BSAC Diver Coxswain Assessment

The Diver Coxswain Assessment is what the Boat Handling course and Post Workshop are building toward. It’s a formal evaluation — part oral theory, part on-water practical — conducted by a BSAC-certified assessor. Pass it and you hold an internationally recognised qualification to skipper dive boats.

The assessment covers voyage planning, weather and tidal awareness, boat preparation, safety checks, manoeuvring at various speeds, anchoring, shot line recovery, approaching a shelving shore, diver drop-off and recovery, man-overboard response, and trailer recovery procedures. It’s comprehensive, and it’s designed to be. The qualification exists to ensure the people driving dive boats in open water actually know what they’re doing.

On Koh Tao the assessment runs on Goodtime’s speedboat in real sea conditions. The waters around the island offer enough variety in terms of current, depth change, and boat traffic to make the assessment meaningful. You’re not being tested in a controlled harbour — you’re demonstrating the ability to handle a boat in the kind of environment you’ll actually encounter.

The prerequisites are clear: you need the BSAC Boat Handling course completed and a minimum of five logged helm hours, which is what the Post Workshop provides. If you arrive with significant prior boat-handling experience — 20 or more hours in a comparable vessel — the requirement can be assessed individually.

The Diver Coxswain qualification is approved by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, equivalent to RYA Powerboat Level 2, and recognised internationally. It’s the qualification that authorises you to skipper a dive boat professionally, and it’s only available on Koh Tao through Goodtime.