Why Does It Take 6–12 Months to Get a Basic Skipper’s Ticket in New Zealand?

Ten years ago, you could call up a maritime school and start a 5-week Inshore Launchmaster course without delay — and begin skippering large inshore vessels quickly.
So why did courses like Inshore Launchmaster suddenly stretch from 5 weeks to 6 months when they became Skipper Restricted Limits (SRL), even though the ticket ended up with fewer privileges?

Places like Australia, the USA, Canada, and the UK all have entry-level skipper courses for vessels up to 24 metres or larger that extend out to the EEZ (200 nautical miles from shore). These courses take less than 6 weeks to complete, and there’s no evidence to suggest their skippers are less safe than New Zealand’s.

Maritime NZ has thoroughly reviewed and recognises basic Australian certificates of competency, such as the Master <24NC, which they have determined is equivalent to our Skipper Coastal Offshore (SCO).

Australia’s Master <24NC course takes about 5 weeks. It can be your very first ticket, allowing you to operate boats up to 24 metres out to 200 nautical miles offshore. To get the equivalent SCO here, you first have to do SRL (6 months), complete yet another year’s sea service, then study for another 6 months. That means it takes more than two years to get the equivalent ticket you can earn in Australia in less than two months. Many Kiwis are going to Australia for this efficient training, with some staying for the higher wages.

The government pays maritime schools about $8,000 per student for SRL and SCO courses. This is in addition to what the student pays and is based on courses being 85 credits, which should equal 850 hours (six months) of full-time learning, even though the MNZ required theory can be delivered in 3-4 weeks. If the “6 month” course length is reduced, the schools get less money.. If the course length is reduced, the schools get less money. During the current review of the SRL qualification, several training providers made it clear they do not want the course length reduced.

The key skills and knowledge required to be a safe skipper are clearly listed in Maritime NZ’s Competency Frameworks, which themselves are fit for purpose. These skills can be taught in a few weeks (like in other countries, and like we used to), but here in New Zealand, students are still required to “study full-time” (be enrolled) for six months. In Australia, the funding model is different: there, schools get paid by the government when the student completes the course. This removes the incentive to inflate course lengths.

Maritime NZ introduced a Training Record Book (TRB) to reduce the required sea service time from 18 months of commercial sea-time to just 200 hours of commercial or recreational sea-time, though the TRB is still required for all candidates. Australia only requires a TRB if the candidate does not have significant commercial sea service.

For many students, it’s a real challenge to complete their TRB before the practical course. While teaching the new SRL courses at a polytechnic, I experienced first-hand a number of students turning up with incomplete books. Some skippers signed them off without even checking their accuracy or competence. A common phrase was: “Don’t worry, you’ll learn it on the block course.”

So, why are we now making it so hard to get a basic skipper’s ticket in New Zealand?

What has your experience been like with SRL or SCO training?
Do you like the current system for getting your SRL and SCO, or would you prefer to keep the same content but have it delivered in a time frame like Australia, Canada, the UK, or the USA?