LEGALITIES
GETTING LEGAL
All you need to know about obtaining a skipper’s ticket IN the January 2019 issue of SKI-BOAT we ran an article informing readers that their skippers’ tickets might well not be legal. That article created a lot of interest in the topic as a whole, and here Anton Gets, SADSAA’s Deputy Safety Officer — Coastal, tells you exactly how to go about getting your skipper’s ticket. By Anton Gets
O
NE must be truly motivated to obtaining a Certificate of Competence, especially with a surf launch endorsement, and then decide which category of ves-
sel you want to skipper: • Cat B is 40 nautical miles to sea with a two engine rig. • Cat C is 15 nautical miles to sea with a two engine rig. • Cat D is 5 nautical miles to sea with a one or two engine rig. • Cat E is 1 nautical mile to sea with a one or two engine rig. • Cat R is for sheltered launches, i.e. harbours, dams, lakes, rivers, estuaries and all inland waters where boating is permitted. Boats with 15hp or less don’t require a Certificate of Competence (COC) or Certificate of fitness (COF) for the boat but SAMSA highly recom-
mends that you kit the boat out with the same safety equipment required for Category R boats. We also strongly recommend that candidates do the Cat B to D Skipper’s Course COC as it is much more informative and ultimately covers just about all the scenarios that you may encounter at sea in difficult situations. It also covers basic seamanship and one will want to advance further after starting off with perhaps an entry level boat like a semi-rigid, jetski or single engine boat. Although you may have two motors on your boat, a Cat E COC will still limit you to one nautical mile (1.8 km) offshore.
Left: Current Category B skipper’s ticket with surf endorsement. Above: New SAMSA Category B skipper’s ticket with surf endorsement. Below: New SAMSA Inland Category R skipper’s ticket.
30 • SKI-BOAT March/April 2019
