River licence

The "inland waterways" licence allows you to steer a motor boat of more than 6 hp at sea and less than 20 metres on French and European rivers and canals. This licence allows you to navigate on canals, navigable rivers and inland lakes and waterways. It should be noted that a coastal licence is valid for sailing on closed lakes such as Lake Annecy or Lake Geneva.

WHAT IS THE TRAINING AND THE TEST?

The river licence consists of three parts which aim to give you the skills to be the skipper of a motorised pleasure boat on inland waters:

Acquisition of theoretical knowledge on regulations, the river environment and its protection, buoyage, signalling, rules for traffic between boatls, use of the VHF ... This acquisition is validated by an official exam of 30 MCQs with a minimum of 25 correct answers.

Practical training in the general skills of the skipper in the use and testing of the safety equipment, the practice of use of the VHF and the taking into account of environmental information on the navigation conditions. This part of the training is validated by the trainer of the school boat.

Practical training in the driving and basic manoeuvres of a motorboat. After training in the use of the engine and the handling of the boat, you will be trained in the mastery of five fundamental manoeuvres: the use of alignments, docking and undocking, and the taking of the boot, anchoring and finally the recovery of a person who has fallen into the water.

It should be noted that a person who already holds the coastal licence only has to pass the theory test and does not have to repeat the practical training.

THE RIVER LICENCE PROGRAM

• characteristics of waterways and water bodies
• the operation of guarded locks, automatic or manual
• the operation of the dams and the safety instructions to be observed
• parking and mooring conditions
• definitions of the most common terms used by boaters
• the duty of care
• rules of the road and parking
• visual and sound signalling, knowledge of the rules for marking navigable waterways and bodies of water
• the marking of boats, identification marks
• special provisions for small boats
• the essential notions on the organisation and missions of the services in charge of waterways, visits and control
• basic knowledge of special police regulations
• regulations concerning the boatmaster's licence for motorized pleasure boat
• the number of people or load on board
• environmental protection: maintenance of the boat, discharges, protection of the banks, fauna and flora
• Use of the VHF inland waters