Your Questions.
My Honest Answers.

It depends on where you live, and on whether you are on a lake or at sea.

Lake Lugano and Lake Maggiore: the 1992 Italy-Switzerland convention (Art. 6) applies, and the licence rules follow your country of residence. Live in Switzerland, and after 12 months you need a Swiss licence, valid on both lakes, Italian parts included. Live in Italy, and your Italian licence is valid on both lakes, Swiss parts included. Above 30 kW, a licence is always required in the other state's waters.

Lake Como and Lake Garda are fully Italian, so Italian rules apply. If you live outside Italy, you may skipper an Italian-registered boat with the licence from your country of residence, within its limits and only if you are not paid for it. Keep the original licence and proof of residence on board.

At sea, a Swiss category A or D licence, and the ICC based on it, cover inland waters only. Below 30 kW and within 6 miles of the coast, Italy requires no licence at all.

One grey area: for foreign citizens, the Italian text points to the country of citizenship, so check first if you live in Switzerland without a Swiss passport.

Not always, but the two countries draw the line in very different places.

Italy: you need a licence once the engine is above 30 kW (40.8 CV), when you tow a water skier, or when you ride a personal watercraft. Below 30 kW and within 6 miles of the coast, you can rent and drive a small motorboat without one.

Switzerland: you need a licence once the engine is above 6 kW or the sail area is above 15 m². So plenty of boats you can rent licence-free in Italy need a licence on the Swiss side.

Lugano and Maggiore add one more layer: under the Italy-Switzerland convention, the licence rules follow where you live, and above 30 kW a licence is always required in the other state's waters. Ask the rental company what applies to the exact boat, and to you.

On Lake Lugano and Lake Maggiore, it depends on where you live, not on the licence or the flag. Under the 1992 Italy-Switzerland convention (Art. 6), if you live in Italy, your Italian licence is valid on both lakes, Swiss parts included. If you live in Switzerland, you need a Swiss licence after 12 months of residence, and it is valid on both lakes, Italian parts included. Above 30 kW, a licence is always required in the other state's waters.

If you move across the border, the convention lets you swap your licence without an exam within a year. Check with the Ticino navigation office before you rely on it.

Elsewhere in Switzerland, the general Swiss rules apply. A foreign licence is fine on a holiday and for your first 12 months living here. After that, an Italian licence can no longer be swapped for a Swiss one, so you need the full Swiss theory and practical exam. That is the one still on my list.

The Barcolana is a sailing race, so a motorboat-only license does not qualify you to skipper an entry. However, the Ticket to Race programme allows you to register as a crew member on an existing boat — no license required, just a willingness to help and learn. This is the beginner's route in, and it is genuinely well-organised. You are matched with a skipper who knows the race, you contribute as crew, and you experience the start from on the water rather than the shore. For anyone with a combined sailing and motorboat license like the Italian Patente Nautica unlimited, entering your own boat is possible — the race is open to all vessel categories and the Notice of Race sets out the requirements at barcolana.it.

In Italy, the legal obligation applies beyond six nautical miles from the coast, so it is not the rule that governs a typical day on a lake. In Switzerland, a standard marine VHF cannot be used on lakes at all, though you can apply for a mobile land radio license if you want channel 16 on board. For most beginners on a lake, a charged phone in a waterproof case, a power bank, and the numbers in this issue are the realistic emergency kit. If you do buy a radio, sort out the license and operator certificate first.

Check the lake-specific bulletin on MeteoSwiss, not just the general weather forecast, the night before and again on the morning of the trip. If wind is forecast above 20 knots at any point during your planned window, cancel or postpone. If the forecast looks borderline, it is already a no.

The general rule is simple: if you are asking yourself whether conditions are acceptable, they probably are not. Uncertainty about the weather is itself an answer. The lake will be there next weekend.

Good question, and one I am clearly still learning to answer myself. The rough rule: wind above 20 knots on an inland lake means conditions are deteriorating fast, especially in the afternoon. Waves over half a metre in a small boat feel very different from what they look like from shore. When in doubt, check the lake-specific bulletin, watch what other boats are doing, and remember that turning back is always an option. The harbour does not move.

A practical go or no-go rule: if the gusts are stronger than anything you have handled before, or the fairway leaves you little room to turn and reset if the approach fails, conditions are beyond your current level. Call the marina by phone and ask for assistance or a different berth with more shelter. On Swiss lakes, standard marine VHF radios are not permitted, so the phone is your tool. Most marinas will send someone to help. Asking is not an admission of incompetence. It is good seamanship.

My honest answer, having just lived through three issues worth of near-misses: not until you have logged enough hours with someone who knows what they are doing. Reading is not the same as muscle memory. Find a sailing school, crew for someone else first, or take at least one proper on-water course before you take a boat out solo with people depending on you. The sea does not grade on a curve.

Honestly, I did not feel calm. I felt the opposite. But I had read enough to know that how the skipper behaves in those moments sets the tone for everyone else on board. So I acted calm, gave clear instructions, and kept my voice steady. The feeling caught up with the performance eventually.

You do not need to feel calm. You need to act calm. The rest follows.

The best source is your chart. Navionics shows bottom composition in many areas, marked as sand, mud, rock or weed. Sand and mud are ideal for most recreational anchors. Rock and weed are problematic and worth avoiding if you have a choice. If you cannot read the bottom from the chart, look at what other boats in the anchorage are doing. If several boats are anchored comfortably in the same area, the bottom is probably holding well. Local knowledge is always more reliable than any chart.

Start with your engine's fuel burn rate at cruising RPM. It is in your engine manual or on the manufacturer's website, usually in litres per hour. Estimate your trip duration, then multiply: burn rate times hours equals litres needed for the outward leg. Double it for the return (conditions may differ), then add fifty percent for your reserve. That is the rule of thirds: one third out, one third back, one third in reserve. That total is the minimum you want in the tank before departure. If your gauge reads below that, fuel up before you leave, not at the halfway point.

A properly fitted children's life jacket rated for their weight, worn at all times on deck and whenever they are near an open cockpit. For small children, choose one with a crotch strap, so it can't ride up over their head, and a head support that keeps their face out of the water. Adult life jackets are not safe for children and should never be used as a substitute. Beyond that, sun protection matters even more for children than adults: full-coverage sun shirts are easier to manage than reapplying sunscreen on a moving boat, and a hat with a chin strap rather than a standard cap. Non-slip shoes with a closed toe rather than sandals. And a change of clothes in a dry bag, because children on boats get wet, and a dry child is a happy child for the second half of the trip.

For day trips on familiar inland waters, your phone with Navionics is enough. A dedicated chart plotter is more reliable (no battery drain, waterproof, visible in direct sunlight) and worth investing in once you are doing longer passages or coastal cruising. For a beginner on Swiss or Italian lakes, start with the phone. Just make sure you have a waterproof case, a power bank on board, and the offline charts downloaded before you leave the marina.

For day use on Swiss and Italian lakes, increasingly yes. Charging infrastructure on the major Swiss lakes is growing, and some marinas on Lago Maggiore and Lago di Garda have dedicated charging points. Range anxiety is real for longer passages but largely irrelevant for a day trip on an inland lake. For coastal use or longer cruising, the technology is moving fast but is not quite there yet for most recreational budgets.

Ask to see the existing damage report and confirm that what you are looking at matches what is documented. If it is not on the report, photograph it immediately and raise it before signing anything. A reputable rental company will update their damage log on the spot. If they are reluctant to do so, that tells you something useful about how the return process will go.

For a typical 6–8 m motorboat, annual running costs range from CHF 5,500 to 12,000 on Swiss lakes and from €4,500 to €9,500 on Italian lakes. That covers mooring, insurance, winterising, maintenance and registration. Try the Boat Budget Calculator to run your own numbers.

Yes, and it is more common than you might think, especially in Switzerland and Northern Italy where mooring costs are high. Splitting the purchase price and running costs between two or three families or friends can make ownership viable at lower usage levels. The main risks are scheduling conflicts and disagreements over maintenance standards. A written agreement covering usage calendars, cost sharing and what happens if one party wants to exit is essential. It is not for everyone, but for the right group of people it works well.

No. Rafting up, tying your boat alongside another boat that is already moored, always requires permission from the boat you are tying to. The exception is a genuine emergency, in which case you raft up first and apologise later. In normal circumstances, always hail the other boat, explain what you need, and wait for a yes. Most boaters will say yes if you ask politely and handle your lines carefully. Almost all of them will be annoyed if you simply appear alongside them without asking.

This happens all the time at busy transit docks and restaurant pontoons in peak summer. Never just lay your eye loop over someone else's. If they need to leave before you, they cannot untie their boat without undoing yours first.

Instead, dip the eye (passaggio della gassa dal basso): thread the eye of your line up from underneath through the centre of their eye, then drop it over the cleat horns. That way, either boat can cast off at any time without disturbing the other.

Experience and competence are not the same thing. When booking, look for reviews that mention specific things the skipper taught or explained, not just general praise; a willingness to answer questions before the charter; and references to safety briefings and preparation. On the day itself, a good skipper explains decisions rather than just making them. If the skipper treats you as cargo rather than crew, you are not getting the full value. An engaged, learning crew is also a safer crew.