Heard there is a plan afoot to authorize 1600t Captains to directly upgrade their licenses to unlimited Master . That is…. without having to incrementally test through the third/second and chief/master upgrading scheme. Sounds like Chouest has once again gotten to District 8. Anyone catch wind of this?
Josecanucee,
I believe that and other scenarios are part of the “proposed” change to the CFRs that we were all yaking about on this forum about 2 years ago. That proposal is still hanging in the wind so far.
According to STCW codes a master unlimited is the same as 1600 master
A-II/2
So in effect, as far as STCW alone is concerned 1600 master is just a limited, unlimited master.
I know an American guy who works overseas on foreign boats larger than his tonnage limitation because as he claims “the government only wants to see that A-II/2 listed”.
Now as far as your “license” is concerned that’s a different story.
I’ve read here before that it may be conceivable in the future that your STCW may allow you to have unlimited master but your License may not.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this.
STCW is limited in scope to watch keeping and such.
It covers a fraction of the requirements an officer may be tested on during examinations.
I don’t recall anything new in requirements between getting 3rd Mate AGT and 1600 Master… I’d have to look at the table. So, in so far as STCW is concerned, there is no watch standing difference between Mate and Master above 500tons…?
USCG really needs to have licensing removed from their purview. This is getting ridiculous. I hold three different license levels simultaneously…