SPECIAL REPORT
HELEN FRETTER ON SAILING IN EUROPE
Cruising in Europe was once the comparatively simple option, negotiating weather systems in Biscay and overcrowded anchorages being the major concerns for anyone planning to cruise Atlantic or Mediterranean shores in former years. Today, it is anything but, thanks to a moving jigsaw puzzle of Covid-19 travel regulations and postbrexit restrictions for non-eu citizens.
With much long-haul travel still off the cards and a vast choice of cruising areas to explore, Europe remains one of the best options for safe, enjoyable sailing, though a degree of forward planning and flexible thinking is needed.
Attempting to keep on top of latest regulations is a bit like catching snowflakes; as soon as you think you have one in your grasp, it will have vanished, only for a dozen more to have appeared. So while we generally prefer to avoid caveats and disclaimers, the information that follows is likely to change and should be thoroughly checked before making plans.
The situation is liable to change for both welcome and unwelcome reasons, including fluctuating Covid-19 rates, the reopening of tourism, but also as lobbying by organisations such as the Cruising Association and RYA yield some bureaucratic simplifications post-brexit.
SAILING FROM THE UK
Setting off from the UK into Europe should be simplified later this year, with an online reporting systemreplacing the C1331 paper form. Since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, cruisers have been required to fill out a C1331 customs declaration form with details of their boat, crew, and departure and arrival destinations and dates every time they travel out of or into UK waters.
The form can only be sent by post to the Border Force team in Dover, and if a voyage is delayed by more than 24 hours then a new form with a revised departure time has to be submitted – a situation the RYA described as ‘farcical’. The new system will go live later this year and will be called ‘Submit A Pleasure Craft Report’, filled out via the gov.uk website.
The Home Office told our sister title Yachting Monthly that Border Force was working with HMRC to develop a ‘temporary alternative method of submission [for the C1331 form] that removes the requirement to post the form via the Royal Mail’ until Submit A Pleasure Craft Report was available online.
The bigger question for British-based cruisers is where to go, thanks to Covid-19 restrictions on returning to the UK. At the time of going to press, current UK Government advice is that ‘you should not travel to amber or red list countries’, although travel industry representatives have been at pains to point out that going abroad is not in itself illegal. That leaves a limited and largely impractical number of ‘green list’ options, requiring only a single test and no quarantine on return. For example, the Faroe Islands are a stunning cruising destination – Rubicon 3 is among the adventure sail operators offering berths on voyages from the west coast of Scotland to the North Atlantic archipelago – but require a 500-mile passage from Oban. Likewise with Portugal on the green list, there is the option of making an Atlantic loop to Madeira and the Azores, though with a 1,500-mile return leg that is akin to a full ocean crossing.
For cruisers craving more straightforward