The starting point for a commercial licence is to endorse an RYA ticket as a commercial one. This is a relatively simple process and is a good basic starting point.

You can then use the RYA Offshore or RYA Ocean ticket as the entry point into the MCA tickets for larger yachts or commercial vessels.

RYA Entry requirements and exam details

RYA operating restrictions – commercially endorsed certificates.

RYA Yachtmaster Coastal

Enables you to skipper vessels up to 24 metres (loadline) length, operating in category 3,4,5, and 6 waters – up to 20 miles from a safe haven.

RYA Yachtmaster Offshore

Enables you to work as a Master of commercial vessels of up to 200gt in category 1 to 6 waters – that is up to 150 miles from a safe haven.
This Certificate of Competence can used commercially in its own right, or as a pre-requisite for the MCA’s Officer of the Watch qualification, which enables you to work worldwide on vessels of up to 3000gt.

RYA Yachtmaster Ocean

Enables you to work worldwide as a Master of commercial vessels of up to 200gt.
This Certificate of Competence can be used commercially in its own right. It is also a pre-requisite for the MCA’s Chief Mate, Master 500 and Master 3000 qualifications.

• information from RYA website
• See note below that some overseas administrations will not accept RYA qualifications.

Commercially Endorsing an RYA certificate

To commercially endorse an RYA certificate, these are the requirements: 

• Original RYA certificate
• Professional Practices and Responsibilities certificate
• Application form 
• ML5 Medical Report Form or ENG1 medical fitness form
• RYA Basic Sea Survival certificate or STCW Personal Survival Techniques
• RYA Marine Radio SRC Certificate

Check full details here:
https://www.rya.org.uk/training/professional-qualifications/commercial-endorsements

In addition, it can be endorsed with your STCW Basic Training: 
https://www.rya.org.uk/training/professional-qualifications/stcw-endorsements  

You are legally required to hold an appropriate STCW qualification to work on boats over 24m.

Some overseas administrations do not recognise Yachtmaster qualifications without STCW endorsements.
To overcome this, you can apply for the MCA Master 200gt Code vessels. 

MCA Master 200gt

All information you need is in MSN1802, which you can download here.

The Master 200gt is an STCW non mandatory certificate designed as a bridging qualification between the RYA Yachtmaster and MCA Deck Officer Structure and to remove the restrictions from the RYA certificates.

The Master 200gt is also not restricted to power or sail.