As a matter of interest, would there be any scope for a Power Boat theory course?

The RYA Day Skipper theory course is common to both sail and power in the RYA cruising scheme. I believe the RYA powerboat courses are practical only.

Am I right in saying that the RYA powerboat course does not give you the tick in the box required to use it in CH.

Sadly, yes. CH will only recognise German, French, Austrian and possibly Italian tickets and then only if they were done before you moved here. Everyone else has to do the A and D Schein from scratch if you want to use a boat over 15m2 sail area or 6 kW engine power on a Swiss lake. RYA Powerboat 2 does, however, enable you to obtain an ICC for use elsewhere*

(* The RYA can only issue ICCs to British citizens and residents, US and Canadian citizens and citizens of non-UNECE countries (ie not EU or Swiss citizens), full info here)

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Switzerland's English Sailing Specialists

Translations, interpreting & language help for expats

errr! Many thanks for the info.

It is rather annoying to say the least (I say with feeling as it applies to me too, and I hold commercial Yachtmaster, Shorebased Instructor and Cruising Instructor tickets). OTOH, if you want to get involved with boating anywhere except within Switzerland, particularly on the open sea, the RYA scheme is the most widely recognised in the world.

Do you know if this is everywhere in Switzerland or Kanton by Kanton (I mean acceptance of foreign tickets).
I believe that, for example, Bodensee has a limit of 4.4KW - over that you have to do the exams

I'm 99.9% certain it's everywhere. Different cantons do, however, have different rules on where you can take the Swiss ticket (ie whether you are allowed to do it out of canton).

Correct. The lakes on the borders that share their coastline with other countries do have their own differing rules. For motor, it's 4.4 kW on the Bodensee and 6 kW everywhere else (off the top of my head).

Just to clarify further on the issue of foreign tickets, this is the actual Federal legislation:

http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/747_201_1/a91a.html

The key requirements for obtaining a Swiss ticket on the basis of a foreign one are:
- the ticket was issued by a state with which CH has a reciprocal agreement (list kept by the Federal Department of Transport)
- the requirements for obtaining the ticket were equivalent to those for the Swiss ticket
- you were a resident of the issuing country at the time you were awarded the qualification
- or you were in said country for a period in excess of 12 consecutive months at the time of obtaining the qualification, although otherwise a Swiss resident (e.g. a Swiss person on a 3 year assignment in the US)

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Switzerland's English Sailing Specialists

Translations, interpreting & language help for expats

Gone are the days when Britain ruled the waves, all I want to do is a Powerboat course. Will have to apply for a second CS Mortgage to attend and complete the course here in ZH.

As an update, the above course is definitely running, and there are still places available for "Kurzentschlossene". You can book at any time up to the end of next week subject to availability. Interested? Then drop me a message through the web site in the OP