Egypt Powerboat hire

oGaryo

oGaryo

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Hi, can anyone advise if it's risky to hire a small powerboat (25ft ish) for a day out in Egypt and whether I'd need an ICC to do so please?

I'm doing the google thing and not coming up with much info; wording such as most Med coastal waters require an ICC, would cover north Egypt I guess but nothing I can find mentions southern Egypt nor the red sea... we've booked a spur of the moment trip to Sharm to get away from this bl@@dy weather, so coastal red sea waters are where we'd sail.

I can't find much on bareboat hire in the region either (if that's the correct terminology for taking a boat out for the day without crew, other than my lot).

Apologies if this is a tad muddled as I've never chartered a boat before.... it's yet another little learning curve to get sorted before April... I'd like to at least research it a bit before discounting the idea as a bad'un or indeed, discovering it's feasible.

Hope you can help

many thanks
 
Firstly let me say that I have no experience of chartering in Egypt.

However, for a number of reasons, may I suggest the you be cautious when considering it.

From Scharm you are only about 13 miles from the nearest Saudi lands and local politics are likely to result in you being locked up for a while (and I mean a while) while your bona-fides are checked out if you are stopped by a non Egyptian patrol craft (of which there are many). Saudi bureaucracy is legendary in its complexity. A UK passport holder, speaking no arabic, with his camera, alone (with his UK crew as cover) in an Egyptian boat near Saudi territorial waters - they would love it !!

If you are travelling on a UK passport then you may not receive the instant respect that you once might have as, in that part of the world, UK and US passport holders (unless in known tourist areas) can be viewed as part of the great anti-muslim conspiracy (?).

Take care.

Tom
 
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thanks Tom.. just me, SWMBO and the youngest this time with the eldest home alone for the first time with his overly active testosterone and a string of girlfriends to keep him company :eek: am looking forward to continuing the snorkelling lessons with my boy (we were in Hurghada in 2K8) and will try not to fret about what my eldest is going to get up to:D
 
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Take a day snorkelling trip on one of dive boats - they know where to go to see good fish. We had a day on a big sailing boat.... a bit posher than some of the dive boats. You can book them all over the place, and I found it much cheaper not to use the tour reps, for anything!!
 
Richard10002 said:
Take a day snorkelling trip on one of dive boats - they know where to go to see good fish. We had a day on a big sailing boat.... a bit posher than some of the dive boats. You can book them all over the place, and I found it much cheaper not to use the tour reps, for anything!!
Click to expand...

Thanks Richard, we did that in 2008 so I was looking to do something a little different on this occasion with the view to taking an opportunity to do something boaty.
 
oGaryo said:
Hi, can anyone advise if it's risky to hire a small powerboat (25ft ish) for a day out in Egypt and whether I'd need an ICC to do so please?

I'm doing the google thing and not coming up with much info; wording such as most Med coastal waters require an ICC, would cover north Egypt I guess but nothing I can find mentions southern Egypt nor the red sea... we've booked a spur of the moment trip to Sharm to get away from this bl@@dy weather, so coastal red sea waters are where we'd sail.

I can't find much on bareboat hire in the region either (if that's the correct terminology for taking a boat out for the day without crew, other than my lot).

Apologies if this is a tad muddled as I've never chartered a boat before.... it's yet another little learning curve to get sorted before April... I'd like to at least research it a bit before discounting the idea as a bad'un or indeed, discovering it's feasible.

Hope you can help

many thanks
Click to expand...

For foreigners it's forbidden by law to helm Egyptian flagged leisure boats. This applies even to small outboard vessels. In le Meridien Dahab, they told me that jetskis are now also forbidden in all the area...

But there may be some operators who would accept to hire you a boat without a skipper. e.g. http://www.canyon-motoryachts.com/subpages/sportscharter.html
 
Hardmy said:
For foreigners it's forbidden by law to helm Egyptian flagged leisure boats. This applies even to small outboard vessels. In le Meridien Dahab, they told me that jetskis are now also forbidden in all the area...

But there may be some operators who would accept to hire you a boat without a skipper. e.g. http://www.canyon-motoryachts.com/subpages/sportscharter.html
Click to expand...

Could you tell me where you got this information please?
 
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