hi all,

Possibly in the wrong thread but I thought I'd go with transportation.....

Does anybody here have their boat licence? Idea of costs etc? A friend of mine and I are thinking of getting ours. I could do the course in German, however we'd both probably prefer English.

Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks

My husband does but i can`t remember how much it cost i can ask him when he comes home from work, but he did take it about 8 yrs ago so it could of gone up now. It was all in German and not very easy the exam and he had to learn lots and lots of knots to tie in ropes

Goodluck i love driving our boat it is so much fun my husband showed me how to after he passed

This thread might help: Boat Captain's Licence (Getting/Converting)

I started doing mine, but quit after sheer boredom. I think the price depends on whether or not you have your own boat or are renting and how many hours you will take. Just like flying courses could be anywhere between 7000 and 20000 for a private license.

Thanks all. Just looks like a good way to enjoy the summer ))))

Plus it's a good way to watch the street parade go through town!

trust me it is a fantastic way to spend the summer we nearly live on our boat (you can sleep on it, but we don`t i would get see sick at night) we take it out nearly every weekend then in the evening we go out have a swimm and eat dinner on it watch the sun go down come home and have a good nights sleep

Sorry for my ignorance but do you need a license to rent a boat? Also, can you rent boats easily?

For renting a boat i would think you would need to have a license for safty reasons, we rented peddalors before we got our boat and we didn`t need a license for them brilliant fun aswell

Really? A licence to rent a boat? Surely not. I didnt realise you needed one to own a boat

Yes really they have police on the lake that control you and also remember if you cross over to another country (we go to Germany) always have your passports on you

	Quote:	kevlegs
	Really? A licence to rent a boat? Surely not. I didnt realise you needed one to own a boat

We are talking about Switzerland here...
This link to one of the Boat Schools might help to clear things up a bit.
Roughly this means
Pedalos are OK
Rowing boats OK (ID)
For Motor boats (less powerful) - You have to be at least 18 years old, Deposit Fr.100.- 18-25 year olds Deposit Fr. 200.-
> they explain the rules
For the more powerful ones (40 PS) at least 25 years old Credit Card Deposit Fr. 500.-
> you are supposed to know the rules already!
For the sailing boat they hire out you need a D Licence Credit Card Deposit Fr. 500.-
The possibility of doing the Theory exam in English is mentioned here.

Seems you still don’t need a licence for a boat with less than 15m2 sail area.
By motor boats the limit is 6kW.

If anyone finds any mistakes in this, please let me know and I’ll edit it.

__________________
Longbyt

The theory test is in German but I beleive you can request an English version. In any case, the trick with the test is that they will ask you I think 60 questions from a pool of 140 questions, and most of the questions involve choosing the correct situational picture/signs. So if you've got the 140 questions memorized, it should not be a problem. Your boat school will sort this out for you.

You will probably need about 10-15 hours of lessons at Fr.100 per hour. For the test itself, you need to rent the boat for another 1-2 hours, depending on how far you are from the testing center.

Switzerland is not a good boating country. There are many severe restrictions on everything and the bigger lakes can be very tricky, with very strong winds (that can break a mast) coming from the mountains.

I like it; there is something magical about water skiing/touring around with the Alps as a backdrop.

The police are quite nice too when giving out speeding tickets.

i just love your positive outlook

anthopny robbins could do with a bit of that.

I don't think you can water ski in many lakes. It's severly restricted... and no jetskis. I'd rather keep a boat on the Med or even better, lake Como. A nice Riva boat... pull up to Villa d'Este for a drink... nice...

I've skiied on a few lakes and have had great times docking for drinks. Haven't done Como yet. I like Porto Cervo- it reminds me of "home".

Back OT- I don't have a boats license.

Well, Como is the best... if a bit overhyped.