Greetings from Denmark

[sijo]

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!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Sijo.

[Viking Sailor]

Welcome! There are glasses for color blindness. As an example: https://enchroma.com/


Best of luck...

[Jamme]

Hi and welcome. You may try to move / post your question on the “training, licensing and certification” forum: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f112/

[Adelie]

Welcome

[slug]

Originally Posted by sijo

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!

Don’t know how you solve the certificate problem
It must be possible , those licenses are not commercial


And Greece is a nice place

First purchase an air ticket , rent a car and do some investigation of the coast

Islands are a poor base choice, isolated wind blasted and in much of present eastern Greece , full of refugees and heavy sea monitoring by frontex

A very nice region is the mainland of northern Greece the region of Thessaloniki
All island destinations are downwind from northern Greece
Return trips upwind are done inland via the chalkida canal

I don’t like to talk about best ports, anchorages on the internet
Once publicized the live aboard crowd invades and spoils them

You must find them

On the west coast the inland sea region Vonitsa is worth a check
Unfortunately the last time I visited this ancient port the catamaran crowd had invaded... barking dogs and wailing windmills