
Skopelos is the perfect place to have a boat, whether it is a sailing boat or a speedboat. The possibilities to explore the coasts, the islands around, the beaches, are innumerable. Many boat owners from abroad with foreign boat “driving’ permits have been travelling the sea around Skopelos and the Aegean for many years but recently something came up.
The joy of sailing was cut short a few of months ago when a couple who own a boat here were stopped by the port police and forbidden to continue because their boat “driving” permit (French in this case) was not translated in Greek and lacked an extra document from the ministry of maritime affairs. authenticating it. The boat owner also received a fine.
After contacting the French consulate in Thessaloniki, the Greek embassy in Paris and a French marine attache in Marseilles the urgency of this matter was recognized because it involves thousands of foreign boat owners in Europe and most of them might have translated their “driving” permit but don’t have that last document. The port authorities only recently started checking foreign permits and maybe this family was a “test case”
Since their encounter with the port police of Skopelos, in Volos, many boat owners have been stopped and their documents have been checked. Basically it is just a question of how and when the port police is enforcing this law.
The family that have send me this information just want other boat owners to be aware of what is required before they get stopped too. They now have all their documents and are sailing again. If there are any French boat owners they are happy to share their contacts (via me)
The two requirements from the law (see below in Greek) are:
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1) translated version of your permit from an authorized lawyer or translator
2) a document issued by the ministry of maritime affairs but which can be obtained via the embassy or the consulate representing you in Greece, attesting that the authorities which issued the document (sailing permit) had the authority to do that and verify that it is authentic.
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