Which boat licence — Mashit 30, 11, 12 or 13
Four licences, four kinds of vessel, and exams of very different sizes. Every difference, explained for someone who is not on the inside yet.
The number in the name is the type of licence, not a level of difficulty or an order. Most people meet these names only after they have already decided what they want to take out — a jet ski, a boat or a larger vessel — and then find that every one of them is called a ‘boat licence’.
What each licence covers
- Mashit 30 — Boat operator licence for a coastal vessel, up to 12 miles from shore. Five separate exams.
- Mashit 11 — Jet ski. One exam.
- Mashit 12 — Motorboat, power class A. One exam.
- Mashit 13 — Motorboat or motor vessel, power class B. One exam.
What each licence actually allows — distance from shore, size of vessel, age and qualifying conditions — is set in regulations and updated from time to time. The binding wording is that of the Administration of Shipping and Ports, not of this site.
The difference you notice when you study
The big difference between the licences is not how hard any single question is but how many there are: Mashit 30 is 883 questions across five separate exams, Mashit 11 is 161 questions in one exam, Mashit 12 is 315 questions in one exam and Mashit 13 is 223 questions in one exam.
| Licence | Exam | Questions in the bank | In the exam | Pass mark | Mistakes allowed | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mashit 30 | Seamanship | 362 | 50 | 40 | 10 | 90 |
| Mashit 30 | Engineering | 178 | 50 | 43 | 7 | 60 |
| Mashit 30 | Navigation B — Instruments | 193 | 50 | 43 | 7 | 60 |
| Mashit 30 | Navigation A — Coastal | 72 | Studied on the chart, no mock exam | |||
| Mashit 30 | Navigation A — Coastal (2013 bank) | 78 | Studied on the chart, no mock exam | |||
| Mashit 11 | Jet ski | 161 | 30 | 26 | 4 | 60 |
| Mashit 12 | Motorboat (power class A) | 315 | 50 | 41 | 9 | 60 |
| Mashit 13 | Motorboat (power class B) | 223 | 50 | 41 | 9 | 60 |
‘Mistakes allowed’ is the number worth remembering, not the pass mark. In the Jet ski exam, for example, you may get only 4 questions wrong out of 30.
And above all — failing topics
Some exams have questions where one mistake fails the whole exam, even if everything else is right. That changes how you study, not just how much. What a failing topic is explains where they appear and what to do about them.
Where to start
If you already know which licence you need: Mashit 30, Mashit 11, Mashit 12 or Mashit 13. Each one opens its own exams, with every question, the answers and a mock exam built like the real one. So far only Mashit 30 is in English; the others open in Hebrew. If not yet, here is what the exam itself looks like.