Canadian Regulations Question

Are you planning to do charters with this or is it for strictly personal use?

Rules of the road are the same for yacht or tanker. The chances of running aground, catching fire, spilling oil, flooding, or losing someone over the side are much higher with the yacht so what part of the process do you want to skip?

What I meant was that the rules are the same, the skills are essentially the same, but the risks are higher for a small vessel operating in near shore waters with comparitively inexperienced crew. Aside from tankship specific training, the elements of seamanship and marine safety are the same for a 100 foot yacht as a 1000 foot tanker.

While I can't say for certain what the Canadian regs say, and you can look them up as easily as I, it is nearly certain that the training required for a 150 ton license for domestic service is the same or very nearly the same as for the 500 ton license. If they say you have to have a 500 ton domestic ticket to drive your 200 ton private yacht then you had better start collecting seatime. You will probably have plenty of time for the training classes while you accumulate seatime.

The sea time served onboard a vessel of a certain tonnage will be different and the 500 ton ticket will probably require time served while holding a lesser license ... just ask Transport Canada, they will be happy to tell you precisely what you need to know and where to find the details.

You can register the boat with some foreign flag and get one of their licenses but you will still have to do the seatime. You will probably have to do more time and training because a foreign license would have to cover you for international service since Canada is international to them. Registering it in the US would be a waste of time and money. You can't get a US license unless you are a US citizen, and the US licensing requirements are very much more stringent regarding seatime than most others. You could probably get any MCA yacht license invented before you could get a US 200 ton license. You could try and get one of those RYA 90 day wonder things and then have it endorsed for Caymans and register your boat in the Caymans. As long as Canada allowed that you might work around seatime and training that way.

I DK how it is in Canada, but in the US you shouldn't need any license as long as you don't charter. HOWEVER, I'd expect that your insurance company will have a lot to say on the subject and I suggest you call around there. As for getting a license without doing the time, good luck with that. What kind of experience do you have?

I think you misunderstand what it takes to get a license. It is more than just taking a course and being handed a certificate. Google Transport Canada Marine Personnel Regulations. Look at chapter 128 for 500 ton master and 129 for 150 ton requirements.

Have you read the Marine Personnel Regulations? I think all of your Canadian certification questions will be answered therein.

Go to the USCG website for US licensing requirements. Google MPT Fort Lauderdale to see what the MCA and/or RYA yacht certificates require.

Good luck with your maritime pursuits.

If you are asking these questions, you don't have the necessary seatime in order to get the license, and you don't have any business piloting a 150-200 GT vessel. You should have a full time Captain and a full time Mate on a vessel that size all of the time. It's a 40hr a week job for two people to maintain a vessel that size.

As for the US regulations, if you are not chartering the vessel you don't need any license. However, your insurance will want a 200GT licensed Captain WITH an extensive resume Captaining vessels of similar size and tonnage.

To get a US 200 ton, you need to hold a 100 Ton Masters for at least a year or two, in order to get a 100 ton you need 720 days at sea, 360 of them within the last 3 years and over 56 GT. Then you need 180 days of seatime over 100GT in order to get a 200ton license. MPT can answer your questions regarding having a Yachtmaster and Canadian regulations. But I believe if you foriegn flag the vessel (non US), you can use a Yachtmaster license.

From what you said in your first post (" I'd be mostly sailing around the.") I gather this is a 24m sailboat? Even if motor ask yourself this: If I were to apply for the job of captaining this boat would I hire me? If you can afford a boat this size you can afford to have a professional captain with you and having that much experience with you on your multi-million dollar yacht can't be a bad thing even if you like to drive. It would also uncomplicate the licensing stuff.

Uh cap, didn't the statement "It would come in just under 200GT but over 150GT. " give you any hint as to the size of the boat he is considering?

If I had to guess at around or just over 24 meters. It would have to be a long range trawler with considerable size for it's length.......something along the lines of a Nordhaven 76' or a Northern Marine 80' to get that kind of tonnage. Although I worked on a 75' Sportfish that was 125GT which was surprising since a 75' Hatteras MY I run is only 74GT.

I really doubt a 24m sailboat would even be over 100GT

Nordhavns Weigh In

FYI...From the Nordhavn site -- http://www.nordhavn.com

N68 Displacement: 230,000 lbs./104.3 MT
N72 Displacement: 240,000 lbs./108.8 MT
N76 Displacement: 252,000 lbs./114.3 MT
N86 Displacement: 400,000 lbs./181.4 MT

So did the 24m. Whether it was to be sail or motor was what I questioned because he said "I'd be mostly sailing".

[QUOTE='roundthehorn]FYI...From the Nordhavn site -- [/QUOTE]

I don't know what kind of horn you've been going around but the registered tonnage of ships going round the Cape has nothing to do with displacement.

?? Maybe I need to post that reading comprehension link again. Nobody but you said anything about 24m. Read the posts.

The original post stated "large yacht" and by most flag state definitions that means one larger than 24m. The term "sailing" is used by most mariners to describe the act of committing navigation on any kind of vessel. I spent years sailing submarines, more years sailing tankers and boxboats, I even have some time sailing a sailboat.

Gross tonnage to a mariner is a regulatory measure of the internal volume, not the displacement. There are some excellent books available if you want to learn about boats.