U.S. Coast Guard's NMC Increases the Approval Period for Towing Vessel Designated Examiners

Published Oct 18, 2007 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

The National Maritime Center approves "Designated Examiners" for the assessment of competence of candidates for towing vessel licenses. Since 2001, the National Maritime Center has approved almost 2,500 mariners to act as Designated Examiners. To date, Designated Examiners were approved for a period of two years.

New Procedure

To help reduce the burden on the towing industry and the Coast Guard, the National Maritime Center will begin approving Designated Examiners for a period of five years instead of the current two. This change will apply to all original approvals and renewals of previously granted approvals that occur on and after November 1, 2007. This will not change the expiration date of existing approvals. The process for obtaining or renewing an approval as a Designated Examiner is as follows:

Original Approvals

Mariners seeking approval to serve as a Designated Examiner should send a written request to the National Maritime Center. This request should include a description of the mariner's experience operating towing vessels that includes the dates, towing vessels involved and their tonnage and horsepower, the capacity in which they served, the types of tows and areas transited. The request should also include a description of the mariner's experience and training in conducting assessments and providing training.

Renewals of Existing Approvals.

Mariners wishing to renew their approval as a Designated Examiner need only send a short letter to the National Maritime Center that requests renewal and briefly describes their experience operating towing vessels since their last approval.

For Additional Information

If you have specific questions regarding this new procedure, please contact Mr. James Cavo in the NMC's Mariner Training and Assessment Division at [email protected] or (304) 724-9546.

For more information on improvements we're making to Mariner Licensing and Documentation go to our web site at http://www.uscg.mil/stcw/wnnmc.htm or to http://homeport.uscg.mil and select Merchant Mariners under the list of Missions