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George Town, Grand Cayman:
Sunset House, Grand Cayman’s Hotel for Divers, by Divers, has become one of the first dual International Yacht Training (IYT)/Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Training Centers in the world. International Yacht Training is a fully approved training company by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) amongst others. This allows Sunset Divers (Sunset House’s elite Dive Center) not only to train dive professionals as Diveboat captains, but are authorized to train and certify non-dive related candidates, IYT/MCA nautical qualifications through their new IYT instructors Robert Hopwood and Peter Foster-Smith .

All Sunset Divers’ captains have been certified as PADI/IYT Diveboat Coxswains. Sunset Divers has become one of the first dive operators to certify to the new, high standard to training and certification for Diveboat operators.

The program:

• PADI/IYT Diveboat Mate – qualified Diveboat crew and captain in training
• PADI/IYT Diveboat Coxswain – qualified captain holding International Certificate of Competency* and British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) certification authorizing holder to command a vessel and crew and passengers in coastal areas up to 20 miles offshore. Other organizations call this “Yachtmaster”.
• PADI/IYT Diveboat Master – qualified 200ton Master of Yachts coastal (<60miles) or Limited (<150miles) captain’s license – equivalent to USCG 200 Ton and Australian Master 5

Some of these additional non-diving nautical courses Sunset House and Sunset Divers can teach are:

• VHF Radio Operator
• General Marine Engineering
• International Certificate of Competency for power vessels <10m, power vessels <24m, sail and PWC (jet skis)
• International Bareboat Skipper – Power and Sail
• Flotilla Skipper
• Powerboat Skipper
• Powerboat Master (Yachtmaster)
• Small Powerboat/RIB

* The International Certificate of Competency is the United Nations Resolution 40 European boating licenses required in many countries in Europe.

Sunset Divers will shortly be providing training, testing and internationally recognized certification for all the cruise ship tenders in Grand Cayman. The Cayman Islands Shipping Board and Maritime Administration recognize IYT certifications and are on-board with the new Diveboat and other International Yacht Training programs.

IYT is committed to supporting and building Sunset Divers and the Cayman Islands as a Nautical Training destination with future plans to bring STCW’95 and Master or Yachts 200ton courses to Grand Cayman on a regular basis.

A growing number of countries are realizing the importance of issuing dual certification to students to satisfy their needs for both national and international certificates of competency. As international travel becomes more readily available for emerging economies, the need for IYT international certification has become ever more apparent

“The beauty of these IYT/MCA certifications is that anybody from any country can take this training in any location. We are not restricted like the United States Coast Guard that only Americans can get their USCG license and only if trained on US soil” states Keith Sahm, Director of Marketing for the resort. US citizens outside of the US can get IYT/MCA certified, build up their sea time and challenge for their USCG levels if/when they go home. “USCG captain licenses are not valid internationally to captain or crew on foreign flagged vessels – in the early days of IYT, our original school in Ft. Lauderdale rose to fame from all the USCG captains training to crossover to their IYT/MCA ratings so they were employable on foreign flagged vessels” commented Wally Schredl, Training Director from IYT.

For more information or how you can enroll in these courses, email Peter Foster-Smith at pete@sunsethouse.com or visit www.sunsethouse.com

Fun Fact: Did you know that approximately 87% of all the worlds’ yachts are registered in the Cayman Islands?