Going around Switzerland, it is hard to miss its beautiful lakes. This summer (2023) I was fortunate enough to have figured out the process and obtained my boating licenses in Switzerland. In this blog post, I will share with you the process I went through to obtain one. I generally found very little information about it which is in English and accessible to many English-speaking expats in Switzerland.
On Swiss lakes (and in other European countries), you might have come across license-free motorboat rentals. In Switzerland, you are allowed to drive a motorboat of less than 8HP without a license. While such low-power boats are okay as a tourist activity, you can’t get very far with those and those won’t go fast either.
If you are a visitor and have some kind of motorboat license in your country you are generally allowed to drive a motorboat in Switzerland only if you are a visitor. If you are a resident here, you must obtain a Swiss license by clearing the Swiss boat driving test. However if your motorboat licenses were obtained before your move to Switzerland and they are from either Austria or Germany they can be converted to a Swiss License without examination (see BAV-). If you are from one of the other popular boating countries in Europe like France, Italy, Netherlands, Croatia, or the United Kingdom (UK), your licenses are not valid in Switzerland. Also understand that if you have done an RYA (Royal Yachting Association) course, it is also not a valid qualification to drive a motorboat in Switzerland. Read on if you want to understand how to obtain a Swiss license and the nuances associated with it.
Cantonal Shipping Office
Like many other things in Switzerland, the motorboat licenses are administered by the Cantons. The road traffic department (Strassenverkehrsamt in German, Office cantonal des véhicules in French) handles these affairs. Here is the official site of the Shipping Administration of Canton of Zurich. Every canton has this department, you need to apply in the Canton of your residence. There are several categories of boating licenses. Category A (for motorboats above 8HP) and Category D (sailing boats about 15m2 of sail area) are the licenses that might interest a leisure boater. This post is particularly for these two categories.
It might also be interesting to know that the Swiss license is an Inland water license. Accordingly, it is not valid for boating on the seas. However, it is valid for other inland water lakes in Europe, the canals of France, Belgium and Netherlands, the rivers like the Seine, Rhine, and Danube etc. It might be interesting to know that there are over 30,000Km of inland water ways in Europe. There is even a detailed map of the Inland waterways of Europe. If you want to drive a boat only on the seas this license is not what you need. However, if you are living in Switzerland and want to practice this hobby more often and closer to home, then you will need the category A license.
In the future, I of course want to get a license that lets me drive a motorboat on the sea. Some people feel they want to drive only on the sea. Nothing wrong with that, but I think if one is living in Switzerland you will get only a few chances a year to drive on the sea. For me I want to drive on the sea in a safe manner, so I feel practicing it regularly on the lakes is a great experience builder. In a future blog post, I can also cover what license you might need to drive a motor boat on the seas.
Application Process for the Swiss Category A License
The first step, if you decide to go this route and obtain your Swiss Category A license, you need to fill out the form from the traffic office of your Canton of Residence. For Zurich, it can be obtained here. You will then need to get an eye examination done on the form itself. This is a very easy step and takes 20 CHF and can be done at any optician’s store. Then you can submit this form either at your Geminde Kries Buro or the Shipping office. You need to show up in person as they need to verify the ID. Within a week of the submission, you will receive an invitation for the shipping theory examination. This letter will have the details on how to book a theory exam. In Zurich, it takes 3-4 weeks to get an appointment for the theory examination.
Theory Examination
To take this exam, you shall go to the shipping office. This exam can be taken in English, German, French, and Italian. It contains 50 multiple choice questions and you are allowed 15 mistakes. It asks questions about boat traffic rules, traffic signs, seamanship, and rules on Swiss lakes. You will need to study for it. It is about 10 hours of effort for it. Boatdriver.ch is an excellent app to study for the theory test, and I highly recommend it. You need to pay 30 CHF for the app though which is well worth the price. Note that this theory exam is the same for Category A (motorboat license) and Category D (sailing license). It is valid for two years.
I managed to pass it after about 10 hours of learning. It was a fairly easy exam on site of the shipping office on a computer. The appointment takes 3-4 weeks though, so you need to time accordingly. It might be interesting to know that, there is no learning license requrement to learn a motorboat. So you could start your lessons even without finishing the theory exam.
Motor Boat Lessons
The next step is to enroll yourself in a motorboat school and learn the various maneuvers. To pass the Swiss practical examination, it is expected that you know about 16 prescribed maneuvers. It generally takes about 20 1.5 hrs sessions to learn those. There are many many motorboat schools (German: Motorboot Fahreschule) in Switzerland. I learned to drive with Michael Ramseier, here is his website and contact info. It costs about 180 CHF per lesson. He is an excellent teacher, and I had many fun days learning from him. The boat we learned with is pictured below, it was a 230 HP Volvo Penta Engine on a Draco boat. Other schools also charge pretty much the same price.
The practical exam is conducted only in German. I don’t really speak much German, I am at level A1 and know a few words a some grammar in German. You will need to understand the names of the Manoervres in German and some safety-related questions the examiner might have. This is easily manageable with some super basic knowledge of German. In the French-speaking cantons, this exam happens only in French.
I have tried to summarize what I learnt in those lessons in as much details as possible with some 3rd party video illustration. I have noticed there is a lot of wrong information on youtube on how to park boats.
Practical Exam
It is a 1-hour driving test with the examiner of the traffic office. It starts with driving around on the lake to see if you know the rules of the lake. They ask about the weather conditions right now. I think what they want to particularly hear is how strong is the wind and in which direction in blows. You should be able to reply in German to it. Next, they take you to a harbor and ask you to do various landings on the piers. These are the same ones you learned in your motorboat lessons. Next, they ask you to set an Anchor. Then on the lake, they do a Man-overboard with a Buoy. After that, they ask you to find your position on the map using compass measurements. Finally, they ask some safety-related questions.
- Driving on the lake
- Landings on the pier and in Harbours
- Anchoring
- Man-overboard
- Compass Positioning
- Question/Answers
- Docking the boat on the Pier with appropriate knots.
Some questions they might ask
- What will you do in case of Engine Fire on board?
- What will you do in case of Battery fire on board?
- Why is it dangerous to drive with water in bilge (lowest chamber of the boat)?
- What are the rules for disposing of the water in the Bilge?
Sea License Possibilities
There are several possibilities for driving a motorboat in sea, especially in Europe. In some places, you can get to drive a boat without even a license requirement. For example in Croatia, a lot of people will rent you a motorboat of say 60-80HP without any previous boating experience. Also in Italy, you can rent a motorboat with 40HP without a license. Although it might be okay in fair weather, it can get rapidly dangerous with winds and summer storms. However, these rentals advise their clients to stay not more than 1-2km from the base location. However, I have my doubts about these dubious practices. Authorities in Croatia are cracking down on these unlicensed boat rental companies. Funnily though, it is possible to obtain a Croatian boating license within half a day without rigorous training, see here. This license is however not valued in other places in Europe for example in the Netherlands or France.
Enough of ranting…
A Swiss resident realistically has four possibilities for a license which allows them to drive a powerful enough motorboat on the sea.
- Swiss, Hochseeschein (High Sea license). More Info
- German, Sportbootführer-Küstenschein (Sports Boat License – Coastal). More Info.
- French, Permis Plaisance (Pleasure boat license). Info.
- UK, Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Day Skipper. More Info.
The deal breaker for me with the above license, except the RYA one is that the theory exam for it is done only in German and French language respectively. There is no possibility to do it in English. Further, the Swiss high sea license has a 1000 nautical-miles requirement which might take a couple years at least for a working person. The German SBF can be done in Zurich and might take 1-2 more lessons after you have your Swiss inland license (6-8 lessons if you have no previous experience). However, I don’t like the idea of training in the lake for sea. I feel I need to really train in the sea for a sea-worthy license. Nevertheless, the German SBF is a well-respected document. The French license is also similar to German requirements but training needs to happen on the sea. The French language is a major deterrent for me. Also for sailboats, there is no license needed in France. But realistically no one will rent you a sailboat with a good amount of sailing experience.
The RYA courses are of course in English (both the theory and practical), which is good for me and many more expats in Switzerland. Further, you can also get a UK ICC (international certificate of competence) if you complete the RYA course. RYA day skipper course is well respected and is sufficient to rent sailboats in most places in Europe at least (see here). This course is available in sailboats and also for motorboats. It is done only on the sea and is 5 days long. The sailboat variant needs some previous sailing experience. But the good part about it is that it also lets you drive a motorboat at sea (in addition to a sailboat) which is less than 10m (more info). If you wish to drive a longer motorboat than 10m (very unlikely for me at least, but never say never) you need to do the RYA day skipper (motor).
Boat Vacation Ideas
There are several cool vacations one can do with a motorboat license. Of course you can explore little towns by the Swiss lakes like the Beautiful lake Lucern, Majestic lake Geneva, the Huge Lake Constance, all of which we wish to explore on the water. With an inland license, you can rent a houseboat in Belgium and Netherlands. Some companies even rent a license-free version of the house boats. Also the canals of France, especially Canal-du-midi is very popular amongst boaters. You can go through many river locks and river canal bridges. There are also several inland water possibilities in Scandinavia. leboat.com and clickaboat.com are some excellent websites to search for boat rentals in Europe.
The crown jewel of them all, the Mediterranean Sea will become accessible and is abound with many many many awe-inspiring cruising grounds.
On my Own on Water in Switzerland
You might even get or be interested in owning a motorboat (or a sailboat) in Switzerland. https://www.boat24.ch/ is a website to look for used boats. There are several boat vendors if you are looking for brand-new boats. New boats cost between 80K CHF to several hundred CHF. A secondhand boat depending on its condition be purchased for 10-30K CHF.
The biggest challenge in Switzerland’s boating scene is however a mooring place on the lake. Based on some forums online and some hearsay it takes 15-25 years to get a mooring place in Switzerland. There are reports of people getting a place after 35 years on Lake Zurich.
So if you really want to own a boat your option is to trailer it to the lake. You will have to secure a trailer parking place on the land somewhere, which is relatively easy to do. Also for it, you will need a car trailering license (category BE). Keep in mind that a boat is an expensive car and costs several thousand a year to maintain.
Another possibility is to rent boats. Renting in Zurich is rather expensive typically 500 CHF a day. Lake Geneva is much better with clickaboat.com for about 250 CHF/day.
My Boating Journey so far…
In the end, I managed to pass my theory exam and then moved on to complete my training in Lake Zurich for the Category A License. In August of 2023, I passed my driving test and am now a proud holder of the category A License. In September 2023 I even rented an 80 HP motorboat with obersee-boating on Lake Zurich a couple of times. It was super fun and opened new possibilities and new learnings. In a future post, I will describe what I learned in my motorboat lessons, so stay tuned.
Next, I went on to do a week-long sailing course with neuhaus segel schule in Interlaken on Lake Thun. After having completely immersed myself in sailing for a week, I successfully passed my Category D (sailboat) license. I will highly recommend neuhaus segel schule. Hopefully, in the future years, I can rent more motor and sailboats on Swiss lakes and have many enjoyable days. I am looking forward to sharing more blogs on it soon…!
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