Renewing national certificates of competency and endorsements

Certificates and endorsements for vessels operating in restricted limits and vessels less than 24 metres (<24) in coastal/offshore waters must be renewed every five years.

National certificates and endorsements

Certificates and endorsements for vessels operating in restricted limits and vessels less than 24 metres (<24 ) in coastal/offshore waters must be renewed every five years.

This applies to the following national certificates and endorsements:

National certificates

National certificate	Equivalent former certificate
Skipper Restricted Limits	Local launch operator; Inshore launchmaster (ILM)
Skipper Coastal/Offshore	New Zealand offshore watchkeeper (NZOW) with ILM endorsement
Master Yacht <24m	None
MEC 4	Marine engineer class 4
MEC 5	Marine engineer class 5
MEC 6	Marine engineer class 6

Endorsement type

Skipper Restricted Limits endorsed for vessels less than 24m (SRL <24m)

Skipper Restricted Limits endorsed for vessels of less than 500 gross tonnage (SRL <500GT)

Skipper Restricted Limits endorsed for vessels of 500–3000 gross tonnage (SRL 500–3000GT)

Passenger endorsement

Cook Strait endorsement

High-speed endorsement

Square-rigged endorsement

Note: When LLO certificates transition to a Skipper Restricted Limits certificate, their existing five-yearly renewal cycle is unaffected.

Medical fitness

To renew a certificate, you must provide evidence of medical fitness, including eyesight, hearing and speech. This evidence must be provided as a valid national certificate of medical fitness for seafarers. The medical examination can be carried out by any New Zealand registered medical practitioner (GP). You must also meet fit and proper person requirements.

Sea service

You must provide evidence of having completed at least six months' approved sea service within the previous five years or 45 days' sea service in the three months immediately before renewing.

If you do not meet the sea service requirements or your certificate has expired, alternatives to sea service may be available. These may involve a practical competency assessment and/or further training and assessment.

MNZ is also able to accept experience in certain non-seagoing positions as equivalent to sea service.

Certificate renewal sea service fact sheets [PDF: 192kB, 3 pages]

Find out more

Renewal of national certificates of competency and endorsements [PDF: 538kB, 20 pages]

Transitioning to new certificates

If you have an old certificate, refer to the transition information on MNZ's website to identify the new SeaCert certificate or certificates it aligns with, and find out what you need to do to transition.

Transition – moving from old to new certificates