American buying a sailboat in Italy, changing Flag?

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by Montanan

ICC training includes first aid and VHF radio operator qualifications.

In case you believe this, have fun if you ever come down from your Montagnes and sail into a control by some European coast guards.

For your VHF at least one person on board needs to have a Short Range Certificate (SRC). If you have an SSB installation (not operating, having on board), you need either the LRC or a HAM radio license. The ICC won't help you at all here. For a long time, this was the most important certificate to have.

The SRC can be issued by any country you want, you don't even have to residency.

To come back to my rant about Croatian officials loving to monetise cruisers: I have a friend, who got caught in a control by Croatian officials (not sure if Coast Guards or port authorities) when riding the dinghy. The officials were a little annoyed they couldn't fine her because the dinghy was only 6 HP (less then 5 kW) thus she didn't need a ICC, but they fined her for the missing SRC because she had a VHF-handset in the waterproof-bag.