Deckie looking for advice on Switching to Engine / QMED. Looking for Advice on Oiler, RFPEW, AS-E, and QMED Any Rating

Maritime Topics Maritime Training & Licensing
1

OS Considering Switching to Engine / QMED. Looking for Advice on Oiler, RFPEW, AS-E, and QMED Any Rating.

I’m an OS, currently working my first MMC job. I don’t feel like I’m under anyone’s thumb or owe anyone anything, and as far as blue-collar jobs go, my coworkers are about as polite, cool, and willing to teach as anyone could reasonably hope for. I’ve heard from people on various other boats that I’m lucky and got assigned to the boat with the “good crew.” The pay isn’t particularly high, but shoreside leadership seems flexible, and I have a feeling the higher-paying OS jobs I was offered had strings attached.

I’ll soon submit my upgrade for AB Special, LB/PSC, and RFPNW. My current employer will give me a small raise for obtaining AB Special.

My employer claims that, upon request, they can move us into a Wiper/AB-Mechanic/Deckineer billet without requiring us to change vessels or meaningfully change our day-to-day responsibilities. Apparently, this also comes with a small raise over normal AB pay, which is why most ABs pursue it, but the arrangement also supposedly allows employees to accumulate engine time and pursue QMED.

That said, hardly anyone actually takes advantage of this opportunity beyond collecting the small Deck-Mechanic pay raise. In all the years since the company began operating, it sounds like only one guy has actually bothered to leverage this arrangement to get QMED added to his MMC. There are no engine officers on my boats, and usually the boats don’t have a Wiper or QMED either, although they can provision for a Deck-Mechanic if they feel the need. If I pursue this and follow through, it sounds like I’d only be our second QMED ever.

I’ve been considering taking advantage of this opportunity because I suspect I’d actually prefer the unlicensed engine side of the industry to the unlicensed deck side. I have more mechanical aptitude than most of my fellow Americans, or at least I’d like to think so, and the engineering career path, along with its job security, appeals to me. I do have a bachelor’s degree, but I don’t have any formal maritime or engineering education. My degree is NOT in engineering, maritime or otherwise.

I have a few questions for those of you who have gone down the engine route:

  1. Where can or should I take a QMED Any Rating course? Are there particular schools or programs you’d recommend, or would I be better off pursuing individual endorsements? I’m not necessarily opposed to taking a comprehensive Any Rating course if it’s worthwhile.

  2. If I don’t pursue Any Rating, which QMED ratings, if any, should I get in addition to Oiler? Electrician/Refrigerating Engineer, Junior Engineer, or Watertender? None other than Oiler? I already have my EPA 608 Universal and 609 certifications, and my military MOS entailed repairing digital radios, so Electrician/Refrigerating Engineer seems like a natural second rating. However, I’m curious whether holding multiple QMED ratings actually opens additional employment opportunities and/or increases wages.

    I must also admit I kind of want Watertender simply because I think external combustion engines are the coolest things ever, although I probably wouldn’t go significantly out of my way to earn it, since steam plants seem to be practically extinct.

  3. Should I prioritize RFPEW or national QMED (Oiler or Any Rating) first? I understand that Oiler alone is sufficient as far as QMED endorsements go for the RFPEW and AS-E pathways, so I don’t necessarily need QMED Any Rating to pursue STCW advancement. I’m just unsure which credential makes the most sense to tackle first. I get the impression that obtaining national QMED before RFPEW may somehow work to my advantage. Is that accurate?

  4. Does anyone foresee a problem with obtaining qualifying engine time through my employer’s proposed arrangement? Given that our vessels don’t normally carry engine officers or dedicated engineering personnel, I’m curious whether anyone has successfully gone down a similar route and had the Coast Guard accept their service toward QMED. Obviously, I’d like to make sure the time will actually count before committing to this route. I’ve already made a few phone calls and have also asked my shoreside leadership to clarify in writing whether this arrangement produces qualifying engine service.

  5. Does the absence of an engineer officer aboard my vessel present a problem for obtaining RFPEW? Can a Master or Mate supervise and sign off on qualifying RFPEW service, or must it specifically be an engineer officer or qualified STCW engine rating? If neither is aboard, would pursuing national QMED Oiler first be a viable way around this problem? If I take an RFPEW class at a school, does this circumvent this possible barrier?

Longer term, if someday I finally accomolish becoming a really good unlicensed mariner, I’m not ruling out pursuing a license, whether that’s DDE, 3A/E, or potentially even Mate if I ultimately decide to stay on deck. I realize that depending on which direction I go, I’ll probably want or need to move to larger vessels with the appropriate horsepower or tonnage at some point. For now, I’m primarily interested in getting onto the unlicensed side of the industry and making sure I’m not wasting time accumulating service that won’t count toward anything.

I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has transitioned from deck to engine, or who has worked their way up through QMED toward a licensed engineering position.

Any advice, tips, school recommendations, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

2

What kind of vessels are you working on?

You should definately take the opportunity to get whatever endorsements you can. You never know when they may come in handy or provide new opportunities.

Qmed-Oiler is the one to get. The other QMED ratings would apply more if you are sailing on ships/deep sea. Oiler is fine for tugs/OSVs. Most qmed courses I’ve seen may prep for more than oiler and those courses are long and expensive. If you have the funds and can take a few weeks off, go for it. If not buy a thumb drive, self study and test at the uscg rec. Lots have done it including myself.

When it comes to ab seafarer engine and rfpew, deck officers can’t sign those off. You would have to do a course or go work somewhere where an assistant or chief can do it.

Seatime worded properly as a ‘wiper’ or ‘unlicensed engineer’ and what duties and watch standing you do should meet seatime requirements for qmed.

3

My HR said they credit it as “deck-mechanic”. I can ask or beg them to credit it as wiper; not sure what they would say to that. The people in HR seem to be generally a little clueless but if you make enough noise eventually after 42 emails they may put you in touch with someone who is genuinely pretty knowledgeable.

I work on light tonnage. I suspect Iwould like to work on heavy tonnage. It sounds like in order to get sign offs, you need to work heavy tonnage, or at least a vessel large enough to billet a DDE or something… But don’t most large ocean going vessels require AS-E? Seems like a chicken or the egg situation… If I can’t get any signoffs without a licensed engineer onboard, but I need the ratings in order to be hirable to get onboard a large vessel with a license engineer… I’m confident I can figure something out. Not a lot of wiper jobs available online though!

We don’t anchor at my job, so I had to do RFPNW in a simulator at a course that I paid for with my own money. Same with lifeboat/PSC and AB. So I have no problem paying to fo RFPEW at a course if that is a shoo-in and simplifys my life. When you pay for your own courses, you also don’t have to feel guilty or get guilt tripped when you leave employment for greener pastures

If I want to go deep sea high tonnage, sounds like it would benefit to have more than just oiler…

4

What kind of vessel are you working on now? Knowing this makes it easier for folks to advise you.

5

Small osv crew boat. It is COI. I think we’re large enough GRT that the USCG would automatically always consider any boat this large to have an engine room

6

If the people you work for have bigger vessels ask to move. If not go to work for a company with bigger vessels. Even if you sort out all the paper work and eventually get the document you currently want you are limiting yourself in many ways by working on a crew boat. Get what you can now and move on. IMO

7

Ok so ‘small osv crewboat.’ Are you working in the gulf? Or where?

I’ve never heard of a seatime letter using ‘deck mechanic’ as a position title and I can only imagine how that could create problems with a sea letter.

What is the tonnage of the vessel? Less than 100 grt? Less than 200 grt? The Ab seafarer engine and rfpew come into play on vessels larger than 199 grt/499 gt generally speaking. A lot of vessels have domestic GRT and international GT tonnage. If your boat stays within a route where their domestic tonnage comes into play is the question.

You are being a bit cryptic about what kind of boats you work on so the above assumptions are based on what we know at this time.

It’s easily doable to have seatime on a less than 100 grt crewboat/utility boat/osv and get a qmed (if you want all the ratings you have to take all the tests). Oiler is probably the easiest one and like I said the other ratings only matter if you want to be on a vessel over 1600 grt (probably.) Totally possible to get any of the three DDE licenses as long as the HP on your boat is over 1000 hp too. The rfpew and ab seafarer engine will be the problem unless you do a course or find a licensed engineer to sign you off. So yeah, you may want to work somewhere else where the endorsements you want are more easily attainable.

There are plenty of companies where a dde 4000 without all the oicew/stcw bs is good enough to get a decent paying job. There are also plenty of companies that want you to have every endorsement known to man to work on a tug in the harbor.

8

I started writing a reply addressing everything you said, but it gradually turned into a small maritime treatise, and I figured I probably shouldn’t subject you to all that.

I really do appreciate you taking the time to give me such a detailed response, though!

You did a pretty good job inferring what type of vessels I work on, even with my admittedly evasive descriptions. You’ve got the right idea. I could elaborate quite a bit, but I’m becoming increasingly concerned about my tendency to write absurdly long replies.

9

It was between this and tugs. There was one great lakes freighter company that seemed like maybe they might hire me, but they didnt have time and a half seatime, and they fired over ten of the people in HR all at once while I was conversing with them in initial talks (they supposedly fired every single person in HR except one man)

I thought you need AS-E or AS-D to go on a big ocean-going boat…

Also, i thought most heavy tonnage ships, even if they would hire someone as green as me (I don’t think they will!), i thought they don’t have a watch schedule that will grant time and a half seatime… the light tonnage boats seem to do the time-and-a-half seatime

Edit: did my photo not attach to this reply?

10

https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/NMC/pdfs/professional_qualifications/time_half_credit.pdf

It sounds like with the engineering ratings you want to get and in your other posts regarding these ratings the limiting factor is the company you work for and the boat you work on. Nothing is going to allow you to get your engine NVIC assessments signed off if there isn’t an engineer onboard and it seems no courses sign off all of them.

11

I think I can just pay for the QMED(s), RFPEW, and maybe even AS-E classes? I don’t suspect it will be too much money

That is of course assuming I even get the engine seatime that they claim I may be granted. I’ll have to continue to hound them for answers come 2027

12

It will be a few grand at the least depending on schools. Not including airfare, lodging and wages lost while taking these classes.

Like I said before, consider self studying for the qmed rating/ratings.

13

I usually just drive to these things and sleep in a car or tent or truck. Too inconvenient to fly to a class.

Maybe I could take one QMED class or two and self study for the other ratings… i’m still not sure if it even makes sense to attempt to get fireman/watertender or whatever they renamed it to be gender neutral

14

There are plenty of QMED oiler test study materials available without paying for an in person class. To be honest if you need a class to get you thru any unlicensed test you probably will have a limited or short career. Taking a class to learn to weld properly makes more sense financially and career wise.

15

I took a free 160 hour welding class as an adult. Years before that, I graduated high school early, but in my final semester of high school I took SMAW/stick-welding.

The instructor from my adult welding class said that every once in a great while he meets a weirdo who can TIG weld okay, but somehow MIG welds worse than Helen Keller. He said I’m one of those weirdos who can TIG but can’t MIG. Which is frankly, embarrasing. I wish I was a better welder.

Regardless of welding skill or lack of, I would not recommend welding to anyone who is looking for a lucrative career. I did it with the understanding it was unlikely I would ever become a professional welder. There certainly is a cartel/industry operation that wants to create the public conscious impression that welding is some sort of get rich quick scheme. I think the trucking industry and maybe even the mariner industry has the same sort of cabals going on, trying to make kids think there is some sort of shortage, and surplus of high paying entry level jobs

Maybe I won’t take a QMED class then; I’m not sure if taking the exams at REC requires getting employer sign offs, but I do not know how to get employer sign offs, so classes may be my only option…

I assume I will have to pay for the RFPEW class.

I am already not looking forward to learning how to use NAVITA to do my deck upgrade in a month; I’ve never used NAVITA, and I never used ASAP. I’ve only ever done my initial and upgrades via submitting to MMCAPPLICATIONS@uscg.mil or whatever the domain was called.

I have no idea how to schedule REC exams, or how that effects upgrades, but I’ll look into that.
My dad was never a sailor, but he did have a 100GRT NC Master’s. He took a six-pack/100GRT class; my dad never tested at the REC. Is my dad some kind of a soft wimp for taking that class? Genuine question

Is the parking good at the Boston REC? Is it a pain in the ass to get in there? Obviously I’ve never been and neither has my dad. I doubt many of my coworkers have been either. I think they topically take classes, and most of the mates and masters are Academy graduates

16

First step is go to the website and see the checklist for what you want/qualify for. Send in an application along with whatever else is required. Get approved. Pick your REC and schedule a test. It can be done by phone with the NMC or thru the website. Once approved you have a year to test.

My first credential ever was a 100 grt master. I took the course. From a guy that has both deck and engine credentials I can tell you it would be easier self studying for the qmed as opposed to the 100 grt master. More modules, more subjects, some modules require a higher passing score. All qmed tests are 70% to pass.

There’s benefits to doing a course. Most will let you test at the school and you don’t have to bother with the REC and some folks do better with a course because they can’t buckle down and study/research on their own. Just saying, things are way more expensive than when I started out 30 years ago. When I got my AB I did a course and in hindsight I realized it wasn’t a big deal and could have self studied. Most of the qmed courses are long and expensive. If that isn’t a concern for you than do a course somewhere.

If you stick with this as a career there will be plenty of things that require a course. That’s why I suggest to folks to self study for the things they can self study for. But thats me.

17

No. On street parking is scarce and reserved for North End residents or is time limited to a few hours. There are some commercial lots a half mile or so away but they are expensive.

18

Shut up. Once again.

19

Is trash talk between officers and unlicensed mariners authorized in this forum or am I not allowed to do so

20

If the time you’ve used to post here had been used studying you be done now.