Hello, and greetings from Denmark!
My intro: I'm a professional
software developer with a dream of quitting my job and go live on a sailing yacht. And since my native
Denmark isn't exactly known for great
weather I'd prefer somewhere warmer. For various reasons
Greece appeals to me - it has lots of islands,
mediterranean climate, and people who I find warm and welcoming, while also being a Schengen
member so I don't have to bother with visa,
work permits and whatnot.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. My sailing experience is still rather limited, and I have some way to go before this dream can come true. While I have some basic experience as crew onboard various
boats I have never taken any
classes, although one of the skippers I've sailed with was an instructor in a yachting club and did try to put a little knowledge into my
head.
Now, since I'm beginning to take this dream seriously I've started doing some
research online to try to figure out what it would take for it to come true. I obviously need to improve both my practical and theoretical knowledge, and for that reason I've browsed the websites of several sailing schools with courses in
English in
Greece, most of them offering RYA-program courses. I've also done my best to find out as much as I can about
legal requirements for yacht
ownership in Greece, and this is where I have trouble finding answers. A few tidbits of information that I've been able to glean thus far:
1. The RYA course progression goes something like competent crew - day
skipper - coastal
skipper, and then with some additional experience one can take the yachtmaster coastal
certification, and with that in hand it seems pretty straightforward to get an international certificate, the
ICC
2. Depending on which company you're dealing with,
renting a yacht in Greece seems to require at least a day skipper qualification and at most the
ICC.
3. To obtain a DEKPA, which is one of the documents that is legally required for a yacht sailing in Greece, a certain level of documented competence is required, but it's unclear what "a certain level" is in RYA terms. The ICC seems to definitely be enough.
This uncertainty wouldn't be much of an issue if I could take the
classes and build the experience to qualify for an ICC, but suffering a minor deficiency in my ability to tell red from green I'm barred from the yachtmaster
certification which precedes it.
So, does anybody know with any level of certainty what level of qualification I need to obtain a DEKPA? I am of course hoping that day- or coastal skipper will do, but if not I'd rather know now than after taking several courses and parting with a substantial sum for a yacht that I then can't legally sail.
Okay, that turned out a bit long-winded, I better save my other questions for another post...
Happy cruising!