A meeting was organised recently, by the PYA and sponsored by the training schools: Bluewater and Hoylake Sailing School It addressed the concerns of superyacht crews in Antibes during which Captain Roger Towner, Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen for the UK, was emphatic that the MCA is not going to accept the current Master Yachts <3,000 GT deck officer certificates for service on what are becoming called Passenger Yachts.
This means, in effect, that in future deck officers seeking to serve aboard yachts carrying more than 12 guests will have to either take the Unlimited route starting from (U) OOW or be drawn from the commercial sector of the shipping industry.
The proposed new Passenger Yacht Code – colloquially known as the 13-36 Code – is a joint MCA project led by the Cayman Islands Shipping Registry who hope to present it fully at METS in Amsterdam during November.