I had occassion to sit through the last 20 minutes of a presentation by
one of the local "Captain's License" schools to a group of people
interested in meeting the USCG qualifications for
"six pack" and 100-ton certification.

I couldn't beleive my eyes and ears. The rep from the school displayed
the Sea Service form on a screen and began instructing his audience on
how to game the system!

"Be creative" he said. "The Coast Guard wants to work with you to be
sure you qualify for the exam. The Coast Guard wants you to be
licensed. Remember, you can use all your time on any registered or
documented vessel since your 16th birthday as long as you owned the
vessel or can provide the registration number and get the owner to sign
off on your time" (He was corect about time on any registered vessel
since age 16).

"When you fill in the hours, never ever put down that you spent less
than four hours underway. If you think you were out for two or three
hours, round that up to something just over four. 4.3 or 4.5 would look
better than 4 exactly. You don't need to have a log, just use your
memory and write in enough days over enough years that you wind up with
at least 360 4-hour shifts of sea service and be sure that 90 of those
days are within the last three years. Most peole will want to show a
lot more days in the summer months than in December and January."

"If you boat out into any area that would be considered near coastal
rather than inland waters, make sure that you count the entire day as
near coastal service. If you're out of the inland waters for even an
hour or so, make sure that you claim at least four hours near coastal
for that day."

"In this block up here, you will be asked to fill in what your duties
were aboard the vessel. Never put down "engineer", even if that was
your job. The USCG will only allow you to count hours spent as an
"engineer" to apply to your engineer's license, not your captain's
license and once you have declared the time as an "engineer" you can't
go back and refile with another description of duties- you just lose
all that time forever unless you want to get licensed as an engineer.
Make sure that you write in "owner/operator" if you owned the vessel,
or "crew" or "deckhand" if you did not."

"We have a group of people at our school who will review your
application before it goes to the USCG to make sure you won't have any
problems qualifying for a license".

****

Outrageous.
And an insult to generations of licensed masters who legitimately
earned the right to test. It has long been known that sea service forms
are typically filled in with a wink and a nod, but it was still
appalling to actually hear somebody from a licensing school advise a
group: "be creative, round up the hours if need be, and remember the
Coast Guard wants to work with everybody to allow them to test for a
license."

What can "be creative" mean in this context, exactly, other than "lie
your butt off?"

I'm wouldn't want to tar all such schools with the same brush, but in
this specific case the school's policy (as represented by the group
presentation) does a disservice to the entire maritime community and
will certainly put a lot of underqualified people into positions of
responsibility for which they are not prepared.

On 18 Sep 2005 09:04:11 -0700, wrote:

I had occassion to sit through the last 20 minutes of a presentation by
one of the local "Captain's License" schools to a group of people
interested in meeting the USCG qualifications for
"six pack" and 100-ton certification.

I couldn't beleive my eyes and ears. The rep from the school displayed
the Sea Service form on a screen and began instructing his audience on
how to game the system!

"Be creative" he said. "The Coast Guard wants to work with you to be
sure you qualify for the exam. The Coast Guard wants you to be
licensed. Remember, you can use all your time on any registered or
documented vessel since your 16th birthday as long as you owned the
vessel or can provide the registration number and get the owner to sign
off on your time" (He was corect about time on any registered vessel
since age 16).

"When you fill in the hours, never ever put down that you spent less
than four hours underway. If you think you were out for two or three
hours, round that up to something just over four. 4.3 or 4.5 would look
better than 4 exactly. You don't need to have a log, just use your
memory and write in enough days over enough years that you wind up with
at least 360 4-hour shifts of sea service and be sure that 90 of those
days are within the last three years. Most peole will want to show a
lot more days in the summer months than in December and January."

"If you boat out into any area that would be considered near coastal
rather than inland waters, make sure that you count the entire day as
near coastal service. If you're out of the inland waters for even an
hour or so, make sure that you claim at least four hours near coastal
for that day."

"In this block up here, you will be asked to fill in what your duties
were aboard the vessel. Never put down "engineer", even if that was
your job. The USCG will only allow you to count hours spent as an
"engineer" to apply to your engineer's license, not your captain's
license and once you have declared the time as an "engineer" you can't
go back and refile with another description of duties- you just lose
all that time forever unless you want to get licensed as an engineer.
Make sure that you write in "owner/operator" if you owned the vessel,
or "crew" or "deckhand" if you did not."

"We have a group of people at our school who will review your
application before it goes to the USCG to make sure you won't have any
problems qualifying for a license".

****

Outrageous.
And an insult to generations of licensed masters who legitimately
earned the right to test. It has long been known that sea service forms
are typically filled in with a wink and a nod, but it was still
appalling to actually hear somebody from a licensing school advise a
group: "be creative, round up the hours if need be, and remember the
Coast Guard wants to work with everybody to allow them to test for a
license."

What can "be creative" mean in this context, exactly, other than "lie
your butt off?"

I've a strong feeling there are a few folks right here in the group who will
have a six pack license very soon now! (Or maybe they'll just *say* they do!)
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

wrote in
oups.com:

I had occassion to sit through the last 20 minutes of a presentation
by one of the local "Captain's License" schools to a group of people
interested in meeting the USCG qualifications for
"six pack" and 100-ton certification.


Much of this points up my problems with the USCG having total control of
licensing/documentation of licenses.

Although we work in the same "medium", how we go about it and what we
have to know can be, and frequently is, two different animals.

The process of documenting ones time is open to much creativity in the
smaller (SixPac -25ton) grades, that I must agree, can be and always
will be subject to some disgression. This to me is not a serious
problem. The problem arises at the "testing" level.
With all due respect to those members of the USCG, giving those test
...... IF they do not have the time, experience needed to hold that
license, they are not qualified to pass on someone else's ability to
hold that license. A straight forward multiple choice exam, tells you
only how well an individual takes exams and not how well they actually
know the subject and/or can perform the required task...... I've met too
many good seamen who have a tough time with exams and too many bad ones
who with a bit of study, can pass any exam. There are many members of
the USCG, well trained and experienced to give these lower grade
licenses, but they should be allowed to review these test and come up
with practical and essay type exams that will make it apparent when
someone's "time" is real or bogus.

otn