Sailing to France - VAT and competence documents

[Neil]

As an EU citizen with an EU VAT-paid boat, I wouldn't need a carnet to take the boat the France, but what about the UK? Might that be covered by the common travel area?

The UK-built trailer has a certificate of EU conformity though I don't know how far the light board can slide back.

 

[LadyInBed]

I've an interest because I have aspirations of towing my new boat to France and sailing there for a week or two.

As I understand it the rules for towing then launching are different to sailing there. To launch you need some form of Certificate of Competence and sometimes get asked for it by the slip operator, though I'm not sure if that only holds true for boats fitted with mechanical propulsion.