Boatmaster Course
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: The Briny Bar
Forum Description: The place for general chat on saltwater fishing!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=101451
Printed Date: 03 Jul 2026 at 8:18am
Topic: Boatmaster Course
Posted By: Kevin.S
Subject: Boatmaster Course
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 2:51pm
| Anyone been on this course? how did you find it, was it useful? Coastguard are running one near me soon and I thought about doing it, but it's quite expensive and I was looking for some feedback to help me decide if it was worthwhile. I've done dayskipper and VHF courses already. |
Replies:
Posted By: Coastguard NZ
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 3:33pm
|
Hi Kevin. Fully understand you wanting to get some independent feedback from previous students and I hope someone comes along shortly. If we can help with any questions or extra information, just sing out.
Out of interest, which course (venue and date) are you looking at enrolling? |
Posted By: tugboat
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 3:43pm
|
Do one mate, i did one, certainly boost you confidence on the water, i used to do alot of boating at night, this course helped me alot with navigation, its quite cool how all these skills come together once you know how.. |
Posted By: matto
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 3:49pm
Yep do it, fully recommend it ------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow"> 
|
Posted By: adammac-hill
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 4:02pm
| Definitely recommend doing it! I did it last year prior and it helped heaps with the give way rules etc which an unbelievable number of people dont know what they are where I head out. Was an overall great course to do |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 4:33pm
I'm in Waiuku and saw in the local newspaper that there's a course running here starting next month. |
Coastguard Maritime School wrote:Posted By: Coastguard NZ
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 4:39pm
|
That Waiuku course is one of ours. There will be a good number of volunteers from the Waiuku Coastguard unit attending as part of their training so there could be some very good local knowledge and discussions etc. No heavy sales pressure but we don't often get to run them there due to low numbers etc so it is a pretty rare opportunity.
|
Posted By: salty69
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 5:07pm
|
I did it in New Plymouth in the mid 90's. I found it really worthwhile and I'd fully recommend it. |
Posted By: 1more
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 5:46pm
| I did this course 12 years ago. It really helped my confidence on the water, esp when taking my kids out. |
Posted By: Bigfishbob
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 6:56pm
|
Yeah do it, I did mine in the 'Tron in early 90's prolly should do a refresher. ------------- www.waikatosportfishing.co.nz |
Posted By: Apex Predator
Date Posted: 29 May 2014 at 7:27pm
| Definitely worth doing. Probably get you a disciunt on your boat insurance too. |
Posted By: kaveman
Date Posted: 30 May 2014 at 8:34am
|
Did mine 20yrs ago and certainly worth it -------------  www.kavemantackle.co.nz
|
Posted By: Don18025
Date Posted: 30 May 2014 at 8:46am
|
Well worth it Kevin. Your wife and family will acknowledge your effort to be a safe skipper. Your insurance company will be pleased to know - no discount yet, but it may come. The local Coast Guard will be supported and you will enjoy the talk with their crews. Your boat and fishing trips will benefit from what you will learn. You will learn to spot the many muppets on the water..... The payback for you is worth a lot more than the cost of the course. Do it |
Posted By: Kevin.S
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2014 at 3:08pm
| Thanks for the comments guys, I've signed up and looking forward to starting tomorrow night. |
Posted By: pjc
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2014 at 7:27pm
|
do they do a refresher course?1985 since i did mine ------------- Sex at 58.Lucky I live at 56 |
Posted By: rusty360
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2014 at 7:31pm
| you will learn heaps mate. its a awesome course. |
Posted By: Don18025
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2014 at 9:02pm
Good thought PJC. I did mine back about 1990 and went on to do Oceans Yachtmaster - I was doing lots of ocean sailing at that time. A refresher or a practical exam, take an examiner out for a day to test me would be great. |
Posted By: Coastguard NZ
Date Posted: 04 Jun 2014 at 9:16am
If you're located in the Northern Region we can probably help:
If you're keen on a refresher and still have all your course materials, we can probably arrange for you to sit in on one or part of our courses. If you no longer have all your course materials, we can probably sort something else out by way of a separate session or two. Out of interest - what areas would you want the refresher to cover? As for practical tuition - no problem. Our tutors can spend time aboard your vessel and cover anything you'd like. Close quarters manoeuvring, use of electronics and navigation are some of the more popular topics. |
Posted By: Gowest
Date Posted: 04 Jun 2014 at 12:20pm
| Ive been told that you can skip the boatmasters course and go straight to the Launchmasters course? Is that right or is boatmasters the highest course you can start on with nom prerequisites? |
Posted By: Reel Magic
Date Posted: 04 Jun 2014 at 1:26pm
|
Gowest, I am assuming the Launchmasters course you refer to is the same as the Local Launch Operator (LLO) course or the Inshore Launch Master (ILM). The LLO & ILM are not run by Coastguard and were for commercial purposes. You needed to provide proof of 3000 hrs recreational seatime over the last 10 years or 750 hrs comm time
before being allowed to sit them. Anyway the LLO & ILM have been superceded by the SRL ticket (Skipper Resticted Limits). So unless you working in this field commercially, you are best to stick with the Boatmasters course. It will cost a whole lot less to do too as the others courses were 2 or 3 weeks long fulltime (ie 8 hrs a day). ------------- www.reelmagic.co.nz http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">
|
Posted By: Coastguard NZ
Date Posted: 04 Jun 2014 at 2:26pm
By Launchmasters course I think you may be referring to a Commercial qualification such as the ILM (In Shore Launchmaster) which has recently been replaced by the new SRL (Skipper Restricted Limits) qualification. In short, you could sign up and complete a course to set you on the path to obtain a SRL without a Boatmaster qual. Probably best to talk to someone like Mahurangi Tech who specialise more in the commercial qualification area. Here at Coastguard Northern Region's Maritime School, we focus on the recreational qualifications and the Boatmaster (or equivalent) is a requirement before the next level which is Coastal Skipper. Day Skipper is not a requirement for a Boatmaster but is something we sometimes recommend if you're a little light on boating experience and haven't done any other courses.
|