Deck

AMSA Watchkeeper Deck <3000 GT (Yachts)

AUS-WKD-Y

Modules
4
Lessons
20
Questions
100

AI-drafted catalogue content pending SME review. Sea service and course requirements change; verify with AMSA before relying on this for a career decision.

Aligned to the published AMSA requirements and the relevant Marine Orders. Official source (AMSA). Drafted from Marine Order 74 (Masters and deck officers - yachts) 2015 as registered on legislation.gov.au, and AMSA guidance at amsa.gov.au. Watchkeeping competences follow STCW Code section A-II/1..

Rule notes (10)

  1. Recent change

    Foreign superyacht charter: the SRV Act ended on 30 June 2025

    The Special Recreational Vessels Act 2019, which gave foreign-flagged superyachts a charter licence, sunset on 30 June 2025; the Federal Register shows it repealed from 1 July 2025, with no replacement Act found. Superyacht Australia's page (Nov 2025) still describes an A$400 temporary licence. Before the first paying guest, get written confirmation of the legal basis from the Department of Infrastructure or an endorsed agent, and the customs position from ABF.

    Sources

  2. Rule to know

    AMSA does not accept ENG1 for a new certificate

    For initial issue of an STCW or MO 74 yacht certificate, AMSA requires its own Certificate of Medical Fitness (form 303), examined in Australia by an AMSA-approved practitioner. ENG1, OEUK/OGUK and the domestic 1850 are not accepted. Book the 303 during Australian leave, not the week the college block starts.

    Sources

  3. Rule to know

    On a foreign-flag yacht the flag, not AMSA, sets crew certificates

    AMSA's "Is it a DCV?" guidance excludes foreign vessels from the national system, so crew of a foreign-flagged yacht in Australia follow the flag's rules. An Australian-flagged commercial yacht is a domestic commercial vessel if it stays inside the EEZ, or a regulated Australian vessel if it operates or intends to operate beyond it, and crew need AMSA certificates accordingly.

    Sources

  4. Not confirmed

    Will AMSA recognise an MCA yacht CoC?

    To serve on an Australian-flagged vessel with a foreign STCW CoC you need an AMSA certificate of recognition (form 419, $190, about 28 business days); officers also face a sea service assessment and oral. The UK is on AMSA's list of recognised countries, but the CoR page does not say whether yacht-limited CoCs such as MCA Master (Yachts) are recognised. Ask AMSA before assuming a Y-ticket converts.

    Sources

  5. Rule to know

    Great Barrier Reef: pilot from 70 m, REEFVTS from 50 m

    Vessels of 70 m or more need a licensed coastal pilot in the Inner Route, Great North East Channel, Torres Strait, Hydrographers Passage and the Whitsundays; Marine Order 54 (Coastal pilotage) 2026 commenced on 1 September 2026. REEFVTS reporting is mandatory from 50 m under Marine Order 63 (GBRMPA words it as "greater than 50 m"). A 60 m yacht needs no pilot but reports throughout.

    Sources

  6. Sources disagree

    GMDSS certificate for yacht officers: GOC or any GMDSS ticket?

    Marine Order 74 asks for a GMDSS radio operator certificate to issue the Chief Mate (Yachts) but a General Radio Operators Certificate to revalidate it, and specifies the GOC for Master <3000 GT (Yachts) where AMSA's guidance notice says only "GMDSS Radio Operators Certificate". Holding a GOC meets every version.

    Sources

  7. Sources disagree

    IYT certificates: accepted on AMSA pages, not named in MO 505

    AMSA's web pages accept an IYT Small Powerboat & RIB Master for Coxswain Grade 3 and IYT Master of Yachts certificates for Sailing Master, but Schedule 3 of Marine Order 505 names only RYA certificates. The legal basis may be an equivalence decision; ask AMSA to confirm in writing before relying on an IYT route.

    Sources

  8. Not confirmed

    Tenders of foreign superyachts: which rules apply?

    Whether tenders operated from foreign-flagged superyachts in Australian waters fall under the domestic National Law and Marine Order 505 crewing was not settled by any source read. Ask the vessel's agent and AMSA before tender drivers carry guests in Australia.

    Sources

  9. Rule to know

    Above 750 kW the master cannot also be the engineer

    AMSA crewing guidance: up to 750 kW propulsion power the master and engineer roles may be combined if the master holds an engine certificate; above 750 kW they cannot. Confirm the exact wording and conditions in Marine Order 504 (2024) Schedule 1.

    Sources

  10. Not confirmed

    AMSA yacht orals: no published examiner checklist

    AMSA publishes a syllabus for the yacht orals (Appendices 11 and 12) but no yacht-specific examiner checklist, and the pages read give no oral duration. Merchant checklists rate topics A (safety-critical), B and C; assume safety-critical topics must be answered in full.

    Sources

AUS-WKD-Y-M1 · The Certificate

5 lessons

AUS-WKD-Y-M1-A What Watchkeeper Deck <3000 GT (Yachts) is, and how you get it

In preparation
AUS-WKD-Y-L1.1What the certificate lets you doAMSA issues exactly four yacht certificates of competency, under Marine Order 74. All four are deck certificates. Watchkeeper Deck <3000 GT (Yachts) is the first of them, and it is the ticket that puts you alone on the bridge of a superyacht at three in the morning with the master asleep two decks down.PreviewAUS-WKD-Y-L1.2The sea serviceMO74 Schedule 2 sets three numbers for Watchkeeper Deck <3000 GT (Yachts), and they nest inside one another like boxes. Get the nesting wrong and you will present service that does not add up.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L1.3The approved understudy programmeThis lesson details the four separate hour-counted tallies within an approved deck watchkeeper understudy programme, the minimum shift length required, how MO74 Schedule 3 converts watch hours into days of sea service, and the distinction between acceptable evidence for domestic versus international certificates.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L1.4The short courses, and the GMDSS trapThe short-course requirements for the four yacht grades are not the same, and they are routinely conflated. Here is what MO74 asks of a Watchkeeper — and, just as importantly, what it does not.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L1.5The Master <200 GT endorsement, the medical and the oralThree separate hurdles sit between a completed sea-service record and a certificate in your hand. Two of them are administrative, and both are routinely got wrong.Locked

AUS-WKD-Y-M2 · The Navigational Watch

5 lessons

AUS-WKD-Y-M2-A STCW A-II/1 watchkeeping, on a yacht

In preparation
AUS-WKD-Y-L2.1Taking over and handing over the watchA handover is a transfer of legal responsibility for the safety of the vessel. It is not a chat. Until the relieving officer says the words, the watch belongs to the officer being relieved, and every consequence of every decision belongs to him too.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L2.2The COLREGs on watchCandidates arrive at the oral able to recite the light configurations of a vessel engaged in dredging and unable to answer the only question that matters on a real bridge: *is this getting worse, and what am I going to do about it?* Learn the shapes. But live in Part B, Section I.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L2.3Lookout, and the limits of the human eye at nightRule 5 is one sentence long and it is the most-breached rule in the book. Not by people who do not know it — by people standing on a bridge at 0400 who have been staring at a screen for two hours and could not tell you what is out of the window.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L2.4Bridge resource management and challenge-and-responseAlmost no accident has a single cause. What accident reports find, again and again, is a chain — a small error, a missed cross-check, an assumption nobody voiced, a doubt somebody had and did not raise. BRM exists to break the chain at any link.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L2.5Passage planning — appraise, plan, execute, monitorThe plan is not paperwork produced to satisfy an auditor. It is the vessel's thinking done in advance, in daylight, with a cup of coffee and every publication open — so that at 0300, in rain, with a contact closing, nobody has to think it out for the first time.Locked

AUS-WKD-Y-M3 · Navigation in Practice

5 lessons

AUS-WKD-Y-M3-A Position, chart, radar, tide

In preparation
AUS-WKD-Y-L3.1Position fixing and chartworkA position is a claim about the physical world. It has a source, an accuracy, and a time — and if you cannot state all three, you do not have a position. You have a number.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L3.2ECDIS — the safety contour and the safety depthECDIS is not a chart on a screen. It is a **navigational system** that reads a vector database, applies your settings, and generates alarms on the strength of them. The settings are not preferences. They are the parameters of the alarm that will or will not wake you up.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L3.3Radar and ARPA — capability and limitationRadar transmits a pulse and listens for the echo. Everything it can and cannot do follows from that one sentence. There is no intelligence in it and no judgement in it, and the moment you forget that, it starts lying to you convincingly.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L3.4Tides, tidal streams and depthTwo separate phenomena, constantly confused. The **tide** is the vertical rise and fall of the water. The **tidal stream** is the horizontal movement of it. They are caused by the same forces, they are not in phase with each other, and you must plan for both.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L3.5The magnetic and gyro compass; errors, and checking themThe gyro is precise, tireless and electrically dependent. The magnetic compass is imprecise, cantankerous and utterly independent of your generators. That is exactly why the magnetic one is still bolted to the deckhead, and why the oral examiner will ask you about it.Locked

AUS-WKD-Y-M4 · Yacht Operations

5 lessons

AUS-WKD-Y-M4-A The parts of the job the merchant ladder never teaches

In preparation
AUS-WKD-Y-L4.1Tenders, guest operations and the watchkeeper's responsibilityThis lesson covers the watchkeeper's responsibilities during guest and tender operations at anchor, including tracking tender movements, managing swimmers and divers safely, enforcing kill-cord discipline, and designing guest activities to prevent predictable accidents.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L4.2Anchoring and mooringAn anchor does not hold by weight. It holds because the **cable lies along the seabed** and pulls the anchor **horizontally** into it. Everything about scope, and everything that goes wrong at anchor, follows from that sentence.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L4.3Heavy weatherA yacht is a badly-prepared vessel by design. She has glass, tenders on hydraulic cradles, jet skis, garage doors at the waterline, a tender bay that is a hole in the hull, loose furniture, an art collection and a wine cellar. None of it was designed assuming a 40-degree roll.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L4.4Man overboardThere are two kinds of man overboard: the one you **saw**, and the one you **discover**. They are not the same emergency and they do not have the same answer.LockedAUS-WKD-Y-L4.5Emergencies, muster and abandon shipThe vessel's **muster list** is the document that turns twenty individuals into an organisation. It names the alarm signals, states what each crew member does, who takes which survival craft, who accounts for the guests, and who closes what. Read yours. Know your station and your duty by heart, not by looking it up.Locked