Several guys that work with me took their 5 day BST for STCW 10 or 11 years ago. Most of them at the time had the rating of O/S.( they still are O/S)
When they presented the certificates to the Coast Guard they did not accept them because they did not need them based on the area they worked ( Harbor service in a US port) and that it was imposible to “attach” a STCW to a O/S rating. The last part is the main reason of not giving them the STCW.
I am trying to get them there Basic STCW, I was thinking of sending the certificates, application form asking for the STCW, ID’s and Sea Letter based on the dates after they took the BST course. All of the have more than 360 days in 5 years ( in their case it would be more than 720 days in the span of 10 or 11 years) in order to show that they participated in the training and drills aboard the Towing Vessels.
I understand that in such cases if the BST course was taking less than 5 years the CG is working with those people case by case and issuing the STCW, but in our case it is more than double the time.
[QUOTE=0rion;116839]Several guys that work with me took their 5 day BST for STCW 10 or 11 years ago. Most of them at the time had the rating of O/S.( they still are O/S)
When they presented the certificates to the Coast Guard they did not accept them because they did not need them based on the area they worked ( Harbor service in a US port) and that it was imposible to “attach” a STCW to a O/S rating. The last part is the main reason of not giving them the STCW.
I am trying to get them there Basic STCW, I was thinking of sending the certificates, application form asking for the STCW, ID’s and Sea Letter based on the dates after they took the BST course. All of the have more than 360 days in 5 years ( in their case it would be more than 720 days in the span of 10 or 11 years) in order to show that they participated in the training and drills aboard the Towing Vessels.
I understand that in such cases if the BST course was taking less than 5 years the CG is working with those people case by case and issuing the STCW, but in our case it is more than double the time.
Any imput with this?[/QUOTE]
They should be OK if they can demosnntrate an unbroken chain of having worked on a sea-going vessel (near coastal or oceans) for at least one year in any five year period since they took the courses. If the chain was broken and there was ever a time where in the previous five years they did not have the one year of sea time, they would have lapsed on BST and will need to re-take it.
While this sounds like a lot of work and is tedious, they should have been keeping these recortds and carrying them with them to show they were up to date on BST when they were working. If they were working where BST was required and they couldn’t provide these records, bopth they and the vessels they worked on and companies they worked for were remiss. If finding the documents they should have had all along is too large a burden, they can just re-take the courses.
This is a somewht unusual occurrence as I think it’s pretty rare for someone to remain in the industry for so long wiothout ever upgrading from entry-level.
Most of the guys have stayed with their o/s ratings because they have colateral duties within the company and their pay has upgraded during those years. (Not much)
When you are running a UTV and basically you can get away with having a 2 man crew including the Master with automated tugs the need to have personnel to upgrade to A/B or a license is rare.
And you have to pay your own training, time while training is charged to your vacations and other details. Most of the guys are just not interested in moving forward with the upgrading.