Able Seaman use?

Hey David, I used to do a good bit of tugwork myself. Your licenses are good for the capacities they are assigned, and your experience will be viewed as a positive by some, and negative by others. I have a commercial background, so I assign value to an A/B rating, especially an A/B Unlimited. Personally, I'd like to see more of its use in the yacht industry. These days more and more people are using a YachtMaster ticket as an entry level requirement for a deckhands position. These licenses only take a minimum of sea experience and can be done through (expensive) classes/training in a few weeks. What I don't like is that means that people with little experience, and just a sliver more knowledge, are now "Masters of Yachts <200GT". They are not nearly ready for that. They are ready to learn the craft, and have tested to have the knowledge required to compose part of a navigational watch and can be trusted to be left at least momentarily unsupervised with the helm. Now to me, that is basically what A/B means as well. I think it would be much better to formalize a deck rating in the yacht industry that shows a scaled graduation through knowledge and skills over time. Yachting is just really in the infancy of establishing Minimum Safe Manning rules, and right now it's only on vessels >500GT, though it will probably work its way down to smaller boats as well as insurance companies are paying growing claims on an expanding fleet. 20 years ago, yachting was completely different from what it is now. It's like talking ships and putting the Queen Mary next to The Oasis of the Seas. Just a completely different mindset.

Oh, might want to pick up ARPA and BRM on your STCW. You don't need either, but both are good to have.