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Ben_kent

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Hi, i've been wanting to buy a boat for years and i've spent the last few weeks looking into various costs and what not. The only real thing im unsure on is if you need a license to sail the seas or if you can just buy a boat and explore? I have been looking to buy a second hand fairline tagra 34ft and keeping it abroad maybe italy. What do i need to know?

Thanks
Ben
 
Indeed.

If you want to buy, cruise and maintain a boat here in the UK you would do well to do some basic training but there is no legal requirement for courses. There is some paperwork to do but a seller would be able to help with that.

Keeping a boat abroad is a vast topic, brace yourself for some red tape and conflicting advice.
 
ICC would do no harm, and he'll need the CEVNI endorsement to go on the inland waterways. If the boat is registered in the UK, then UK rules apply, as I understand it, so no boating qualification (apart from the boat's papers, radio licence, VAT paid etc) is required to sail the seas. Other countries have other regulations, so if the boat is registered in Italy, say, you'd need whatever they require. If an Italian official is awkward, having a piece of paper like a British ICC to wave at him, may help.
 
But just because the local regs don't require any certificates, doesn't meen it's OK to go out without them. Everyone argues that certificates don't necessarily meen competance - true. BUT no training almost certainly does meen incompetance.

Get some training, take it easy & welcome to the forum.
 
[ QUOTE ]
BUT no training almost certainly does meen incompetance.


[/ QUOTE ]

Cant quite agree with this. I've had no yacht sailing training but after 30 years of sailing, I think i'm fairly competent. In fact, after 3 or 4 years of sailing I was fairly competent.
 
[ QUOTE ]


Cant quite agree with this. I've had no yacht sailing training but after 30 years of sailing, I think i'm fairly competent. In fact, after 3 or 4 years of sailing I was fairly competent.

[/ QUOTE ]

I couldn't agree with you more, when i started sailing it was a couple of summers in a club Rhodes Bantam and after that it was up to you, 50 years under the belt now but i learn something new each time i go out....... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Yes ... but the possibilities for accidents, damage, general mayhem during those first 3 or 4 seasons - any of which can put you off sailing for life - can IMHO be significantly reduced by even a modest amount of training. It needn't be formal courses: it could just be a few outings with someone genuinely competent who can explain what they are doing and why they are doing it. The training - in whatever form - should give you some interesting and enjoyable sailing and the confidence to go out and learn more on your own in safety.
 
Loads of people start sailing with their families and learn as kids or youngsters without formal lessons. That counts as training, surely? It's how it used to be done for 95% of sailors.
 
[ QUOTE ]
BUT no training almost certainly does meen incompetance.


[/ QUOTE ] I don't agree with that. you may be confusing incompetance with not doing things in the officially approved manner. That is not the same thing. I guess that your background - "Ex RYA Dinghy Instructor" - leads you to that stance.

I do agree that if you've never set foot on a boat before and are really green then some instruction would be a damn good idea. But many people tread the gradual indoctrination route of "other people's boats" and avid reading and eventually end with their own boat.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Yes ... but the possibilities for accidents, damage, general mayhem during those first 3 or 4 seasons - any of which can put you off sailing for life - can IMHO be significantly reduced by even a modest amount of training. It needn't be formal courses: it could just be a few outings with someone genuinely competent who can explain what they are doing and why they are doing it. The training - in whatever form - should give you some interesting and enjoyable sailing and the confidence to go out and learn more on your own in safety.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I had.. family and friends.
 
Re: Post name not very helpful

Merely trying to offer a useful response to the thread under the title of Ben_kent's original post.
 
If you intend to keep the boat in Italy then I recommend to keep it under a British flag ........ you really don't want to have to deal with Italian authorities and red tape. If you have any specific questions on keeping your boat in Italy then please p.m. me and I'll try and answer them. Good luck.
 
I have a potential problem here in Spain. If we (us, not the boat) stay for longer than 183 days in any calendar year then we have become de facto residents and become liable for Spanish taxes and - according to the letter of the law which is seldom adhered to - one is required to re-flag the boat as Spanish. Is that is same in Italy, and is it an issue with British perma-liveaboards, as it is here in Spain? Many thanks. If there is much to say on this subject re Italy maybe we could open it as a new thread, as the title isn't very useful to others?
 
[ QUOTE ]
......after 30 years of sailing, I think i'm fairly competent......

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, but does anyone else?

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Seriously, though, an important principle of the RYA's often scurilously-derided National Training Scheme is that someone else - who's judgement in such matters is very thoroughly validated - reckons that one is up to the mark, or not.

That volunteer-expert - the Examiner - can usually point one towards a number of areas where 'personal development' could valuably be undertaken. Value for money......

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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