Yachts

[Chloe]

Hi, me again,
I'm just wondering if it would be feasible to transfer from either cruise ships to super yachts later on in your sea-faring career, are there any particular qualifications you need that would help?
Thanks

[Aleorea]

You need a Masters ticket

[alistairuk]

You can transfer across without any problems, although if you transfer across before gaining your chief mates or masters licence there is a good chance you will end up with a restricted licence (unless you come back to the merchant fleet) due to the size of most yachts.

[Randomist]

You need a Masters ticket

Not true.

As alistair says you may find it difficult to gain Cheif Mates/Masters unlimited tickets if you transfer with only an OOW ticket if you don't serve on regular merchant vessels. But some people do yacht work in addition to work on cruise vessels or whatever other vessels they generally work on.

There are many yacht companies after OOW tickets to serve in the capacity of OOW or Chief Officer, depending on the size of the yacht. Some of the companies are also after Chief Mate tickets, not just master.

It's worth remembering that with the smaller crews on yachts, sometimes people with OOW tickets find themselves in the capacity of 2nd Mate/Bosun when they transfer. There's a lot more deck work for officers on yachts than on your standard cruise ship

[Steve]

You can transfer across without any problems, although if you transfer across before gaining your chief mates or masters licence there is a good chance you will end up with a restricted licence (unless you come back to the merchant fleet) due to the size of most yachts.

Superyachts, which is what the OP mentioned and is certainly what I usually think of when discussing the yacht sector wrt people with a MN background, easily meet the size requirements (24m, 80gt). What I'm not sure of is if "yachts" in general do not qualify as 'merchant ships' within the MCA's definition. Any ideas?

[HolyNougat]

You can gain sea time on Yachts to qualify for higher certificates. The issue comes if you end up tied up in Cannes for 7 months of the year, in which case your 'sea time' will not count.
If you can get on a large yacht that spends a reasonable amount of time at sea then you will be fine.
These days yachts are basically small passenger vessels (or not so small!) In most cases you seem to be better off going into the industry with a Chief Mates ticket, but lots go in with OOW.
If I were you and wanted to move into the industry I would get (in addition to your commercial certificate) a good sailing qualification, an advanced diving qualification and possibly some mechanical experience (some yachts like their deck officers to be able to fix things...)

[Randomist]

In my experience, yacht companies I've looked at have also required a powerboat qualification and extensive waterspout experience (jet ski's, water skiing etc).

[GuinnessMan]

Also, if you do try to transfer back it will be harder as most companies tend not to have much interest in former yachties...

[YoungMariner]

Thought i'd come and clarify some points. Yes, you can transfer to yachts from the Merchant Navy. If your talking about little boats <50m then some of the comments above are true. But generally from the Merchant Navy people move into the Superyacht Sector, yachts that are more then 3000gt and probably 60m+.

A yacht over 3000gt that is carrying less then 12 passengers will probably be registered as a Cargo Ship and applies to all the regulations associated with that included the Cargo Ship Safety Certificate. If it carries more then 12 passengers it will probably be a Class 1 Passenger Vessel, and will adhere to all of the regulations that a cruise ship adheres to including the Passenger Ship Safety Certificate. On many of the very large yachts they require ex-Class 1 Officers because of the complexity and size of the vessels. We aren't talking about toys here, and your average 100m+ yacht costs more then a newbuild cruise ship.

Conditions in the yachting industry are generally very good, time for time is becoming more common and salaries tend to be 2 or 3 times the average Merchant Salary, plus bonus, and are similar and sometimes more then the Offshore DP Sector salaries.
As for seatime, you get full seatime, and you can easily move up to the next tickets. I've worked on yachts from 80m to 155m since I left cruise ships and would never look back.

That being said, its a very difficult sector to break into. Your looking at only around 40-50 yachts in the world that are greater then 3000gt, although some of the <3000gt would consider merchant tickets as well and your seatime on those is also valid towards an unlimited CoC but the work often isn't as relevant to your training (i.e. you'll be scrubbing decks, but probably be earning more as C/O scubbring decks on a 50m then the Captain of the QM2)

As for transferring back, if you sail on Class 1 Yachts, it wouldn't be too difficult to move back to Passenger Vessels.

Hmm, should I have really shared these little secret about yachts? :-)

[Steve]

AncientMariner,

From your recent posts am I correct in understanding that you are currently working on a superyacht where watchkeeping officers are doubled up? How common is that in the superyacht sector? I am amazed, I did not expect them to employ that many officers.

[YoungMariner]

Hi Steve, Yes thats correct. Although admittedly it's an unusual situation, and most yachts are run with a single experienced OOW and a lookout.