Licences and training
Boating schools in Europe, country by country
Eighteen countries, eighteen sets of rules. Some ask for nothing, some ask for a certificate on any engine at all. This page says where a licence becomes compulsory, which certificates are recognised, who keeps the list of approved schools and what a course costs.
Start here
Recognition matters more than the course
If you learned to sail in the United Kingdom or Ireland, you learned in a system that issues no state licence at all. The RYA scheme is nonetheless the best known training ladder in Europe, and charter companies from Palma to Preveza accept Day Skipper and above. What they cannot always accept is a scheme certificate where the local authority insists on a state document. That is the gap the International Certificate of Competence closes, and it is why the RYA issues it.
The countries that ask least are not the easy ones. Sweden, Finland and Denmark leave most pleasure boating unlicensed and then hand you an archipelago with unmarked rock. A course taken locally is worth more there than the certificate it produces, because the skill being taught is pilotage, not paperwork.
At the other end sit Italy and Spain, which examine on the water and require logged practical hours. A Spanish PER takes 16 hours of sea time and 12 hours of radio work before the title is issued. That is why a Spanish course lasts weeks where an Austrian coastal certificate takes a weekend, and why the two are not the same thing even where both are accepted.
The list
When each country asks for a licence
Each row links to a page with the certificates, the costs, the minimum age and the registers that list the boating schools of that country.
A licence is required from 15 hp (11.03 kW), from 5 hp on the Rhine, and from 7.5 kW for electric drives rated for continuous duty.
Inland waters need a licence from 4.4 kW. For the Adriatic, Austria issues the coastal certificates FB1 to FB4.
A licence is required above 6 kW of engine power or 15 m² of sail area, and already above 4.4 kW or 12 m² on Lake Constance.
The vaarbewijs is required once the boat is longer than 15 metres or capable of more than 20 km/h.
On inland waterways a stuurbrevet is required above 15 metres or 20 km/h. At sea, pleasure craft need no general licence.
Fast speedboats need the speedbådskørekort, vessels above 15 metres the duelighedsbevis. Below that there is no general duty.
No general duty for pleasure craft up to 12 metres long and 4 metres wide. The förarintyg is voluntary but expected by charter bases.
Anyone born in 1980 or later needs the båtførerbevis for boats over 8 metres or more than 25 hp.
No general licence for recreational boats. For boating abroad, Traficom issues the international certificate.
Sailing yachts over 7.5 metres and motorboats above 10 kW require a Polish patent.
Every motorboat needs a certificate regardless of engine power, and every sailing boat over 3 metres.
Pleasure craft require a certificate of competence, examined and issued by the maritime administration in Koper.
The patente nautica is required above 40.8 hp (30 kW), beyond six nautical miles from shore, and for jet skis.
Titles are graded by hull length and distance from shore, from the licencia de navegación to capitán de yate.
The permis plaisance is required above 6 hp (4.5 kW). Sailing boats at sea are exempt, even with an auxiliary engine.
A recognised certificate is required above 30 hp outboard, and the port authorities accept the ICC almost everywhere.
The carta de navegador de recreio is graded by range, from marinheiro to patrão de alto-mar.
No licence is required for private pleasure craft, yet RYA training is the reference standard across Europe.
Last reviewed: 27 September 2026. The authority of the country you are boating in always has the final word.
Finding a school
Why we do not publish a list of names
A Europe-wide directory of individual schools with names and addresses would look good on the day it is published and be wrong a season later. Schools change hands, hand back their approval, move. Instead we name the bodies that already have to keep such a register: the authority that issues the licence, the trade associations of the schools themselves, and the national sailing and motorboating federations that run their own training centres.
Two things are worth asking any school before you book. Whether the radio certificate is part of the package, because no charter base hands over a yacht with a VHF set to a skipper who cannot legally use it. And, in countries that approve schools individually, what their approval number is. In France every bateau-école carries one.
Questions and answers
Common questions
Is there one boating licence that works across Europe?
No certificate is valid everywhere by default. The International Certificate of Competence travels furthest: most European coastal states accept it. Beyond that, each country decides what it recognises.
Which countries require no licence at all?
The United Kingdom asks for none for private pleasure craft, Finland asks for none for recreational boats, and Sweden asks for none up to 12 metres long and 4 metres wide. Charter companies in all three still expect a certificate.
What do charter bases actually check?
The original document, not a copy, plus a VHF radio certificate. In Greece and Croatia a second crew member often has to show a certificate as well, and Greek authorities may ask for a certified translation.
Where do I find a recognised school?
Through the national register rather than a search engine. In most countries the authority that issues the licence also lists the approved schools, and the sailing and motorboating federations list their own training centres.
Does my certificate matter for insurance?
Yes. Cover assumes the person at the helm holds whatever licence the waters require. Where no licence is required, none is expected.
NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, Karl-Marx-Strasse 4, 15711 Koenigs Wusterhausen near Berlin, phone +49 3375 291277, info@nammert.com. We underwrite boats whose owner or flag is in Germany, Austria or Spain.