How to work out seatime?

[marlinspike]

I can't remember how the MCA works out the sea time.

If for example you need 18 months for going for Mates/Masters Ticket do you work it out as needing 548 days on board the vessel? There is that sea time calculator on the clyde marine website, but does that count it the same way?

[Steve]

Calendar months with any remaining days reckoned at 30 to the month.

[condeh]

I've always thought it was a simple 30 days per month, so 540 days for 18months.

Still, if you're cutting it that fine always best to get an extra couple of weeks in the back before presenting your seatime to MCA.

[Chiefy]

As Steve says, full months, then add up odd days divided by 30

1st April to 4th may is 1 month 3 days

Seemples

[marlinspike]

ok thanks.

What about people that don't do trips over a month, like people on ferries doing 2 week trips, or supply/standby who do 28 days. Do they add up all the days to make 12 month x 30 days to 540 days or 548 (365 days x 1.5) days or what ever.

[Silvertop]

If you go on the MCA website and download the application form for your CoC it tells you exactly how to calculate all your seatime. I tried to post the link here but it did not work.

[Midge]

If you go on the MCA website and download the application form for your CoC it tells you exactly how to calculate all your seatime. I tried to post the link here but it did not work.

Do you mean this one

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/286243/Deck_Merchant_MSF4274.pdf

From MGN 92 Steve posted this info a while ago.
3.4 Calculation of Service
3.4.1 Sea service entered in official documents as in paragraph 3.3.1 above, will be reckoned by the calendar month, that is the time included between any given day in any month and the
preceding day of the following month, both inclusive. The number of complete months from the commencement of the period, ascertained in this way, should be computed, after which the number of odd days should be counted. The day on which the crew agreement commenced, as well as that on which it terminated, should both be included, all leave of absence excluded and all odd days added together and reckoned at thirty days to the month.

Para 3.7 has info on specialised vessels ferries tugs etc table 4 /5 gives that rates at which it's calculated.

[captainronburgundy]

Could somebody just clear this up for me, apologies for being slow.. I work in offshore, 28 day trips, are these counted as a month each time? or do I need to do 13.07 trips in order to reach the required seatime? thanks

[Steve]

I need to do 13.07 trips in order to reach the required seatime?

This.

[Clanky]

Do also note that the day you join and the day you leave are both counted as sea time, so double check your 28 day trips to make sure that they are not in fact 29 day trips and you may only have to do 12.4 trips.

[Midge]

Could somebody just clear this up for me, apologies for being slow.. I work in offshore, 28 day trips, are these counted as a month each time? or do I need to do 13.07 trips in order to reach the required seatime? thanks

This thread might help, http://www.officercadet.com/showthre...hlight=Seatime

I read it as follows add all the days up divide by 30 which gives you the months and any remaining are the days, that's only if you don't do a calendar month.
In fact you would work less days in total than someone who works months that are 31 days if you think about .
3 x 4 month trips = 365 days where as on 28 days rotation you only require 30 days.
360 days =30 = 12 months. You need to do 12 trips of 28 days and another of 24 days to achieve 360.

Im sure the the seatime gurus will be able to confirm if I've got it right or not.

[Rich]

I've got a question about obtaining sea time whilst working on harbour tugs. I understand that the vessel must be over 24m, 80GT and proceeds to sea, however I'm a bit confused about the proceeding to sea part. What happens if the tug doesn't proceed to sea every day or even rarely proceeds to sea? Would this have an impact towards gaining sea time towards Chief Mate Unlimited? I've tried reading up on this but I'm still none the wiser.

Has anyone got any experience of going from OOW Unlimited to working on Tugs? Thanks.

[JonathanI]

Have a look at MGN 92 I think it is !. You get a reduced amount of sea time. It depends wether you are Cat C or Cat D waters.

[Steve]

What happens if the tug doesn't proceed to sea every day or even rarely proceeds to sea?

MGN 92, paras 3.2.1, 3.7.2, and Table 5.

Based on those, I'd say the MCA will only count as "seagoing" watchkeeping time, time actually spent outside of categorised waters. Otherwise the discounts in Table 5 will apply to your service, and you'll need some from seagoing vessels, or occasions your vessels ventured out of categorised waters. If you aren't familiar with the details of categorised waters check out MSN 1827.

But I recommend you contact the MCA for confirmation of their position on the matter.

[Rich]

MGN 92, paras 3.2.1, 3.7.2, and Table 5.

Based on those, I'd say the MCA will only count as "seagoing" watchkeeping time, time actually spent outside of categorised waters. Otherwise the discounts in Table 5 will apply to your service, and you'll need some from seagoing vessels, or occasions your vessels ventured out of categorised waters. If you aren't familiar with the details of categorised waters check out MSN 1827.

But I recommend you contact the MCA for confirmation of their position on the matter.

Response from the MCA regarding sea time towards chief mate unlimited on board tugs. "If you worked in Category D waters we will count your sea time at ? but would only accept 75% of this sea time. Please contact me again if you have any other queries
Just for your info see MGN495."

Some interesting info in MGN 495 of which I wasn't aware of. Thanks for your help Steve. I'm very much considering this line of work and I think the pay and rotation is very encouraging from what I've heard.