France tightens the paperwork for hire boats
France amended its recreational craft safety rules in June 2026. France tightens the paperwork: any boat or personal watercraft offered for hire or loan must now carry an official prior declaration on board.
Law NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH
An order dated 21 May 2026 amends the French order of 23 November 1987 on the safety of ships, and with it the two sets of rules that govern recreational boating in France. Division 240 covers safety equipment for recreational craft up to 24 metres of hull length at sea, and Division 241 covers the same boats in commercial use. The text appeared in the Journal officiel number 0131 of 6 June 2026 and has applied since June.
The central change is a new annex numbered 240-A.6. It sets out an official template for the prior declaration covering boats and motorised personal watercraft offered for hire or loan, and that declaration has to be carried on board. The ministry gives its aims as adapting the rules to new practices on the water, simplifying procedures for users, and improving the traceability of boats in commercial use.
Division 241 changes in a second respect. Craft approved as recreational boats in commercial use receive an identifier that must be displayed visibly on the hull, along the lines already familiar from other commercial vessels. The revised Division 240 also draws a clearer line between electrically assisted boards and motorised boards, and it regulates loan arrangements involving several users and a period of validity.
The immediate audience is anyone who lets a boat for payment in France, meaning hire operators and rental stations. It may also reach owners who occasionally pass their boat to others against a share of the costs, because the boundary between a private favour and a paid arrangement is exactly where the declaration requirement bites, and the text does not settle that boundary cleanly. Anyone letting a boat in France should clear the point with the responsible maritime administration before the season.
What this means for owners
Letting a boat for payment sits in a different category from private use, and that line tends to decide everything else once a claim is made. Cover written for private use commonly does not extend to commercial hire, and a missing official registration can count separately against the operator. The question worth asking your own insurer is direct: at what point does sharing costs with guests turn into commercial use in their reading of the contract. Small open motorboats, inflatables and personal watercraft from hire fleets are the most exposed here, together with charter yachts in commercial operation.
Our view as NAMMERT, not part of the news. Your own policy wording decides.
Where this comes from
- Source: Légifrance, Arrêté du 21 mai 2026 modifiant l'arrêté du 23 novembre 1987 (divisions 240 et 241)
- Source: Ministère de la Mer, Mise à jour des référentiels techniques de la plaisance
The text is our own; the sources supplied the facts and figures, not the wording.
