Renting a boat in Europe for diving: license, skipper, anchoring, and safety

The Ministry of the Sea states it clearly: in France, a pleasure boating license becomes mandatory as soon as a boat’s engine exceeds 4.5 kilowatts, or 6 horsepower. This threshold determines much of your rental.

Imagine a hypothetical week in Corsica. You rent a motorboat, bring bottles and fins, and plan to hop from cove to cove in the gulf. On paper, it all fits. But rental pages rarely answer the real questions: who drives, where to drop anchor, who stays on board when you are in the water, and which rules apply outside France.

We go over these points one by one, with dated official texts.

What license is required to rent a motorboat in France?

Beyond 6 horsepower (4.5 kW), you need a pleasure boating license. According to the Ministry of the Sea, the coastal option authorizes navigation by day and night up to 6 miles from a shelter, with no boat size limit. Beyond this distance, the offshore extension applies.

The coastal option is almost always sufficient. Six nautical miles is a little over 11 kilometers. Yet distance matters less than shelter. A shelter is a place where you can protect the boat from bad weather and disembark. A mistral wind quickly reduces the list.

Under 6 horsepower, no license is required.

Thus, small open hulls of 6 horsepower rented without a license do exist, but their limited speed lengthens each trip and reduces your margin if the sea rises in the afternoon. With two tanks and two divers, the load also weighs.

For sailing, the official page specifies that sailing vessels do not require a license to be operated at sea. The rental company remains free to request a nautical CV or a handling session before entrusting you with a sailboat.

And in other European countries, what rules apply?

Each country sets its own thresholds for power, length, and distance, and these thresholds can be revised. We will not provide a country-by-country table here, because without a dated official text for each, we would copy figures that age poorly and you would take them for granted when signing. Ask the rental company for the rules in writing.

Your French license remains your base. However, its recognition depends on the country where you navigate, the boat’s flag, and sometimes the type of rental. The rental company knows these rules, since it is their boat that risks immobilization in case of control. Send them your questions by email. Keep their response.

• What title is required to pilot this specific boat?
• Up to what distance from the coast and shelter does this title remain valid for this boat?
• Is a radio certificate required to use the onboard VHF?

For Spain, Italy, Croatia, or Greece, it is impossible to decide here without this document.

If you are still hesitating about the destination, our selection of best dive sites in Malta gives an idea of spots accessible by sea.

With or without skipper, what to choose for a week of diving?

Take a skipper if no one on board has the appropriate license, if you do not know the water area, or if the whole group wants to dive at the same time. Without a skipper, someone must remain capable of piloting during each immersion. Over a week, this role weighs heavily.

Calculate the spots. In a group of four, if only one has the license, he will never dive at the same time as the others. He will spend his days watching the surface. No one planned this when booking, and this is where tensions begin. However, a skipper takes this role, knows the authorized anchorages, and knows where to take shelter when the wind shifts.

Our opinion: for a group without navigation experience, the skipper is worth the price.

His rate varies depending on the season, region, and rental company, and you often have to add his meals and a cabin if you leave for several days, which changes the budget more than you think when comparing ads. Request a line-by-line quote. Beware of low prices without skipper.

Where to drop anchor without damaging the posidonia seagrass?

Drop anchor on sand, never in the seagrass. Posidonia is a marine plant protected in France since 1988, and the Mediterranean maritime prefecture regulates anchoring by a series of decrees, including the general framework no. 123/2019 of June 3, 2019.

The following texts are precise. Decree no. 099/2021 of May 20, 2021 regulates anchoring of ships 24 meters and longer in the Calanques National Park sector, between Bouches-du-Rhône and Var. It cites the worsening degradation of posidonia seagrass linked to ship anchoring. Decree no. 156/2024 of May 23, 2024 applies the same logic to the Bonifacio Straits Nature Reserve. Your rental boat probably measures less than 24 meters, so these two texts do not directly target you.

But the seagrass does not make the distinction.

An anchor dragging and a chain sweeping the bottom tear up the plants, regardless of the size of the boat dragging them behind, and posidonia grows very slowly. From the surface, the seagrass forms dark patches. Sand appears light. In national parks and some bays, buoys and organized anchoring zones add to the decrees, with their own rules. Check them before leaving.

On site, also keep your hands to yourself: we explain why you should never touch marine life, even on a seemingly deserted bottom.

How to dive safely from a private boat?

Hoist the alpha flag as soon as a diver is in the water, and leave on board a person capable of piloting, following the bubbles, and giving the alert. This flag requests other boats to keep away and slow down. It protects nothing by itself.

In a club, a dive director organizes the outing, chooses the site, and controls the dive groups. On your rental, no one holds this role for you. The organization imposed on clubs by the Sports Code does not automatically apply to an outing among friends, so the checklist becomes yours: oxygen, first aid kit, VHF turned on channel 16. The 196 connects to sea rescue from a mobile. Note it before leaving the port.

And for what level?

Only autonomous divers as defined by their certification can go out in a group without supervision, and the person remaining on the surface must also have the license if the engine exceeds 6 horsepower, otherwise they will not be able to fetch a drifting group. Clear water says nothing about currents. Always plan a fallback site sheltered from the wind.

If no one is autonomous, an outing supervised by a club like Dune in Marseille or Diving Calvi in Piaghja, Corsica remains the simple solution, and the rental then serves for snorkeling on the best spots in France. The real cost of diving without a skipper is a teammate who does not dive on every outing. Would you book him like that?

FAQ

Is a license required to rent a motorboat in France?

Yes, as soon as the engine exceeds 4.5 kW, or 6 horsepower, according to the Ministry of the Sea. The coastal option covers navigation up to 6 miles from a shelter. Below 6 horsepower, no license is required.

Can you anchor in posidonia with a small boat?

Posidonia is protected in France and an anchor tears it up, regardless of boat size. The Mediterranean maritime prefecture decrees mainly target ships 24 meters and longer, but local rules exist in parks and some bays. Anchor on sand and check the area’s rules before leaving.

What is the purpose of the alpha flag?

It signals to other boats that divers are in the water and asks them to keep away and slow down. It does not replace surface supervision. A person must remain on board, capable of piloting and giving the alert.

Is my French license valid in Spain or Croatia?

It depends on the country, the boat’s flag, and the type of rental. Rules vary from country to country and can be revised. Ask the rental company, in writing, what title they require for this boat.

Sources

• The pleasure boating license, driving license for motor pleasure boats (Ministry of the Sea, consulted in 2026)
• Prefectural decree no. 099/2021 regulating anchoring and stopping of ships 24 meters and longer (Mediterranean maritime prefecture, 2021)

Photo: Pjotr Mahhonin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

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