Getting ready to retire and looking to start a second career in the maritime field. Have a BA in an unrelated topic. Graduate program at a 4 year maritime academy impractical due to distance. There is a community college nearby which offers an AAS in Marine Technology with 225 hours (correction - days) towards a Coast Guard License. Which type of license would this quality me for, and if not sufficient how hard would it be to upgrade?
No one can answer without knowing the community college. 225 hours? The Coast Guard reckons sea time in days, not hours. (8 hours = 1 day). That it is expressed as hours rather than days is suspicious. Mariners (and the Coast Guard) do not use hours to quantify sea time.
You can look it up yourself, the approval of the course(s) given by the Coast Guard should say what licenses it can be used for: courses.pdf
Whatever it’s approved for, it’s not going to get you a license on its own. Other than complete programs like the academies, training can only be used for two-thirds of the total required for a license. You’re going to need to get some sea time on your own, probably a lot. 225 hours would be 28 days, even the lowest level licenses require one year.
College is Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY - actually it is 225 DAYS not hours, my mistake there
225 days on what kind of boat? That will make a big difference in what kind of license you can apply for and you will still be short of the needed time I think. You need at least 365 days for even the 6-pack IIRC.
OK. They are approved for 225 days for any inland license up to Master 200. That it is for inland will limit your opportunities, the program focuses on operators within NY harbor.
No matter what license you would go for, you are going to need more time. You can apply the 225 days to the following; you would need to make up the gap between what’s required and what you have:
Master 200 GRT Inland requires 360 days total, with 180 days as Mate or Master on lower tonnage. With no experience, you cannot get this as your first license.
Mate 200 GRT Inland requires 180 days total. I believe you cannot use all of the service from the KCC program; I think that you would need one third (60 days) to be actual service on vessels.
Master 100 GRT Inland requires one year total, you would need to get the remaining time, it can be in any capacity (including deck hand) in the deck department of a vessel.
Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels Inland (OUPV or “6-Pack’) Also one year total. As noted above, you probably need 60 days on actual vessels.
With all of the above, the tonnage of your license will be based on the tonnage of the vessels you get the balance of your time on. The breakdown is specified in the NMC checklists for each of the endorsements.
I would talk to the school. They may have ways to help you get the remaining sea time you will need.
I’m assuming here that the school has arrangements with tug or ferry operating companies to get sea time. This would presumably work towards licensing time and pursuit of a TOAR if applicable.
MITAGS has a similar program and has turned out some decent tug mates.
…but you know what they say when you assume… YMMV.
Maybe other vessels, but towing vessels? I doubt it. The sea time equivalency in the program cannot be used for a mate of towing endorsement.
That’s lousy as I’d much rather work on a tugboat than a ferry - I’m guessing the best route with this degree is to start at the bottom and work my way up?
Just like everyone else here in one way or another.
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Maybe other vessels, but towing vessels? I doubt it. The sea time equivalency in the program cannot be used for a mate of towing endorsement.
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I was referring to my assumption that the school finds you an OS/cadet equivalent slot on a workbooat for actual experience, which would go towards days at sea.
Lot of assumptions on my part but I can’t imagine that a school would get approval for a program w/o concurrently providing the sea time for graduates to test.
Advisor mentioned many students work over the summer wonder if that is included in the 225 days or not?
That would be a good question for the advisor.
If you can make to Kingsborough, you can also make it to SUNY Maritime. They also have an associates degree program that is geared towards tugs.
Since you already have a degree, you should take another look at the Grad license program there. It’s slightly longer but opens up many well paying options upon completion.
Edit: SUNY program is vastly superior, it results in a very marketable license. The license received at KBB is not marketable, and puts you into competition with a lot of hacks.
This is good advice, I have several grads from there working in licensed and unlicensed positions at my company.