Master (Yachts)
The top of the yacht ladder — and the point where the paperwork gets unforgiving. Requirements as set out in MSN 1858 Amendment 2, plus what the two Master orals cover.
Hold an MCA OOW (Yachts <3000 GT) CoC. While serving on it, complete at least 12 months' onboard yacht service as a deck officer, including at least 120 days' watchkeeping service, on vessels of 15 metres or more in load line length. Hold the ancillary certificates for this CoC, pass the education and training modules and exams below, hold a valid ENG1, and pass the Master (Yachts <500 GT) oral.
Four MCA-approved training modules, each followed by its MCA professional exam: Seamanship and Meteorology, Stability, Business and Law, and Navigation, Radar and ARPA Simulator (all Master Yachts). Plus the MCA Celestial Navigation exam, which has no compulsory module in front of it.
If you fail a module exam you get one resit without retaking the module, provided you sit it within 12 months. Fail that, and you retake the module.
Celestial Navigation passes are valid for 1 year; every other module and exam certificate for 3 years. They must be in date when your CoC is issued — which is why the MCA advises getting Master <500 GT first if you might not reach the <3000 GT oral before they expire.
While serving as OOW (Yachts <3000 GT), complete at least 24 months' onboard yacht service as a deck officer, including at least 240 days' watchkeeping. All of it on vessels of 15 metres or more, and including either 12 months on vessels of 24 metres or more or 6 months on vessels of 500 GT or more. Then hold the ancillary certificates and pass the Master (Yachts <3000 GT) oral.
You also need either a Master (Yachts <500 GT) CoC plus a Celestial Navigation pass, or every Master Yachts module and exam pass — Celestial under 1 year old and the rest under 3 years old when the CoC is issued.
Yes, but every MCA professional exam except Celestial Navigation must then be passed before your Notice of Eligibility is issued, and the expiry dates above apply. If you do hold Master <500 GT, your module passes don't need to be in date when you apply for <3000 GT.
Actual seagoing service as the officer in full charge of a navigational watch for at least 4 hours in every 24 while the vessel is on a voyage. It can be counted cumulatively — every 4 hours of watchkeeping is a day, even across different 24-hour periods — but no more than one day counts in any 24 hours, however long the watch. Master candidates must prove watchkeeping service, not just sea service.
The Master <3000 GT syllabus covers planning and conducting safe navigation, safe watchkeeping arrangements, compasses, ship manoeuvring, response to navigational and other emergencies, pollution compliance, seaworthiness, crew management, the safety of crew and passengers, and legislative requirements. The <500 GT syllabus has the same backbone, with small-ship power plant alongside manoeuvring.
Both ask for 'a thorough knowledge of the content, application and intent' of the COLREGs, and both are judged at management level: you answer as the person carrying final responsibility, not the one on watch.
No. Both Master Yachts orals are single online orals with an MCA examiner on Microsoft Teams.
MSN 1858 Amendment 2 sets out a Chief Mate (Yachts <3000 GT) CoC and an interim 'Yachts Unlimited' route to Chief Mate and Master. The unlimited route runs through management-level modules at MCA-approved nautical colleges and MCA assessments in Chief Mate Navigation and Stability (Yacht Unlimited), and MCA orals — the Chief Mate (Yachts Unlimited) oral, then the Master Unlimited GT Yacht oral. Read section 4 of the notice for the qualifying service on each path.
The notices change. Always check the current version on GOV.UK before you apply or book.
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