Sailing licences compared: SBF, SKS, RYA and ICC

There is no single sailing licence that works everywhere. What you need depends on four things: the flag of the boat, the country you sail in, the size and engine of the boat, and whether you are paid to be on board. For private sailing on your own boat, a surprising number of countries require nothing at all; for a bareboat charter, the charter company's rules apply on top of the law; and for carrying passengers for money there is always a separate professional licence. This guide compares the licences you are most likely to meet (Germany's ladder from the SBF See to the SHS, the RYA ladder up to Yachtmaster Ocean, the ICC, the US certificates from ASA and US Sailing, and the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish certificates) and says which one fits which kind of sailor.

Four rules for comparing licences

• The flag decides what is required, the coast decides what is accepted. A boat follows the rules of the country it is registered in. The country you are visiting can additionally ask foreign skippers for proof of competence. That is what the ICC is for.
• Required and recommended are different things. In Germany only the SBF See is legally required at sea; the SKS, SSS and SHS are recommended for their sea areas and only become mandatory on commercially used boats. In the UK and the USA nothing is required for private sailing. Many of the licences below are qualifications, not permits.
• Charter companies set their own bar. A base will typically want a coastal licence, a radio certificate and a sailing CV, whatever the local law says, and the rules differ by country and by company.
• The radio certificate is separate. Everywhere in Europe the person using the VHF needs an operator's certificate (SRC or equivalent); for the RYA Yachtmaster exams and for German commercial use it is a formal prerequisite.

Pick a licence

Pick a country or body, then a level on its ladder. The picture shows how far from the coast the licence takes you and which boats it covers; below it, what the licence allows privately and commercially, and what you need for it.

Side by side

Every licence on one row: how far it takes you, which boats, whether the law requires it, whether it covers paid work and whether it counts as an ICC, followed by the miles, days and exams it asks for. The ICC, or International Certificate of Competence, is the internationally agreed proof of a skipper's competence under UNECE Resolution 40; foreign authorities and charter bases ask visiting skippers for it. A distance marked recommended or certified is not a legal limit: German law only recommends the SKS, SSS and SHS for their waters, and the UK and the USA require no licence for private sailing, so their certificates describe what you are trained for. The table scrolls sideways; the licence column and the header stay in place.

Which licence is the strongest?

The RYA Yachtmaster Offshore is the qualification that travels furthest. It is examined, not taught, it is built on documented sea time rather than a course, and with the commercial endorsement it is accepted as a master's certificate on small commercial yachts under the British flag and listed by Spain and others for charter. The German SHS reaches the same waters, worldwide, but is theory-only on top of the SSS, and outside German-speaking charter bases few people know it. Denmark's Yachtskipper 1 and Norway's D5LA are strong national certificates for big boats, but they are rarely asked for abroad.

The real differences are not in the names:

• Sea-time licences versus course licences. The RYA Yachtmaster exams and the German SSS and SHS require miles, days or passages before you may sit the exam. The RYA Day Skipper, ASA 104, Förarintyg and Kustskepparintyg are courses or theory exams with little or no experience requirement.
• What the sea time counts. The RYA counts days living aboard, night hours, passages over 60 miles and tidal waters; the German licences count miles only, and for the SSS and SHS only miles sailed after the previous licence; Denmark's Y1 and the USCG count months and days of service.
• Practical exam on a yacht. The German SKS and SSS, the RYA Yachtmaster exams and the Danish duelighedsprøve test you afloat; the SHS, Y3, Y1, D5LA, Båtførerbevis and the Swedish intyg do not.
• Commercial use. German licences include it by sea area; the RYA needs an endorsement; the US and Sweden have separate professional licences; Denmark and Norway allow small-boat passenger work with extra certificates.
• International recognition. For private sailing it is the ICC that counts, not the national name behind it. Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Norway issue it on the back of their national licences; the UK issues it to residents; Denmark and Sweden do not issue it at all, and France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the USA have not adopted it, even if their charter bases accept it.

Choosing a licence

• Baltic or North Sea weekend sailor on your own boat. Under the German flag, the SBF See is all the law asks once the engine is over 15 hp; the SKS is the sensible next step and the one that counts for charter. Under a Danish or Swedish flag you need nothing under 15 m or 12 × 4 m, but the duelighedsbevis or Kustskepparintyg is the recognised standard and the base for everything above. Under a Norwegian flag the Båtførerbevis is mandatory if you were born in 1980 or later. Add the SRC as soon as there is a VHF on board.
• Chartering abroad. Get an ICC in whatever way your country offers: the German cards already are one, Norway and the Netherlands issue it, UK residents get it from the RYA on a Day Skipper practical. Take the SRC, and the certificate the base names: SKS or Day Skipper plus ICC in Greece, ICC or SBF See plus VHF in Croatia, ASA 104 or US Sailing Bareboat plus a sailing CV in the Caribbean. Danes and Swedes without an ICC sail on their national certificate and a sailing CV; ask the base before booking.
• Offshore ambitions. Collect the numbers from the first season (miles, days aboard, night hours and passages over 60 miles) and decide later between the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore and the German SSS. The RYA route counts more kinds of experience, is examined afloat and is known worldwide; the German route needs fewer formalities and leads to the SHS and worldwide commercial use under the German flag. Legally, your own German-flagged yacht needs only the SBF See, even offshore. The SSS and SHS are recommended and are what charter companies ask for.
• Working on boats. Under the British flag the Yachtmaster Offshore with commercial endorsement is the standard skipper's ticket for coded yachts up to 24 m; under the German flag the SKS, SSS or SHS by sea area plus a radio certificate; in the USA the USCG OUPV or Master licence; in Norway the D5L covers small boats with up to 12 passengers, in Denmark the Y3 can stand in for the merchant proficiency exam on such boats; in Sweden the Fartygsbefäl klass VIII. Everything larger needs professional STCW certificates.

Other national licences

The Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Finland all have their own ladders. They matter if you sail under those flags or charter a locally flagged boat; visitors on their own boat are generally covered by their flag state's licence or an ICC.

None of these six countries issues ICCs for maritime use except the Netherlands and Finland; France, Italy, Spain and Portugal still apply the older Resolution 14, so their permits are national documents, and EU nationals sail their boats on the licence of their own country within its limits.

Recording miles from the first trip

Every licence above that asks for experience asks for the same handful of figures: miles, days at sea, night hours, passages over a certain length, time as skipper, and for the RYA whether the water was tidal. They are easy to lose over a few seasons and painful to reconstruct. Manta records them trip by trip (the distance actually sailed, the dates, the hours after dark, passages over 60 miles, tidal waters and your role on board) and sums them per person. When you apply, it produces a mileage certificate with the trips listed and the skipper's signature on it, in the form most bodies accept alongside their own paperwork. The exam boards still decide what counts; the record is what you bring.

How to document the miles themselves is in How to prove your sea miles, and the German specifics in Sea miles for the German SKS licence.