Yachts and the non-trading question
Governing: 2021 Regulations, reg 1 definitions and reg 22; SAMSA MN 20 of 2016, sections 3.2 and 3.3. Builds on: L1.3, L2.1.
Here is the plain answer first: SAMSA does not issue a yacht-specific certificate of competency. The 2021 Regulations list merchant, port operations, fishing and radio certificates. There is no "Master (Yacht)" or "OOW (Yacht)". What SAMSA does have is a policy on how yacht sea service counts towards its ordinary certificates, and a limitation it can apply.
The definitions that bite
- Trading ship excludes ships used solely for sport or recreation.
- The STCW Convention, as the Regulations define its scope, excludes the same ships.
- Regulation 22(2): if more than half of your qualifying deck service is on vessels not engaged in trading, the certificate is limited to non-trading vessels.
MN 20 of 2016 quotes a definition of non-trading vessels: pleasure vessels, or vessels operated for commercial gain under 3 000 GT carrying not more than 12 passengers on seagoing voyages with no cargo operations. That describes most charter yachts.
SAMSA's policy on superyachts
MN 20 of 2016 deals with this directly:
- Policy Statement 2. Where service could be classed as trading or non-trading, the final test is commercial gain. If the ship is used for commercial gain, the examiner accepts the service as trading.
- Section 3.3, superyachts and other sport or recreation vessels. Sea service on these vessels counts in full for a CoC endorsed Non-Trading.
- For an unlimited CoC, the case goes to the relevant Senior Examiner and is decided case by case.
The case-by-case application needs:
- A cover letter explaining why the service should be accepted as trading.
- A sea-service breakdown: days steaming, at anchor, alongside and in dry dock.
- Watchkeeping certificates.
- A breakdown of what the vessel was doing (charter, owner use, deliveries).
- The assessment fee.
Worked breakdown
A yacht OOW has 180 days on articles: 60 steaming, 70 at anchor, 50 alongside.
- Steaming share: 60 / 180 = 33%.
- If an examiner treated the yacht as a ship not regularly going to sea and counted only steaming days as "at sea", 33% is below two-thirds, so credit would be 1.5 × 60 = 90 days, not 180.
This is an illustration of how the regulation 12 arithmetic could be applied, not a statement of SAMSA practice. It shows why the breakdown matters: an honest, well-documented record lets the examiner decide in your favour where the rules allow.
WARNING — Non-trading limitation A CoC endorsed Non-Trading keeps you on yachts and similar vessels. If you ever want to return to merchant ships, you will need the limitation removed, which means more trading service. Decide early which career you are building.
How this compares with the MCA
The MCA runs a separate yacht certificate structure and counts yacht service towards it (see OOW/Master yacht CoCs). MSN 1867's Annex A lists yacht-limited certificates from France, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Italy that the MCA will endorse for yachts up to 3 000 GT. South Africa is absent from that annex, consistent with SAMSA having no yacht CoC. A SAMSA merchant CoC goes through the ordinary FSE route instead (Lesson 4.1).
TIP — Keep two logs Record your yacht service in the SAMSA record book and in the format the MCA expects. Note steaming, anchor and alongside days as you go; reconstructing them from a logbook three years later is miserable.