Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats (PSCRB)
Three days learning to take charge when the vessel is no longer the safest place to be.
What the PSCRB course covers
Everyone aboard does STCW Personal Survival Techniques, which teaches you how to survive an abandon-ship as a passenger in your own evacuation. PSCRB is the next thing entirely. It teaches you to run one.
The distinction matters. In a real abandon-ship someone has to launch the raft, get people into it, account for who is missing, operate the rescue boat, run a search pattern for anyone in the water, make the distress call and treat casualties once the immediate crisis passes. PSCRB is the certificate that says you are that person.
Three days, theory and practical drills, delivered at Hout Bay. It is required for the MCA Officer of the Watch (Yachts) 3000GT and for the Engineer Certificate of Competency, so most candidates arrive because they are working towards one of those. It is also worth holding on its own if you carry safety responsibility aboard, regardless of what CoC you are chasing.
This is the Restricted to Yachts variant, covering survival craft and rescue boats other than fast rescue boats. That restriction reflects the equipment carried on yachts rather than commercial vessels, and it is the version the MCA accepts for yacht officer qualifications.
It expires. The certificate must be renewed at intervals not exceeding five years. Emergency skills degrade without practice, and the regulator has taken the view that a crew member who last launched a raft six years ago cannot be relied on to do it under pressure.
PSCRB Course Content
Three days, weighted heavily towards practical drills.
Survival craft and equipment
Types of survival craft, their construction and the equipment they carry. Inspection, servicing intervals and what to check before you need it.
Launching and handling life-rafts
Launching under realistic conditions, boarding from a vessel and from the water, righting an inverted raft, and managing a raft once everyone is aboard. Practised repeatedly.
Rescue boats
Launching, recovering and handling a rescue boat, including in a seaway. Approaching a person in the water and getting them aboard.
Emergency prevention and drills
Muster procedures, roles and responsibilities, and running a drill that actually rehearses something rather than ticking a box. Preventing the emergency is the cheapest part of the course.
Abandon-ship procedures
When to make the call, the sequence once it is made, headcount and accounting for crew and guests, and what to take with you.
Man overboard procedures
Immediate actions, recovery methods, and the decisions that follow when a person goes over in poor conditions.
Search patterns
Running a search from a rescue boat. Pattern selection, drift, and coordinating a search with the parent vessel.
Distress communications
Distress alerting, EPIRB and SART operation, VHF distress procedure, and communicating with rescue coordination once contact is made.
Lifejackets and immersion suits
Correct use of lifejackets, immersion suits and thermal protective aids. Donning under time pressure, and the hypothermia realities that make them matter.
Survival actions and first aid
Survival in the water and in a raft, and the essential first aid applicable to casualties in a survival situation.
Eligibility and where the PSCRB certificate takes you
Three requirements before you can sit the course:
- STCW A-VI/1-1, Personal Survival Techniques. Covered by STCW Basic Safety Training
- At least six months of seagoing service
- Minimum age 16
PSCRB sits on both the deck and the engineering route. It is required for the OOW (Yachts) 3000GT and for the Engineer Certificate of Competency, which makes it one of the few certificates both departments have to hold.
For candidates working through the OOW modules, PSCRB is one of the four and is delivered at Hout Bay while the others run at SAMTRA in Simons Town. It can be taken as part of a block or on its own.
When yours expires, the PSCRB Refresher revalidates it. Renewal is required at intervals not exceeding five years, and a lapsed certificate means a lapsed CoC for anyone relying on it.
PSCRB Refresher: renewing your certificate
Your PSCRB certificate has to be renewed at intervals of no more than five years. The PSCRB Refresher is the one-day course that does it, so you don't have to sit the full three days again.
It's almost entirely practical. You'll go back over launching and recovering survival craft, handling the rescue boat, getting a person out of the water and running the drills that hold it all together. The theory is kept short because you've covered it before. The assessment isn't, because the whole point is proving you can still do it under pressure.
