Legal frame
Governing: D.M. 121/2005 arts 3, 12-bis, 13 and 14; D.Lgs. 71/2015 art. 6(10). Builds on: L2.1 and L2.2.
Conversion from merchant CoCs
Art. 13 lets the holder of a merchant certificate of competency (issued under D.M. 25 July 2016) obtain the matching diporto title:
| Merchant CoC | Diporto title |
|---|---|
| Ufficiale di coperta (OOW) | Ufficiale di navigazione del diporto |
| Primo ufficiale di coperta (chief mate) | Capitano del diporto |
| Chief mate ≥3000 GT, or comandante (master) | Comandante del diporto |
| Ufficiale di macchina | Ufficiale di macchina del diporto |
| Primo ufficiale di macchina | Capitano di macchina del diporto |
| Direttore di macchina | Direttore di macchina del diporto |
The conversion runs one way: nothing in D.M. 121 turns a diporto title into a merchant CoC.
Validity and renewal
- 60 months. STCW certificates of competency, and their renewals, are valid for 60 months (D.Lgs. 71/2015 art. 6(10)). Revalidation follows STCW Regulation I/11; the MCA course Keeping Your CoC Valid explains the principle.
- Equivalent service (art. 12-bis). For renewing the UND and the capitano del diporto, at least 24 months within the 5 years in one of these jobs counts as sea service: harbour pilot, ormeggiatore (mooring man), class-society surveyor, or yard employment on sea trials and deliveries of yachts.
- Transitional rules (art. 14). Titles issued or renewed before the reform keep their validity and privileges until expiry and can be renewed on showing the new training certificates. The old conduttore di imbarcazioni da diporto adibite al noleggio keeps its original privileges.
The matricola and the libretto
Your libretto di navigazione is where Italian sea service lives. Service is proved from it, and a period that does not appear on it (or on a foreign-flag equivalent authenticated under the procedure MIT sets) will be hard to count. Keep discharge entries signed and stamped at each sign-off.
The missing exam programmes
Here is the awkward part. Arts 5, 6, 10 and 11 of D.M. 121 require an exam "secondo il programma e le modalità stabiliti con decreto" of MIT. As of September 2026:
- the only published diporto programme is for the UND 2ª classe (D.D. 40/2025);
- the merchant STCW programmes (D.D. 76/2025) do not mention yachts;
- a trade source, [secondary] nautica.it, says the diporto programmes are still awaited.
In practice the STCW diporto titles appear to be reached mainly by conversion from merchant CoCs or through the no-exam routes to the UND 2ª classe.
WARNING — Check before you plan a career on it Do not sign up for a course sold as "preparation for the capitano del diporto exam" without asking the provider which decree sets that exam. If the answer is vague, the exam may not yet exist in the form described.
xplor will update this lesson when MIT publishes the programmes.