Sea time
Sea time is what most CoC applications stall on. These are the MCA's definitions from MSN 1858 Amendment 2 — what counts as a day, what's capped, and what your testimonials need to show.
Onboard yacht service is all the time you're signed on a yacht, whatever the yacht is doing. Seagoing service is time actually at sea, which can include time at anchor and river or canal transits that are part of a passage. Certificates ask for a total of onboard service with a minimum of seagoing service inside it.
A minimum of 4 hours of working duty in 24 hours counts as one full day. Service is reckoned from the date you're engaged to the date you're discharged, and it should be in the deck department.
If the anchoring is part of a passage — waiting for a berth, or to transit a canal or lock — it can count as seagoing service, though never for longer than the previous voyage. If the yacht anchors at the end of a passage instead of going alongside, that time counts as stand-by service.
Stand-by service is the time straight after a voyage while the yacht is prepared for the next one. At most 14 consecutive days count at a time, never more than the previous voyage — so your total stand-by can never exceed your actual seagoing service. Yard service is time standing by a build, refit or repair; for OOW <3000 GT up to 90 days of it can count.
Yes. MSN 1858 says service may be performed on vessels of any flag.
At the rate of 50%, under section 5.1 of MSN 1858.
A calendar month — or 30 days where the service is made up of periods shorter than a month.
With a Merchant Navy discharge book supported by testimonials, certificates of discharge supported by testimonials, or a similar MCA-approved service record book. Testimonials follow the format in Annex A of MSN 1858, must be verifiable, and should cover your conduct and ability over the last 12 months before you apply, with your sea service and watchkeeping service — or those must be verified by separate certificates of service.
The Master of the vessel the service was on. For service as Master, the owner or a responsible person from the management company — a company director or yacht manager — signs instead.
At least 6 months of your qualifying seagoing service must fall within the 5 years before the MCA receives your application, and within the 5 years before your CoC is issued. The same 6-months-in-5-years minimum applies when you apply for an oral resit.
Log it as it happens, not at application time — the MCA wants a breakdown, and a testimonial is only as good as the record behind it. Bridgedeck Logbook keeps watches, voyages and vessels on your phone, offline, and counts sea days and days aboard separately. You can backfill past contracts and export an MCA-style PDF to bring to your captain. It's a record to support your testimonials, not a replacement for the signed ones.
The notices change. Always check the current version on GOV.UK before you apply or book.
Study and Logbook are both live on the App Store. Open either to get started.
