The Professional Yachting Association (PYA) and the Italian Yacht Masters Association (IYM) sound the alarm on a rise in unqualified crew with fake or purchased licences, which raises potential safety issues for crew, passengers and vessels.

It is also in the best personal interests of all crew not to waste money on any Certificate of Competency (CoC) which is not recognised by the major Flag states in yachting. The same principle applies to any type of training course (deck, engineering or interior) which is not accredited by the rigorous requirements of national educational establishments or the industry-driven GUEST-audited courses.

While there are procedures in place to identify fraudulent licences – Flag states such as UK Maritime Coastguard Agency ( MCA) and Transport Malta (TM) can denounce any fraudulent tickets they encounter – there are still loopholes. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) maintains a ‘white list’ of countries that meet strict minimum training and certification standards for seafarers (STCW).

Holders of a CoC licence from a non-white-list country will probably be denied a Certificate of Equivalency, and will probably be rejected as a viable manning solution for white-list flagged vessels, and their sea time and training may either be highly scrutinised or not accepted at all towards a CoC from a white list country.

The PYA and IYM urge all yacht crew, managers, recruiters and insurers to only accept white-list CoCs to ensure the safety and legitimacy of their yachting operation.

The white list is available from the IMO or you can consult with high-quality Flag states directly.

Profile links

Professional Yachting Association

MCA - Maritime and Coastguard Agency / Ensign

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