our crew has been going through the upgrade process. That includes us doing so.

Y

Agreed ... the engineers got hit pretty hard on this one. I know of an engineer who hasn't gotten a single one of the gap closing classes completed yet, he is going to be hard pressed to be compliant by the end of the year.

I took BRM in 2001 so I am all good there. You haven't been told about taking Leadership and Management? ECDIS?

To comply with the latest STCW Requirements UK Engineering License Holders have to do refreshers of the Basic and Advanced Fire courses, Personal Survival Techniques and Certified Proficiency in Survival Craft, the senior ranks amongst us are considered to have enough experience to deal with the HELM stuff if renewing but if moving up a license level you need to do it. There is also a HV course if you want to serve on vessels with a main bus of 1000 Volt or over and the designated Security Duties. I will also need to apply for another Flag State endorsement. This will probably be my last re-validation as by the time it runs out I hope to be sitting with my feet up at home where my boating experiences will be re directed to a trailer mounted 5 or 5.5 m outboard powered aluminium boat which believe it or not at the moment does not require a license to operate but that bit doesn't really matter as I have been assured in writing that my deck tickets are what they call Legacy Tickets as as such they do not run out.

HELM is necessary, but ECDIS is not unless you are on a full ECDIS vessel. I sent my ECDIS certificate in the NMC and they sent it back, telling me to just keep it aboard if I am on an ECDIS equipped vessel.

From what I understand the ECDIS Ticket is not all encompassing, you should have type specific training - I am aware of this because there is the bridge team on a new boat up here doing it this weekend.

ARPA (Optional, if serving on a vessel with this equipment) 11.311
GMDSS (Optional, if serving on a vessel with this equipment) 11.311
ECDIS (Optional, if serving on a vessel with this equipment) 11.311

All based on the boat.

USCG obviously is a bit different to elsewhere in the world, UK Deck tickets have not been issued this century without GMDSS. ECDIS type specific training is compulsory if the vessel has it not optional from what I see and hear.

USCG has been very different than the rest of the world. This is bringing things together under STCW. UK still has some variations from STCW. If you don't get ECDIS, then here is how it will read:

“Not valid for service on ECDIS equipped vessels after December 31, 2016”

It's compliant. I got all my gap closing done by mid-summer last year, no restrictions on my ticket from lack of ARPA, ECDIS, or GMDSS.

As it was explained to me, a mariner with a USCG ticket would need to take the generalized ECDIS training approved by the NMC to remove the "negative endorsement" and satisfy the STCW requirement. Then, onboard the vessel the type specific training could be done for the make and model equipment you would be using. I know FURUNO offers type specific training for their equipment at their training centers.