Stand-by and yard service
Stand-by and yard days fill the gaps between passages, and for OOW (Yachts <3000 GT) they can make up part of the 365 days. Both are capped. These are the definitions and limits in MSN 1858 Amendment 2, with worked examples.
The time immediately following a voyage while the yacht is being prepared for the next one. MSN 1858 sets two limits: no more than 14 consecutive days can be counted at one time, and no period of stand-by can be longer than the voyage before it. Because each period is capped by its voyage, your total stand-by can never exceed your actual seagoing service.
The time spent standing by a build, refit or repair. The definition carries no limit of its own; the cap comes in the OOW (Yachts <3000 GT) requirement below.
It depends where the anchoring falls. At the end of a passage — the yacht goes to anchor rather than to a berth — it counts as stand-by. As part of a passage, such as a short stop waiting for a berth or to transit a canal or lock, it can count as seagoing service, but never for longer than the previous voyage. The same goes for time on a buoy or mooring.
MSN 1858 frames that explanation for seafarers who aren't certificated officers in full charge of a navigational watch. For officers, time at anchor during a bridge watch can count towards watchkeeping if it is associated with a passage that is part of the same 24-hour voyage.
Of your 36 months' onboard yacht service since age 16, at least 365 days must be seagoing service on vessels of 15 metres or more in load line length. That 365 is made up of at least 250 days' seagoing service plus 115 days of any combination of seagoing, stand-by and yard service. Stand-by is limited as above; yard service counts up to a maximum of 90 days, 'continuously or in separate periods'.
In other words, stand-by and yard days can supply at most 115 of the 365, and only on top of at least 250 days of actual seagoing service.
Master (Yachts <500 GT) and Master (Yachts <3000 GT) ask for 12 or 24 months' onboard yacht service as a deck officer, including 120 or 240 days' watchkeeping. Onboard yacht service is all your time signed on a yacht, whatever the vessel is doing, and those requirements set no separate stand-by or yard cap.
As we read it, stand-by and yard days count towards the Master onboard total but not towards its watchkeeping days, because watchkeeping service is actual seagoing service in full charge of a navigational watch while the vessel is on a voyage.
Yes. Under MSN 1856, yacht service on yachts of 24 metres or more in load line length, or 80 GT or more, counts towards an unlimited II/1 or II/2 CoC as a combination of actual seagoing, stand-by and yard service. Stand-by can't exceed the previous voyage and is at most 14 days in each period; yard service is capped at a total of 90 days for OOW and 30 days for Chief Mate or Master.
Yacht engineers work to different rules again, under MSN 1904 — see our engineer sea time guide.
Our examples, applying MSN 1858. A 5-day passage, then 3 weeks alongside preparing for the next trip: you can count 5 days' stand-by, not 21, because no period can exceed the previous voyage. A 30-day passage, then the same 3 weeks alongside: you can count 14, the consecutive-day limit. If the yacht had gone to anchor at the end of the 5-day passage instead of to a berth, those anchor days would be stand-by too, under the same limits.
Our arithmetic, with all service on yachts of 15 metres or more. 260 days' actual seagoing, 70 stand-by and 40 yard: 260 + 70 + 40 = 370, and 260 is over 250, so the 365-day part is met. 250 seagoing, 20 stand-by and 120 yard: only 90 of the yard days count, so 250 + 20 + 90 = 360, five days short. 230 seagoing with 150 days of stand-by and yard falls short whatever the total, because actual seagoing is under 250.
The sea time calculator runs these checks from your totals. It can't check the per-voyage stand-by limits, which is what Table A on the testimonial is for.
On each testimonial, as separate lines for actual seagoing, stand-by and yard service in days, with NIL where there were none. To claim stand-by you complete Table A on the reverse, voyage by voyage: the date the voyage began, the date it ended, the stand-by days claimed and a signature. Table A isn't needed if you have an MCA-approved Service Record Book signed by an authorised official.
The Yacht Certificate of Discharge records total time onboard, leave of absence and total days at sea, but no stand-by or yard days, so that breakdown comes from the testimonial.
Our advice: log them as they happen, against the voyage they follow, and note when the yacht went to anchor rather than alongside. That way Table A is a copy, not a reconstruction, and you can see before you leave a vessel whether a stand-by period is capped by a short passage.
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