ICC woes... do I really need it

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tomdmx

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Our Move onboard and departure from UK shores is on track for end of July however yet another vidence of frustrating bureaucracy...I went to apply for my ICC having passed the cevni exam very recently and having passed an inshore skipper practical exams back in 2008 in australia ( through yachting australia which apparently are RYA recognised since 2007) only to find out from RYA that my aussie ticket does not count and I need to do an ICC direct exam (which is at a day skipper level)...
The frustration is that I now need to pay of £250 and waste a full day which since we have sooo many things to sort out before our departure is a major pain....so do I really need the ICC for french inland waterways (were then heading west to central America etc) or will my ticket and cevni cert be sufficient?
 
Yes, you need it if you are going into the canal system. You will not be allowed in without it as they check when you buy your vignette. The requirements for an ICC issued by RYA are very clear - and in fact it is only recently that non UK citizens can get one. The other way of getting an ICC is to get it from Australia - if your current certificate qualifies.

Outside the canal system there is less requirement for the ICC, but still worth having.

You will find the actual ICC exam is not difficult. £250 does seem a bit steep, but reasonable if you are having an instructor/examiner for the whole day. The test does actually only take 3 - 4 hours in ideal conditions so you may find somebody cheaper to do it.
 
ICC and CEVNI qualifications for French canals

Just to take a slightly different tack . . In a cumulative 5-6 years of being in France on the canals I have never had my ICC or CEVNI checked. If you purchase your VNF vignette online you will also not have any credentials checked, including your boat size.
From what I have heard, the ICC is more likely to be requested as part of marina registration or customs/harbourmaster/police inspections offshore than on the inland waterways. Although again, in 3 years of sailing the Med I never got asked for mine.
I'm not encouraging you to 'break the law' mind you, just giving you the benefit of my experience. :cool:
 
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tomdmx said:
Our Move onboard and departure from UK shores is on track for end of July however yet another vidence of frustrating bureaucracy...I went to apply for my ICC having passed the cevni exam very recently and having passed an inshore skipper practical exams back in 2008 in australia ( through yachting australia which apparently are RYA recognised since 2007) only to find out from RYA that my aussie ticket does not count and I need to do an ICC direct exam (which is at a day skipper level)...
The frustration is that I now need to pay of £250 and waste a full day which since we have sooo many things to sort out before our departure is a major pain....so do I really need the ICC for french inland waterways (were then heading west to central America etc) or will my ticket and cevni cert be sufficient?
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We were advised not to leave without ICC and when challenged EU officials were not interested in RYA certs just ICC, personally now I would not travel without it.
 
Grehan said:
Just to take a slightly different tack . . In a cumulative 5-6 years of being in France on the canals I have never had my ICC or CEVNI checked. If you purchase your VNF vignette online you will also not have any credentials checked, including your boat size.
From what I have heard, the ICC is more likely to be requested as part of marina registration or customs/harbourmaster/police inspections offshore than on the inland waterways. Although again, in 3 years of sailing the Med I never got asked for mine.
I'm not encouraging you to 'break the law' mind you, just giving you the benefit of my experience. :cool:
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second that. never in 6 years on french canals and med through South of France Italy and greece have I ever been asked for it. That includes being boarded twice by French Douanne who were only interested in passports insurance documents and SSR boat registration.
Trouble is if I didn't have one, sod's law says they would want to see it.
 
There is a full explanation of the ICC on the RYA website. ICCs are issued by governments to their citizens and in the UK the job is delegated to the RYA to administer. Recently the UN has agreed that the RYA can issue ICCs to citizens of other countries under limited conditions.

When you read the background you will see that there are two types - the normal ICC and the one with the Inland Waterways endorsement, which you get having passed the extra CEVNI test. That part is nothing to do with the UN or the EU, but is required to use the inland waterways covered by CEVNI.

There have been reports of people refused entry to the canals because they did not have an ICC, so if you are planning to transit the canals to the Med it would be very risky to go without one.
 
Same here.
Documents never asked for during four years in Continental Europe:
ICC/CEVNI
VHF licence (mine or the boat's)
Registration documents (except routinely in marina offices)
Co-op divi card (although it's surely only a matter of time).
 
I have been asked to produce my 'driver's licence' about ten times in all, in France, Spain, Italy and Greece. In some cases only by the marina office but a few by officials, such as port police, also at Canal du Midi entrance lock and at a check just north of Narbonne.
 
We keep all the relevant documents in a nice bright pink folder (easy to find) including passports, so when douanes come aboard they get given the lot - the only thing they are never interested in is the dogs pet passport, the hardest thing of the lot to get sorted correctly.

Douanes in Cherbourg showed every sign of never having seen an ICC and were impressed although they understood that I didn't need it if I didn't want it (I'm not going on canals so don't have to worry about CEVNI).
 
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markwilde said:
We keep all the relevant documents in a nice bright pink folder (easy to find) including passports, so when douanes come aboard they get given the lot - the only thing they are never interested in is the dogs pet passport, the hardest thing of the lot to get sorted correctly.

Douanes in Cherbourg showed every sign of never having seen an ICC and were impressed although they understood that I didn't need it if I didn't want it (I'm not going on canals so don't have to worry about CEVNI).
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Once when boarded by les douanes we were asked if we had a pet passport for the dog, though they accepted our word we had one, though once the GNR in Portugal did want to see it (dogs need to be registered by law in Portugal and can be destroyed if not registered with little formality by the GNR), though mainly to show a trainee what to look for.
 
Grehan said:
I'd be very interested to see those reports. Not because I don't believe you, but I'd like to know where and under what circumstances.
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Only anecdotal - like Vyv's experience one other report from Canal du Midi and one from Rouen - think it was in one of the mag articles on transiting the canals.
 
Tranona said:
But I think you will find that you cannot get the CEVNI certificate as a stand alone, only as an endorsement on an ICC. I could be wrong, but that is my undertanding.
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You are not wrong. The CEVNI is an endorsement to the ICC. The CEVNI can now be done on line via RYA Interactive.
 
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