Rules and Regulations

Because it’s been 4 years since we’ve owned a canal boat, we are a little fuzzy about inland waterways navigation rules.  We hope to be on our boat around the first of April 2010 so we have six months to familiarize ourselves with them again.  With the help of the internet and the U.K.’s Royal Yachting Association, we’ll be able to do just that.  After all, we did it in 2 weeks once before.

When we bought our first canal boat, Chapter III, we didn’t realize that France required us to have a license to operate our boat.  As usual, we’d leaped before looking and found ourselves owning a  French boat and unable to operate it on the French waterways without a license.  With an inspector coming in 2 short weeks to give us a written and on-the-water test…..all in French….we did some scrambling.  Did we speak French?  Nope, it didn’t matter.  We had to pass the test, period.  We ordered a guide to the CEVNI from the Royal Yachting Association, bought one in French and started learning.  Yes, it was difficult but we passed and we were proud of ourselves for doing it.  We can do it again

From what we've read, a license to operate a boat isn’t compulsory in the Netherlands unless you are piloting a boat larger than 15 meters.  It is, however, mandatory to know the rules of the road.  

CEVNI (Code Europeen des Voies de la Navigation Interieure) unifies signs and signals and standardizes procedures on the European Inland Waterway system.  "Normal"  vessels, anything over 20 meters long,  have priority over small craft so some of the CEVNI rules might not apply to you as the operator of a small craft.   So, in order to understand what is going on around you and to take evasive action if necessary, learning all of the rules of the road is necessary.