Breaking the 100 Ton glass ceiling

Probably also a troll, but yes. See the definition of near-coastal in 46 CFR 10.107:

Near-coastal means ocean waters not more than 200 miles offshore from the U.S. and its possessions…

I was just lighting the mood sir

Don’t all licences 500 t and up require testing at the rec?
Aren’t the classes a relatively new phenomenon? How long is “so long?”

I think its licenses over 1600 that require testing at the REC. that’s a joke. We all know that the schools make sure that almost everyone passes.

All testing should be done at the REC.

Agreed all testing should be done at REC. Back in the mid 90s the company sent several of us to school. Some of us, myself included, were spending two weeks to get 100 ton licenses. Others were spending a month to study for their 500 ton, and would later test at the REC.

I would stay up sometimes until two in the morning studying. Then I would wake up at five thirty to go up to the hotel lobby where the guys who were already licensed and studying for their 500 ton would meet and I would ask questions and pick their brains. By seven we would leave for school and back to the hotel by three to start studying again…the guy in the room next door to me would go across the street and pick up two twelve packs of Old Milwaukee’s Best Light every day. While at school he spent most of his time sleeping in class.

When the last two days came to test, my lowest score on any of the exams was a 96. I even challenged a question on one of my exams and was proved right and the school had to change their answer key.

The guy from the room next door was getting help from the instructor. He would bring his exam up and the instructor would point at the answer sheet and say something like…you need to Beeeeee more careful. I want you to Seeeeeee what you are doing. So he’d miss a bunch of questions…the instructor would send him back to his seat to re answer the ones he missed. Then after he re worked the questions he missed, the instructor would do the same thing and send him back to his desk to re answer the incorrect questions again. This would continue until he finally guessed at enough correct answers to pass his exam.

At the end of the two weeks he had the exact same license as I did. A 100 ton Master with a 200 ton Mate. We were given certificates and then just had to go to the REC and pick up our licenses. The school closed many years ago but many schools still do this today.

This entire experience made me sick. The only peace I had was knowing that he could never upgrade again without testing at an REC and he would not be able to pass.

This is why a lot of the 100 ton guys out there get a bad wrap because there are so many out there that have cheated through the system. Hell even back when I had my 100 ton the guys I worked with drove me insane due to their lack of professionalism. I also believed that none of my fellow mariners out there with the big licenses would ever take me serious because of how so many guys with the 100/200 ton licenses get it. The schools get paid to push guys through. And anyone who has gotten anything through that school in bayou labatre knows exactly what I’m talking about. We all know what they are doing, yet the USCG turns a blind eye to it.

After one year of holding that 200 ton Mate and appropriate seatime and tonnage you upgrade from 200 ton Mate without testing to 200 ton Master. Let’s not kid ourselves, with many of the tonnage door loop holes a 200 ton boat can be large enough to do a lot of damage with an idiot at the wheel.

That being said, I know there are still many 100 ton guys out there who are professional and do take pride in their work. This was not meant as a jab at anyone with a smaller license but to shed light on an issue that had plagued our industry for quiet some time and needs to be addressed.

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That is exactly right. At almost every one of the many courses I have attended there are people who pass only because the school helps them cheat. The schools are in it for the money. The money is in having a high pass rate, not in having rigorous training and careful screening licensees. We all know this. Only the USCG is completely clueless, or simply turns a blind eye to it.

The one exception is celestial navigation to go from a near coastal endorsement to oceans. These courses have been around for about 25 years.

The person he was questioning says he has a 500 ton license but has never tested at an REC.

There was guy who ran a school in Staten Island NY. He developed a drug problem and resorted to simply selling the certificates for money. I’m not sure how many people slipped through that crack, but losing his authorization from the USCG was the least of his problems when it blew up.

This was only one of the many license scandals that I heard about over the years. I remember one out of San Juan a while back. I think Mariners that were affected had to retest, if I recall the story correctly.

I personally knew a guy that cheated and schmoozed his way to master unlimited. He had one eye (still don’t know how that’s legal).

This is of course only people that bothered getting a license in the first place. There are many bootleggers out there. I ran across two of them and heard about a few more working in NY harbor.

See 46 CFR 10.305(e).

So, I’m not clear on this… you lose an eye… You apply for and get a waiver and it’s noted on your license that you have to carry corrective lenses? “If a vision waiver is granted, a limitation will be placed on his or her MMC indicating the mariner may not serve under the authority of the endorsement unless corrective lenses are worn and spare lenses are carried onboard a vessel.”

Is this government in action here? Or am I misreading it?

And with that being said, as someone with one normal vision eye and one really messed up one that bounces back and forth on the 20/200 line depending on the eye test (near sighted/astigmatism) that’s caused me to have that waiver on one of my past licenses… I’ve wondered about what the difference in regulations was between having just one eye and a person having one really myopic eye, and if a person with one eye could still sail deck. So, the answer is yes, a one eyed person could sail?