Following a career in yachting, employed as chief officer on several large and well-known yachts, Shaun Moore made the move ashore. Having been working at West Nautical as a yacht manager now for close to two years, Moore recently passed his Master 3000gt oral exam. While Moore currently has no plans to use the ticket to further a career driving superyachts, his reasons for undertaking the exam were valid.

“After spending the better part of 12 years at sea working towards my Master 3000gt, including all the courses and all the studying, I thought it would be a real waste not to see it through to the end,” Moore explains. “Despite much procrastination on my part, finally, with the encouragement of family and colleagues at West Nautical, I decided to head down to Warsash.”

Knowing full well that the examiner would almost certainly start by looking at his seaman’s discharge book and question the large gap in his sea service, Moore thought it wise to ensure that he knew the elements of his job role backwards. “By and large this included ISM, ISPS, MLC and STCW, to name but a few,” recalls Moore.

“However, the moment I sat down in the Southampton exam room and the examiner asked me what I had been doing since my last yacht – to which I told him about my current situation – he closed the file in front of him abruptly and said; ‘Well then, that’s that line of questioning out the window’. At that point, I knew I was in for a grilling!” The examiner proceeded to focus the oral exam on elements he thought that Moore might not be so familiar with considering his time ashore, such as maneuvering and navigation.

While his experience as a yacht manager may have helped him through the examination process, Moore believes that his experience on board yachts has significantly helped his transition into the management sector. “Understanding how things operate on a superyacht is most certainly a bonus,” he says. “My experience as Chief Officer also gave me a great grounding into the paper work and compliance side of working and operating vessels.”

Moore admits that, before he joined West Nautical, he had a pretty good idea of what the job role entailed, but has welcomed the new perspective. “I can confidently say that you never know what you will be faced with from one day to the next,” concludes Moore. “I am still learning a great deal and enjoy the new challenges.”

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