Chartering in the Netherlands: what applies on the IJsselmeer and the Wadden Sea?

Friesland, the IJsselmeer and the canals between the old Hanseatic towns are an easy first charter from Britain: a short ferry or flight, no tide on the IJsselmeer, and a harbour in the middle of town every evening. Most boats on offer are steel motor cruisers and sailing yachts, often from small family firms. The paperwork is light. Everything that belongs to the boat stays on board with the charter firm. You bring passports, the crew details the firm asks for and, if you hold one, your RYA certificate or ICC.

Whether you need a licence at all is set by Dutch law through length and speed. According to the Dutch government, a vaarbewijs is needed for pleasure craft over 15 metres and for fast motor boats, meaning boats under 20 metres that can do more than 20 kilometres an hour. Many charter cruisers fall below both limits. The firm makes its own call all the same: some want to see a certificate, others give a thorough briefing and a test run before they hand over. On the IJsselmeer a breeze quickly builds a short, steep sea over the shallow water, and bridges and locks open at set times.

The Wadden Sea is another world: tides, gullies, drying sands and narrow buoyed channels. Many firms only allow it with proven experience, only with certain boats, or not at all, and the limit is written into the charter agreement. Get the permitted cruising area in writing before you book and stay inside it, because damage outside that area can make the deposit and your own liability far harder to argue. Whatever you damage belonging to someone else, from a neighbouring boat to a lock gate, is your liability as skipper, which is why skipper liability insurance belongs on the list in Friesland as well.

Worth remembering

Your cruising area is set by the charter agreement, not the chart.