Renew a USCG 100 ton ticket..Test or no test?

Of course that assumes that your tenant has a job AND pays his rent instead of just squatting while he steals your plumbing and doors.

Hi,

Does that include all Course Material and Lunch?

How many times in a row can one renew without any actual sea time just doing these type of courses?

When did this retesting alternative start? What I don't get is that to get a license you have to test AND have sea time. Now the CG seems to be saying that experience doesn't matter as long as you know how to study for a test. Could they actually believe this? I'm picturing a guy stepping up to the helm of a 100 ft. boat with paying passengers staking their lives on him and he not having set foot on a boat in 20 years.

Hi,

NYCAP- We are on the same page here, this is exactly what I was wondering.

I agree, however I think you can only test instead of seatime on up to a 100 ton license. After that you must have the seatime. I also think you can test instead of seatime only once. But again, I'm not sure. Although having to take the test again is good too, because I know of some that have been captain's for many years and working as a captain and have forgotten half of the rules and regs they should know.

A 100 tonner can kill a lot of people and break a lot of property. I'm at least glad (if you're right) that it can only be done once. That means we have to step on a boat at least every 10 years. As for retesting, I'll bet there are a number of things I couldn't tell you that I knew when I tested, like the minimum height of a masthead light, but I'm guessing it's really more important to know to make sure it's working and be able to fix it if it's not. Also, a lot of people are bad at tests, especially those that have been out of school for 20 years. Personally, I'd rather keep their experience on the water rather than the guy who steps on board once every 10 years. But heh, I'm one of those 20 year guys so I might be a bit biased.

Only fingers being pointed are toward the CG.
The sheep joke was funny. Sorry K1W1.

Hi,

No offence as there was no joke -Wool is what sheep are for as well as meat for eating unless of course you live in Australia where Men are Men and Sheep are nervous and they have an additional use.

We're OK Norseman. We're only facing 4,173,460 angry e-mails. K1W1's gonna get 21,007,310 and they're close enough to visit.

Hi,

I might have to agree with that after seeing this Welsh filmclip.

They do say Wales is Woolyfull but this is not what you see everyday even there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

That was extremely cool. I'd actually seen a PBS special a while back featuring that older guy with that dog. Their the #1 team. He gives a little whistle the dog goes left, another-right, a third he runs up the hill the retrieve a tragler. Amazing. Thanks for sharing that.

I just received my 5th issue Masters license and got a bit of a surprise with it. Instead of issuing a license which has always been a bit unwieldly to protect when your working a lot of boats they've switched to a Merchant Mariner's Credential like the rest of the crew has been using for years. Much more convenient. Anyone know when this change came about?

I just renewed my license Feb 2009, and got the same old style of license on a sheet of paper. So what you're saying is they put your license on a credit card type plastic card?

No, it like a passport. It's like the regular book that a merchant seaman would carry.