Dockyard Period for New Cadets: What It Really Means

If you’re a new cadet and your ship’s schedule mentions an upcoming dry dock, you’ve probably already seen the forum threads asking whether that time “counts.” Here is the honest answer, sourced from what DG Shipping has actually published — and what it hasn’t.

”Dockyard Period” Is Not an Official Term

Search DG Shipping’s circulars and STCW documentation and you won’t find “dockyard period” defined anywhere. It’s industry and forum shorthand for two different situations that often get blurred together:

1. Your ship goes into dry dock for scheduled repairs, refit, or survey while you happen to be serving aboard as a cadet. This is the most common usage and the one that creates real questions about sea-time counting.
2. Informal shipyard or workshop familiarization, particularly for engine cadets, arranged by some companies as on-the-job exposure. This is not a DG Shipping-mandated training module — it varies entirely by company policy.

The formal structure that actually governs your cadet training is the Structured Shipboard Training Programme (SSTP), tracked through your Training Record Book (TRB), under DG Shipping’s MS Notice 7 of 2000 (“Assessment of sea time of deck cadets”). This notice sets the sea-service duration you need — 24 or 36 months, depending on your entry stream — but it does not specifically mention dry dock or yard periods at all.

Does Dry Dock Time Count as Sea Service? The Honest Answer

This is the question that actually matters, and here’s where a lot of forum advice gets ahead of what’s actually confirmed.

A figure suggesting dry-dock periods under roughly two months count toward sea service, while longer periods don’t, circulates on a couple of maritime training blogs. Neither cites a DG Shipping circular, MS Notice, or DGS Order as its source — it appears to be repeated industry folklore rather than a documented rule.

A more candid description, from a seafarer discussion forum, states the opposite framing clearly: “a reasonable time in dry dock is allowed as sea time, even though MMD has not defined reasonable time.” In other words, the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) has not published a fixed numeric threshold — the determination appears to rest on case-by-case discretion, typically reflected in how your Master and company certify your sea-time at the end of your contract.

We could not find any DG Shipping circular that specifically addresses dry-dock sea-time counting, or that gives Training Record Book guidance for yard periods. If you’ve seen a specific number quoted as official, ask for the circular number — if no one can produce one, treat the number as unverified.

What This Means for You, Practically

Since there’s no fixed published rule to rely on, protect yourself with documentation instead:

1. Keep your Training Record Book entries accurate and current during any yard period — describe the actual work, observation, or training you’re doing, even if the ship isn’t underway. An incomplete TRB is a bigger risk to your sea-time claim than the dry-dock question itself.
2. Ask your Master or company in writing, before or during the yard period, how that time will be treated for your sea-service certificate. Get this in an email or written note, not a verbal assurance — you may need it months later when applying for your CoC exam.
3. Don’t assume a forum-quoted number applies to your situation. Sea-time certification ultimately comes down to what your company and the certifying authority (MMD) accept when you submit your sea-service documentation — ask the people who will actually sign that document.
4. If in doubt, escalate before your contract ends, not after. It’s far easier to clarify counting rules while you’re still aboard and your company’s records are fresh than to dispute it later during your CoC application.

What a Dry Dock Period Actually Looks Like Onboard

Dry dock periods vary widely depending on the vessel, the yard, and the scope of work — but a few patterns are common across most accounts: the ship is taken out of water (or into a floating dock) so that hull, propeller, rudder, and underwater systems can be inspected and serviced, work that’s impossible while the vessel is afloat. Depending on the scope, a dry dock can run anywhere from a few days for a minor survey to several weeks for a major refit. During this period, normal watch-keeping routines are suspended and replaced with yard-specific work: overseeing contractor work, assisting with inspections, documenting findings, and in some cases performing maintenance tasks that are easier to access with the ship out of water.

Engine Cadet vs. Deck Cadet During a Yard Period

The experience differs meaningfully by department, which is worth understanding if you’re trying to plan what to expect:

• Engine cadets typically get closer exposure to machinery overhaul work during dry dock — main engine and auxiliary system inspections, propeller shaft work, and sometimes assisting engineers during major component servicing that simply isn’t possible at sea. Many engine cadets describe dry dock as one of the more educational periods of an early contract, precisely because systems are opened up for inspection in ways you’d never see underway.
• Deck cadets are more likely to be involved in hull inspection, paint and coating work oversight, anchor and mooring equipment inspection, and general yard safety coordination. The learning value is real but oriented toward structural and safety-related observation rather than machinery internals.

In both cases, treat the yard period as a genuine training opportunity, not downtime — ask questions, request to observe specific work if you’re not actively assigned to it, and log your TRB entries with the same care you would underway.

Why This Gap in Official Guidance Exists

It’s worth understanding why DG Shipping hasn’t published a specific dry-dock sea-time rule, rather than assuming it’s simply an oversight. Sea-time certification globally, under STCW, is generally built around the principle that a cadet remains “serving aboard” a vessel under a Training Record Book regime, regardless of whether the ship is underway, at anchor, or in dry dock — the underlying logic is that you’re still under structured training and observation, just in a different operational mode. This is likely why MMD’s discretion-based approach exists instead of a rigid cutoff: a two-week emergency dry dock and a four-month major refit are genuinely different training experiences, and a single fixed number might either unfairly penalize cadets in the first case or inappropriately credit full sea-time in the second. Understanding this reasoning doesn’t give you a number to rely on, but it explains why “ask your Master and get it in writing” is genuinely the right approach rather than a workaround for a missing rule — discretion, in this specific case, is the actual designed mechanism, not a gap to be exploited or worried about.

A Sample Scenario: How This Plays Out in Practice

To make this concrete, consider a realistic version of how a dry-dock question actually unfolds for a cadet. Say you’re three months into your first contract as a deck cadet when your ship enters dry dock for a scheduled 25-day intermediate survey. During that period, you’re assigned to assist the Chief Officer with hull thickness gauging readings, observe anchor chain inspection, and help coordinate yard contractor access to restricted areas — genuine, loggable training activity, even though the ship isn’t moving. The smart move at this point isn’t to wonder silently whether these 25 days will “count” — it’s to ask your Master directly, ideally in week one of the dry dock, something like: “Will this dry-dock period be included in my sea-time certificate at the end of the contract?” Getting a clear answer recorded in writing, even as a simple email confirmation, means that months later when you’re compiling documents for your CoC application, you’re not trying to reconstruct a verbal conversation from memory or chase down a Master who may have since moved to a different vessel. This single habit — converting an uncertain verbal understanding into a written record, at the time it’s freshest — is the most practical takeaway in this entire article, more valuable than any specific number you might find quoted elsewhere.

What Companies Sometimes Do Differently

Although DG Shipping hasn’t published a fixed rule, some shipping companies have developed their own internal conventions for how they certify dry-dock time on sea-service documents, based on years of submitting these certificates to MMD and learning what gets accepted without question. If you’re sailing for an established company with a long track record of cadet training, it’s worth asking your training department (not just your onboard Master) whether the company has a standard practice for dry-dock periods — this institutional knowledge, built from repeated real-world MMD submissions, is often more reliable than any individual officer’s personal opinion or a forum post, precisely because it reflects what has actually been accepted by the certifying authority before, rather than what someone believes should be accepted.

The Bigger Picture

A dry-dock period isn’t something to fear — it’s often a genuinely useful learning experience, giving cadets unusual access to see a ship’s systems opened up and inspected in ways you’d never observe underway. The real risk isn’t the yard period itself; it’s leaving the sea-time counting question unresolved and unwritten until it’s too late to fix. Treat documentation as seriously as the work itself, and you’ll avoid the genuinely avoidable problem that forum threads on this topic are usually about.

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