Local Info - Bay of Naples / Amalfi Coast

[Ricochet]

I am doing a charter this year from the third week of June until 4 July in the Bay of Naples, the Pontine Island and the Amalfi Coast. I am picking up the boat, a Beneteau 523, in Naples at Marina Darsena Acton and then heading to Ventotene, Ponza, Ischia, Capri and a still undecided harbor/port on the Amalfi Coast before I bring the boat back to Naples to drop off.

If anyone has some Local Knowledge about these places or the area in general, I’d be interested in any input -- both as to place to moor/dock/anchor the boat and also land based recommendations.

In addition, I have three specific questions:

1. As for where to visit with the boat on the Amalfi Coast, I have not yet had a chance to review Rod Heikell’s Italian Waters Pilot, but I was wondering which of these three places you would recommend for ease of docking/mooring/etc. -- Positano, Amalfi or Cetara?

2. Marina Darsena is located in the Santa Lucia section of Naples -- any recommendations on where to stay near the Marina before I board the boat?

3. I am told by the charter company I am required to have a boating license. Does anyone know of the exact name of the skipper's license I am required to get to charter the boat and, if so, could you recommend a correspondence class?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

I am doing a charter this year from the third week of June until 4 July in the Bay of Naples, the Pontine Island and the Amalfi Coast. I am picking up the boat, a Beneteau 523, in Naples at Marina Darsena Acton and then heading to Ventotene, Ponza, Ischia, Capri and a still undecided harbor/port on the Amalfi Coast before I bring the boat back to Naples to drop off.

If anyone has some Local Knowledge about these places or the area in general, I’d be interested in any input -- both as to place to moor/dock/anchor the boat and also land based recommendations.

In addition, I have three specific questions:

1. As for where to visit with the boat on the Amalfi Coast, I have not yet had a chance to review Rod Heikell’s Italian Waters Pilot, but I was wondering which of these three places you would recommend for ease of docking/mooring/etc. -- Positano, Amalfi or Cetara?

2. Marina Darsena is located in the Santa Lucia section of Naples -- any recommendations on where to stay near the Marina before I board the boat?

3. I am told by the charter company I am required to have a boating license. Does anyone know of the exact name of the skipper's license I am required to get to charter the boat and, if so, could you recommend a correspondence class?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Ok,

The 523's a big powerful boat and will be a joy for coastal and intermediate offshore sailing but you may find it to be a bit of a blunderbuss when trying to navigate the smaller harbours of the Almalfi coast.

Answers in order:

1) I highly recommend you buy Rod's Italian Waters Pilot guide as soon as possible - it's an excellent book (one of the best in my opinion) and is a treasure trove of information. On a 523 you have around 1.85m of draft, and this will determine which parts of certain harbours are accessible.

Positano
Unless you're in a rib or small open fishing boat, you're going to be forced to use the anchorage instead - this is only good in fair weather. If the seas are coming up and the glass is falling, go to Almalfi instead.

Almalfi
Easy access, though wait for any ferry traffic to be clear. Med style mooring up against the mole (marked with FlR.5s) in water depths from 4m up to 11-12m on the outward end. There are laid moorings available too. The smaller pontoons are really intended for smaller 'open' fishing boats and day-cruisers - so you'll be on the mole/seawall with your 523. Good harbour, open to the East but well protected for the summer weather which mostly has wind coming in from the W/NW.

Cetara
Approach is relatively straight forward. The entrance is marked either side with flashing Green and Red markers. There is a newish mole enclosing the harbour but there's generally place for 8-12 mid-sized yachts. Mooring is classic med-style and you'll end up stern-to in 3-3.5 meters of water. You have to take some care here as there are rock piles and rubble upto and off the harbour wall which you can easily foul your rudder on. Expect the harbour to be busy during the summer season - if you get there and there's a slot free: shout ahead to make sure that it's not because of a large rock being below the surface.

3) Licenses.
This has been a question of contention on some of the threads on this forum. But generally, I've found that Chartering companies like to see an ICC or equivalent. If you have a certified local country-specific certificate from an EU/EEA country you'll be fine: just send that. If you're from the US then they'll want to be seeing some form of ASA (or USCG) certificate. They also ask for a VHF/SRC cert.
The EU has started to push the integration of Resolution 40 (see below) with the EU/EEA countries with varied effect - some have started implementing and other countries haven't yet. If you're in the UK then you don't need a license for a sailboat upto a length of 23.99m - though I personally think you'd be crazy to not have been through any courses with a vessel of that size.
In other EU/EEA countries you'll find that certification isn't manditory below 15m LOA, but is above 15m LOA - but only applies to that specific country's flag. i.e. If you're boarded in Norwegian waters on a British-regisitered boat flying the red ensign and it's 60' long - they're not going to ask for the skipper's D5L (Norwegian Coastal Skippers license applying to vessels over 15m but less than 50GMT) !
You're looking at chartering a vessel over 15m - i'll be very suprised if they do not look at you certification very carefully as the insurance rammifications for them are somewhat different either side of the 15m boundary.

Generally:
A person must be 18 years and older to qualify for a boating license.

The boating license is obligatory to:

• pilot all boats and yachts, when sailing beyond 6 nautical miles from the coast
• pilot all craft (motor boats and sail yachts) with a motor over 40.8 HP
• drive a jet ski

See Resolution 40: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/t...S-SC3-147e.pdf
If your country doesn't have a national certificate of boating competance then you may need to look at RYA's ICC:
The ICC and Proof of Competence Abroad | Boating Abroad | Information & Advice | RYA

However, I think you're going to be struggle with finding a correspondence class for a complete certificate as they'll always be a practical examination.

As an example: you can find Yachtmaster Theoretical "over the web" courses and examinations, but that only gets you the Theoretical certificate. This is intended to be presented to an examiner as a pre-requisite when you go to take your Yachtmaster Practical exam - without the practical you don't get the certification. Generally, all or any sailing certificates which have any legal value have a practical examination component.

I would get in touch with the chartering company and scan/email any certificates you already have before you pay the deposit - better to find out now than when you're going to collect the boat at the marina!

Good luck!

Phil

[athene]

Look at the World Cruising Wiki for information on all the ports and harbours in this area. If you register, you could even update some of them as you go if you feel inspired! I'd advise against trying to get a berth in Amalfi without pre-booking (even in July) and Salerno is the nearest alternative for a safe overnight berth.