Deck and engineer officers working on yachts are required to complete a Certificate in Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats (other than fast rescue boats) or Advanced Sea Survival Course for Yachtsmen as part of their ancillary qualifications. The Advanced Sea Survival course was intended for use on yachts that were not equipped with davit launched lifeboats, and now this course has been revised and renamed Certificate of Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats (Other than fast rescue boats) (Restricted) with a requirement to update this course every five years.

From 1 January, 2017, the 2010 Manila Amendments to the STCW Convention require all PSCRB, or similar certificates, to be STCW compliant and Port State Control will be looking out for this.

Over the past year, UKSA and Bluewater Yachting have prepared a proposal of a revised Advanced Sea Survival course that will be STCW compliant and the IAMI Small Craft sub group took this to the MCA. Captain Roger Towner of the MCA announced at both the Monaco Yacht Show and Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show that an STCW-compliant certificate of PSCRB – restricted to yachts not equipped with davit launched lifeboats – was approved by the MCA under STCW chapter VII and this has now been published under MIN 533.

This new Certificate in Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats (Other than Fast Rescue Boats) (Restricted) is for deck and engineering officers working on board yachts that are not fitted with davit launched lifeboats. If a crewmember’s craft has lifeboats in davits then they will have to complete the unrestricted PSCRB, but as very few large yachts are fitted with lifeboats this likely won’t apply. Under LY3 (Large Yacht Code) all yachts over 85m should be fitted with lifeboats but most of these are also over 3000gt, so crewmembers working on these yachts will require an unlimited CoC anyway.

The certificate is named as the CPSCRB (Restricted) and the course is run over three days, with 18 hours of training, and covers the launching and recovery and operation of rescue boats; man overboard manoeuvres; instruction in the operation and control of survival craft (life rafts); crowd management and control and emergency communications. It will still be a part practical course with time spent handling rescue craft and using the survival equipment on the water.

Updated certification will be required for all those who sat Advanced Sea Survival before January 2012. The course is available with a three-hour update, which will enhance existing Advanced Sea Survival Certificates to an STCW-compliant CPSCRB.

The CPSCRB (Restricted) is available now.

Image courtesy of UKSA.

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