Getting into boating
Discussion
Hello, from a noob to boaty things 
My dad and I are interested in learning to pilot motor boats (if those are the correct terms
), with the aim of learning enough to be able to charter a motor yacht for 4 people in the mediterranean safely.
I have done a bit of Googling, and was surprised to find that in the UK, there is no licence requirement to use a boat on the ocean (only on rivers?). What documentation would a person need to charter a boat abroad? I had assumed that there would have been the equivalent of a driver's licence (as with cars), but was unable to find anything internationally recognised.
Can anyone recommend a good boating school in Kent?
Apologies in advance if these questions are completely stupid/ have been asked before.
Ta
My dad and I are interested in learning to pilot motor boats (if those are the correct terms
), with the aim of learning enough to be able to charter a motor yacht for 4 people in the mediterranean safely.I have done a bit of Googling, and was surprised to find that in the UK, there is no licence requirement to use a boat on the ocean (only on rivers?). What documentation would a person need to charter a boat abroad? I had assumed that there would have been the equivalent of a driver's licence (as with cars), but was unable to find anything internationally recognised.
Can anyone recommend a good boating school in Kent?
Apologies in advance if these questions are completely stupid/ have been asked before.
Ta
Codswallop said:
there is no licence requirement to use a boat on the ocean (only on rivers?)
Yep, and even a river licence is just a piece of paper you buy, like a car tax disk. It doesn't confer any navigational ability, only the fact you have insurance and have paid some numpties in an office a few hundred quid.As others will tell you I don't go more than 6' from land so can't help with the rest, sorry.
How big are you looking to charter?
IIRC, the RYA powerboat is up to 12m, and you could (maybe should) have the European equivalent (which you can get for free by joining the RYA) of an ICC (International Certificate of Competence).
They will also, if they're sensible, ask for relevant and tangible experience before letting you loose with an expensive boat.
IIRC, the RYA powerboat is up to 12m, and you could (maybe should) have the European equivalent (which you can get for free by joining the RYA) of an ICC (International Certificate of Competence).
They will also, if they're sensible, ask for relevant and tangible experience before letting you loose with an expensive boat.
maser_spyder said:
How big are you looking to charter?
IIRC, the RYA powerboat is up to 12m, and you could (maybe should) have the European equivalent (which you can get for free by joining the RYA) of an ICC (International Certificate of Competence).
They will also, if they're sensible, ask for relevant and tangible experience before letting you loose with an expensive boat.
Not really sure how big a boat would be needed at the moment. I saw in other threads about chartering a 4 person boat, the 39 foot mark being mentioned?IIRC, the RYA powerboat is up to 12m, and you could (maybe should) have the European equivalent (which you can get for free by joining the RYA) of an ICC (International Certificate of Competence).
They will also, if they're sensible, ask for relevant and tangible experience before letting you loose with an expensive boat.
Priority for now would be to get the necessary training to safely navigate, know what to do in various weather conditions, how to use ports and any other important skills. I really am starting from nothing, but feel it would be a good skill to learn.
Where/ what is a good way to gain experience?
Thanks again.
Codswallop said:
Not really sure how big a boat would be needed at the moment. I saw in other threads about chartering a 4 person boat, the 39 foot mark being mentioned?
Priority for now would be to get the necessary training to safely navigate, know what to do in various weather conditions, how to use ports and any other important skills. I really am starting from nothing, but feel it would be a good skill to learn.
Where/ what is a good way to gain experience?
Thanks again.
That's gonna take quite a lot of practice!Priority for now would be to get the necessary training to safely navigate, know what to do in various weather conditions, how to use ports and any other important skills. I really am starting from nothing, but feel it would be a good skill to learn.
Where/ what is a good way to gain experience?
Thanks again.
Navigation you can learn by distance course, although doing this alongside practical is always beneficial, as you can tie up the theory with real life so it all makes sense.
Gaining experience, definitely do the RYA courses, you'll learn heaps more on one of these than you will just pottering about on your own.
As for getting enough experience for somebody to let you loose on a £500k boat, I really don't know. I know if it was my boat, there's no way I would let you take it out on your own unless you had a heap of experience.
You could always charter with a skipper, which takes a load of responsibility off your hands.
maser_spyder said:
That's gonna take quite a lot of practice!
Navigation you can learn by distance course, although doing this alongside practical is always beneficial, as you can tie up the theory with real life so it all makes sense.
Gaining experience, definitely do the RYA courses, you'll learn heaps more on one of these than you will just pottering about on your own.
As for getting enough experience for somebody to let you loose on a £500k boat, I really don't know. I know if it was my boat, there's no way I would let you take it out on your own unless you had a heap of experience.
You could always charter with a skipper, which takes a load of responsibility off your hands.
Thanks for the info. I'm still young, so have plenty of time ahead to practice Navigation you can learn by distance course, although doing this alongside practical is always beneficial, as you can tie up the theory with real life so it all makes sense.
Gaining experience, definitely do the RYA courses, you'll learn heaps more on one of these than you will just pottering about on your own.
As for getting enough experience for somebody to let you loose on a £500k boat, I really don't know. I know if it was my boat, there's no way I would let you take it out on your own unless you had a heap of experience.
You could always charter with a skipper, which takes a load of responsibility off your hands.
I've just checked, and have several local RYA training centres, so will go and enquire about training with them. Sounds like I'll need to immerse myself in a club far more than I expected (having thought beforehand that learning to use a boat would be similar to learning to drive...) Should be an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
To charter sailing boats in the Med now you need to have a least a RYA Day Skipper certificate and I would assume that the same is true for powerboats. Unless you charter something quite small, though from a safety point of view you need to know the basics of rights of way, collision regulations etc
NigelStn said:
To charter sailing boats in the Med now you need to have a least a RYA Day Skipper certificate and I would assume that the same is true for powerboats. Unless you charter something quite small, though from a safety point of view you need to know the basics of rights of way, collision regulations etc
Excuse my ignorance, but how large a boat is considered adequate for 4 people for say, 10 days? And would that size of boat be too much potentially to handle safely on your own.I most definetly would not charter anything alone/ unsupervised unless I felt 100% confident in my training, and my ability to aply it.
There isn't an easy answer to the how large question. It depends entirely on the people and what they are comfortable with. Families of four or more happily live aboard 40 foot sailing yachts and circumnavigate the globe, whereas others would find it too claustrophobic and drive each other nuts. Spending time aboard a boat with people tends to amplify any friction between you because you can't just walk away from a disagreement. You learn tolerance very quickly if you want to make it successful.
The thing about boat size is that bigger is not necessarily better. As you get larger, costs go up (considerably) and berthing becomes more of an issue, although that is offset slightly by things like bow thrusters. It is worth bearing in mind that big boats weigh more and if you hit something they can do a lot of damage to both themselves and what you hit. Repair costs on big boats are not cheap.
From a safety point of view it depends on your own confidence and competence, but also the others aboard should at least be comfortable handling the boat in case something happens and you are unable to do it.
The thing about boat size is that bigger is not necessarily better. As you get larger, costs go up (considerably) and berthing becomes more of an issue, although that is offset slightly by things like bow thrusters. It is worth bearing in mind that big boats weigh more and if you hit something they can do a lot of damage to both themselves and what you hit. Repair costs on big boats are not cheap.
From a safety point of view it depends on your own confidence and competence, but also the others aboard should at least be comfortable handling the boat in case something happens and you are unable to do it.
You're definitely going about things the right way - its refreshing to see someone genuinely wanting to learn rather than immediately getting his hands on something he can't actually handle. To answer your original question you would need the ICC to charter (internationally recognised), and possibily proof (logbook) of experience before being given the keys to anything of significant value.
You mentionned chartering something around 40 foot. That's actually fairly large, and no doubt expensive to charter/fuel. My suggestion would be to rent a holiday home in the Med and charter a smaller boat (possibly a RIB) by the day alongside. This would give you the opportunity to practice on something more manageable (little risk of damage on a RIB/low fuel consumption/easy handling) and also find out if you actually enjoy it. The cost of charting a 30 foot for a few days + a holiday place would probably be roughly equal to chartering a 40 foot for a longer period.
Check out http://www.easyboatbooking.com/ they have a wide range of boats from different brokers
You mentionned chartering something around 40 foot. That's actually fairly large, and no doubt expensive to charter/fuel. My suggestion would be to rent a holiday home in the Med and charter a smaller boat (possibly a RIB) by the day alongside. This would give you the opportunity to practice on something more manageable (little risk of damage on a RIB/low fuel consumption/easy handling) and also find out if you actually enjoy it. The cost of charting a 30 foot for a few days + a holiday place would probably be roughly equal to chartering a 40 foot for a longer period.
Check out http://www.easyboatbooking.com/ they have a wide range of boats from different brokers
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
OP, It has to be a Powerboat ? Sailing does not tickle our fancy ?
You do know of course that a Powerboat on charter will lunch some serious amounts of Diesel.
Sailing is a much cheaper way of charter boating for sure.You do know of course that a Powerboat on charter will lunch some serious amounts of Diesel.
Motor boat plus fuel is easily in the thousands per week. Sailing on a budget can even be done in the hundreds if you're careful.
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
OP, It has to be a Powerboat ? Sailing does not tickle our fancy ?
You do know of course that a Powerboat on charter will lunch some serious amounts of Diesel.
Sailing is something I want to learn to do, I just taught that it might be better to first learn how to use a powerboat. It seems too much like jumping in at the deep end if I wanted to learn to sail, navigate, learn about water/ wave conditions etc all at the same time...You do know of course that a Powerboat on charter will lunch some serious amounts of Diesel.
I started learning to windsurf on a few holidays when I was younger, and that thought me that sailing is a tricky bugger even with the simplest of sails
Edited by Codswallop on Tuesday 29th January 18:20
tank slapper said:
There isn't an easy answer to the how large question. It depends entirely on the people and what they are comfortable with. Families of four or more happily live aboard 40 foot sailing yachts and circumnavigate the globe, whereas others would find it too claustrophobic and drive each other nuts. Spending time aboard a boat with people tends to amplify any friction between you because you can't just walk away from a disagreement. You learn tolerance very quickly if you want to make it successful.
The thing about boat size is that bigger is not necessarily better. As you get larger, costs go up (considerably) and berthing becomes more of an issue, although that is offset slightly by things like bow thrusters. It is worth bearing in mind that big boats weigh more and if you hit something they can do a lot of damage to both themselves and what you hit. Repair costs on big boats are not cheap.
From a safety point of view it depends on your own confidence and competence, but also the others aboard should at least be comfortable handling the boat in case something happens and you are unable to do it.
Thanks for the info tank slapper. I'm sure I get a chance to look around a few boats of differing sizes when I start attending at a local club, so will get a better idea of boat sizing.The thing about boat size is that bigger is not necessarily better. As you get larger, costs go up (considerably) and berthing becomes more of an issue, although that is offset slightly by things like bow thrusters. It is worth bearing in mind that big boats weigh more and if you hit something they can do a lot of damage to both themselves and what you hit. Repair costs on big boats are not cheap.
From a safety point of view it depends on your own confidence and competence, but also the others aboard should at least be comfortable handling the boat in case something happens and you are unable to do it.
That's also a very good point regarding safety. I'm going to be training with my dad at any rate, so he can be second in command should I go AWOL
maser_spyder said:
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
OP, It has to be a Powerboat ? Sailing does not tickle our fancy ?
You do know of course that a Powerboat on charter will lunch some serious amounts of Diesel.
Sailing is a much cheaper way of charter boating for sure.You do know of course that a Powerboat on charter will lunch some serious amounts of Diesel.
Motor boat plus fuel is easily in the thousands per week. Sailing on a budget can even be done in the hundreds if you're careful.
Sailing does certainly seem appealing, but very complicated from this novices perspective. Thanks for all the advice PHers - certainly plenty of info to mull over.Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff