I recently recieved NMC approval for one of my tug captain employees to get his oceans endorsement for his current 200 GRT / 500 GT /master towing MMC when he completes AB, advanced fire fighting and a limited celestial course including gryo compass correction - a course offered by only 3 approved schools. This coupled with his STCW - BST ( not bridge management) endorsement ‘should’ allow him to sail on under 200 GRT tugs international - world wide. Some of my counterparts have questioned this validity. Thoughts?
The big issue is whether or not there will be an STCW capacity as MASTER/OICNW without a route LIMITATION; tonnage limitation isn’t really a problem on the whole but could be per individual port states. That seems to be part of why they want all international licenses 1,600 or greater tons on the long run. I’d want to know what will be on page 4/5 of the MMC before agreeing.
That is good question. I certainly do not know the correct answer.
Whatever the correct answer is, you might always be taking a chance that port state control officials overseas may not know the correct answer either, and then create expensive problems for you to solve.