Updates

The Reform On The Yachting Professional Qualifications

Posted on by Lorenzo Ranieri
12
Mar

The new law decree no. 227/2023 has been published in the Official Journal on February 5, 2024. The new decree regards the yachting professional qualifications for seafarers embarked on pleasure vessels carrying out chartering activities and on other vessels carrying out chartering activities for touristic purposes.

In particular, the law decree no. 227/2023 regulates:

  1. The so-called “STWC Qualifications” in compliance with the 1978 International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.
    It modifies the qualification requirements with reference to the tonnage of the vessel;
  2. the second-class national qualifications (not STWC) of Yacht Officers.
  3. The introduction of a special qualification for sailing vessels.

With regard to STWC Qualifications, the Yacht Officer shall be trained in compliance with the relevant international conventions. Such training may be either carried out on pleasure yachts, on vessels of more than 15 meters length, both charter or pleasure vessels or on other vessels which carry out charter activities only for touristic purposes. After having obtained such qualification, the involved individual may be embarked:

  1. as Deck Officer with lower rank than the First Deck Officer on vessels of maximum 3,000 GT;
  2. as Masters of vessels of maximum 500 GT.

The Yacht Captain may be embarked:

  1. as Master on both charter and pleasure vessels or on vessels which carry out charter activities only for touristic purposes with less than 3,000 GT; or
  2. as First Deck Officer without any limits on the tonnage of the vessel.

The Yacht Master may be embarked as Master without any limits on the tonnage of the vessel. In this regard, the law decree no. 227/2023 abolished the limit of 3,000 GT.

The training for Engineer Officer may be performed on both pleasure vessels and on vessel which carry out charter activities only for touristic purposes. The duration of such training is 12 months.

For the renewal of the qualifications of Yacht Officer and of Yacht Captain, other professions (such as harbor pilots, mooring officers, inspector of classification societies) are deemed to be equivalent to the navigation service if carried out for a minimum of 24 month within the 5 years of validity of the relevant qualification.

The law decree no. 227/2023 introduces the Second-Class Yacht Officer Qualification, which has the following characteristics:

  1. It is only an Italian professional qualification with the duration of 10 years;
  2. A Second-Class Yacht Officer may be embarked as Master of yachts flying the Italian flag with maximum 200 GT, sailing in internal waters or in Mediterranean;

The requirements to obtain the Second-Class Yacht Officer Qualification are the following:

  1. Be over 18 years old;
  2. Fulfill the psychophysical requirements for the B boating license;
  3. Have a secondary education diploma;
  4. Have a short range operator certification (SRC);
  5. Attend a basic fire prevention course, a first-aid course, a personal safety course for offshore navigation;
  6. Pass a theoretical and practical exam.

Another novelty introduced by the law decree no. 227/2023 regards the introduction of a special qualification for sailing vessels, which may be obtained after passing a specific theoretical and practical exam. For those who already have a sailing boat license, no exam is required.

In conclusion, the reform aims at making more competitive the Italian seafarers and at creating more professional vacancies in the yachting industry. In this regard, over the recent years, many company preferred to carry out bareboat charter due to the lack of appropriate professional figures.