No. It still has to be renewed. Either with one year of sea time in the past five using radar, or with a course. See 46 CFR 11.480 and here. Also, you would be well advised to specifically request it on your application when you renew, and check that the endorsement is on your new MMC when the renewal is issued.
5 Likes
A post was split to a new topic: COVID-19 Maritime News
Thank you, yes it is my understanding that I still have to renew it since I work shoreside.
I was taking my FF renewal classes through SUNY PET department, since I live in the area. I was able to successfully reschedule them all in May so we will see how it works out.
Looks like today MITAGS announced they will be suspending all training at both East and West Coast locations until atleast April 24th.
Quote from the email: āWe will be in contact when we have plans to enable you to take on-line courses or portions of courses.ā
Im curious as to which classes they can make into on-line courses. Should be interesting.
Maybe itās time for the CG to follow the lead of many state medical licensing boards and provide relief from expiration and renewal requirements as well as remove some cross jurisdictional licensing barriers.
OMSA has sent a letter to the CG with regards to licensing, as well as vessel documentation / inspections.
Specifically, we request:
- All vessel Certificates of Inspection (COI) set to expire in the next 60 days and requiring a USCG or third party inspection should be extended through May 17, 2020. A proactive extension of COIs will provide for the safety of USCG personnel and mariners by preventing their exposure to outside persons during the height of the outbreak.
- The USCG should utilize its authority under 46 U.S.C. 7507 and 46 U.S.C. 7508 to extend national endorsements and medical certificates set to expire in the next 60 days which require an in-person course, exam, or medical office visit through May 17, 2020.
- Extensions similar to the extensions described in request two should be made for all similarly situated Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) credentials.
- Related, any Approval to Test (ATT) or Additional Information (AI) letter deadlines should be extended if these instruments direct the individual to participate in in-person classes, exams, or medical evaluations.
1 Like
The Covid-9 situation is affecting STCW certification, training and endorsement worldwide:
Well I had my Radar, my BST, and my Advanced FF renewal classes canceled
Radar?
Extensions now in effect.
3 Likes
ICS and ITF ask UN to urgently facilitate crew change:
Itās been exactly a year since the last post on this topic. Now with the end of pandemic mast-up on the horizon, Iām thinking about what the cost of dealing with it on a per-company basis has been. Thatās not to downplay 600k dead, or all the unemployment, closed businesses, all the people stuck at home, all the kidsā lost school time, etc.
Early on, we thought at my company that we might need to quarantine people in trailers/hotels before they sailed, etc. We always found workarounds for that. Other than a few hotel stays, we never needed additional lodging.
C19 testing was paid for by federal/state/local taxes, for the most part. A real cost, but not immediate.
All the PPE came to several $1000, but as a line item in the financials, itās not an impressive sum. We did accrue additional stevedoring charges in Dutch Harbor to distribute cargo. But all of that was offset by savings in crew transportation. Itās usually routine to fly people Seattle/Alaska to exchange crews. Expensive. All of that stopped a year ago. No hotel rooms needed either, for the inevitable Alaskan flight delays.
We have people here making health screening calls pre-sailing, taking temps of crewmembers, yadda, yadda yadda, but they would be filling a chair anyway.
Call it a wash, in terms of line-item costs. Of course, knock on wood, we never had a shipboard case of C19. That would have been very costly, even if no real medical bills had been incurred. (Knocking on wood againā¦)
Our crewmembers have had to quarantine at home before sailing, but much of America has been quarantining anyway. Our crews simply did what most people were doing.
The real costs will be future taxes, which will be felt society-wide, not just to the company.
2 Likes
What is the current status on USCG MMC, Medical card, etc Covid extension s?
Approval to text extension was re-extended to 10/31/21
1 Like
It sounds like your company handled this fairly well, all things considered. With a career move I just avoided the crew-change quarantines. But if I had to guess Iād assume there is a non-negligible emotional cost that should be on your real cost list. Increased time away from families due to quarantine requirements on both ends of a rotation are likely taxing peopleās tolerance for career longevity. I was already making moves due to unbalanced work rotations right before all this, I can easily imagine being infinitely more fed up now!
2 Likes