ICC's are for British boats only.

Perry

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ICC\'s are for British boats only.

ICC's are for British boats only.

On the RYA web site it says
"Many countries require visiting yachtsmen to hold a certificate of competence. If you are planning to sail or cruise within Europe and the Mediterranean the RYA recommends skippers to hold the International Certificate of Competence (ICC)."

The article continues and says basically that under UN Resolution 40 an ICC is absolutely worthless if you are on a chartered Spanish, French, Dutch etc. registered vessel.

Not exactly very international then is it? So if you charter a foreign registered vessel you must hold qualifications from the country of registration.

I was under the impression that the whole reason to issue ICC's was to enable us to sail in European waters without further restrictions, so for those that are chartering in Europe you will be unlicensed and I can see that is going to cause possible insurance problems in say Spain and France where you need a licence for everything,

Anyone know how to go about obtaining a licence in other European countries?

Perry /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 

jenku

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Re: ICC\'s are for British boats only.

At least inside the EU the main rule that applies is that you need exactly the qualification your own country requires you to have. If, as I understand, the UK does not require any certificate of competence to operate pleasure boats, you don't need any either if you sail your boat abroad.
However, if you plan to charter a boat abroad, the charter company may require you to show something similar to what they have in their country. And this is what the ICC is designed for.
The ICC is in no way anything British, quite the contrary. It is issued by your RYA, but it is also issued by their Swedish equivalent and by other countries' authorities or organizations.

Practically, of couse, it can be good to have in order to avoid discussions with foreign officials in the case they won't believe that you don't need a paper.

I do believe that this applies world-wide and not only inside the EU.
 

Talbot

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Re: ICC\'s are for British boats only.

It is rather similar to the french obsession for a CEVNI if you are taking your own boat through the canals, but there is absolutely no requirement for one if you hire a boat on the canals!
 

jenku

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Re: ICC\'s are for British boats only.

In fact the CEVNI is cleary something that should be brought up to the EU courts. As it is not needed for all French boats but for all non-French boats, it does definitely brake the freedom of movement rule. Should be a case easily won. Also you should of course be able to charter a foreign boat on the canals without the cert if it's not needed for French ones. So if nothing else works you could charter your own boat. HAHAHA.
 

Sybarite

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Re: ICC\'s are for British boats only.

<<....France where you need a licence for everything...>>

You don't need a license for a sailing boat in France - unless (apparently) if you take it on inland waterways.

John
 

Melody

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Re: ICC\'s are for British boats only.

As far as I am aware all charter companies accept an RYA Coastal Skipper or Yachtmaster qualification for bareboat chartering. In sheltered areas and for flotilla holidays they will normally accept an RYA Day Skipper. Thus can be non-tidal if you are sailing in non-tidal waters.

Usually what they are interested in more than a piece of paper is your experience in skippering a yacht of a similar size.

The ICC only shows a very basic level of competence. If you have an ICC and no experience then you should probably consider further training or flotilla sailing before you charter. If you have an ICC plus several years sailing experience, I don't think you'll have any problem chartering.
 

Birdseye

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Re: ICC\'s are for British boats only.

[ QUOTE ]
ICC's are for British boats only.

On the RYA web site it says
"Many countries require visiting yachtsmen to hold a certificate of competence. If you are planning to sail or cruise within Europe and the Mediterranean the RYA recommends skippers to hold the International Certificate of Competence (ICC)."

The article continues and says basically that under UN Resolution 40 an ICC is absolutely worthless if you are on a chartered Spanish, French, Dutch etc. registered vessel.

Not exactly very international then is it? So if you charter a foreign registered vessel you must hold qualifications from the country of registration.

I was under the impression that the whole reason to issue ICC's was to enable us to sail in European waters without further restrictions, so for those that are chartering in Europe you will be unlicensed and I can see that is going to cause possible insurance problems in say Spain and France where you need a licence for everything,

Anyone know how to go about obtaining a licence in other European countries?

Perry /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Its further complicated in that there is an EU convention about the mutual recognition of qualifications that means that the French (for example) should accept British licenses / qualifications for a Brit visiting France in a UK flagged boat. Since there are no required Brit licenses, we are not required even to have an ICC in member countries of the EU.

But thats the theory - how do you deal with an officious Douanier who has been given a bad time by his wife / mistress etc? Explaining to him in dog French that he iw wrong and you dont need paper is only likely to call into question your insurance, VAT status, payment of harbour dues, your legitimacy and the quality of the English football team. So the ICC provides a bit of paper with the all important photo and foreign language text. Its the absence of these that makes the RYA tickets useless in practise, and could it be the fee gained from issuing the ICC that ensures the RYA tickets never have a photo and are written in English?

Proving your competence in order to hire a foreign flagged boat is a different issue. The charter company can demand whatever qualifications they want and can recognise any they want. But there may be local official regulations on qualifications for sailing under their flag in addition. But no French charter op is going to survive if it demands French qualifications from foreign citizens so the theory about the ICC applying only to Brits skippering Brit boats is in practice just that - theory. They will likely accept your ICC because there is no practical alternative. Check before you go.
 

Perry

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Re: ICC\'s are for British boats only.

I have not had a problem chartering in Spain before, the charter company is happy to accept the ICC as proof of experience and I have chartered Spanish flagged yachts with them 6 times before.

Most Marina's want a full crew list with Passport numbers and the insurance documents together with the owners details.

I was thinking more of what would happen if you where stopped by the Guardia and they where having a bad day, (this has happened before) or you where involved in an incident of some kind then your ICC wouldn't be a legal licence and could lead to a few problems.


Perry
 
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