Because you already hold your Mate 200 GRT Near Coastal under 46 CFR § 11.427. You just need a total of 720 sea days in the deck department, with 360 of them as a Master, Mate or Operator while holding your MMC as a Master, Mate or OUPV and 360 of the sea days must be on Near Coastal or Ocean Waters.
Side note: A lot of USCG approved courses for 100 ton Master also include a 200 ton Mate if you read the fine print. We recommend getting everything you're qualified for all the time so this means if you take a course that has an AND instead of an OR between the USCG licenses you can obtain with the course, get them!
The great part is that you can Increase in Scope from Mate 200 GRT Near Coastal to Master 200 GRT Near Coastal without taking a test or course. All you need is seatime once you hold that Mate 200 GRT Near Coastal no matter what the tonnage limitation is!
What about my tonnage?
To qualify for a 200 ton
If you have 180 days on vessels 101 GRT or larger OR 360 days on vessels 67 GRT or larger you qualify for a 200 ton.
To qualify for a 100 ton
If you have 180 days on vessels 51 GRT or larger OR 360 days on vessels 34 GRT or larger you qualify for a 100 ton.
To qualify for a 50 ton
If you have 180 days on vessels 26 GRT or larger OR 360 days on vessels 17 GRT or larger you qualify for a 50 ton.
I don't qualify for 50, 100 or 200 ton with my current sea time. What do I do?
No worries! Tonnage limitations will apply if you are on smaller boats. This also makes sense as you will probably be working on smaller boats anyway. We recommend not worrying about them and just focus on getting the right type of license for what you currently want to do.
Tonnage limitations are really simple and easy to remove with just 90 sea days once you hold your new MMC! For a mate and a master under 200 GRT all you need is sea time while holding your license to remove them. Here's a blog post that goes into detail.
We hope this made your life a little easier and if you have other questions the MM-SEAS team is always here to help!
MM-SEAS is free to use on your own and if you need some more personalized help you can upgrade to MM-SEAS Expert Access inside of the site.
No matter what, when you are ready to submit your application you can do it yourself, or you can hand the whole thing to us. An MM-SEAS Navita Navigator walks you through submitting in Navita, the Coast Guard's new submission portal, on a short video call. No computer, or not up for a video call? Our team gets your application submitted to the Coast Guard for you anyway. A Stress-Free MMC is $399. Two MM-SEAS licensing experts check every page, we pay your Coast Guard fees at submission and charge your card so you never touch pay.gov, and we stay on it with the National Maritime Center until your credential is issued.
MM-SEAS Expert Access is $99 a year. It is your personal guidance counselor for USCG licensing: what training you need next, which sea time counts, and how to reach the credential you want, by phone, email, chat or a 1 on 1 video call. Expert Access members also get $50 off a Stress-Free MMC.
Need to renew, upgrade or get your first USCG license? We're here to help.
About the author
Nate Gilman is President and Co-Founder of MM-SEAS. He hawsepiped from the deck to a 3rd Mate Unlimited license with full STCW compliance over more than 15 years at sea, and is a veteran of the NOAA Commissioned Corps. He works directly with the National Maritime Center, USCG-approved training schools, and vessel operators on credentialing policy, and writes on sea service documentation, evaluation standards, and how mariners move up the license ladder.
