Licencia, PNB or PER: which one you actually need
Three qualifications and one difference that decides almost everything: two of them have an official government exam and one does not. What each one allows, plainly, and without selling you ours.
Qualifications · · 5 min read
Start with the right question
Almost nobody needs “a boating qualification”. What you need is to handle a particular boat, in a particular area. That is why the useful question is not which one is best, but what is the smallest one that does the job: every step up means more hours, more money and, from the second step on, an official exam.
If what you want is to hire a small motor boat along the coast on a summer weekend, the bottom step is probably more than enough. If your plan is to cross to the Balearics, there is no shortcut.
Licencia de Navegación
Spain's entry-level boating licence. Motor boats up to 6 m in length, up to 2 nautical miles from shore and in daylight only. Class C personal watercraft as well. It does not expire.
It is obtained in a day: two hours of in-person theory and four hours of practical work on board. It has no official exam — the school certifies that you have completed the programme and issues the licence under its own responsibility. It is the only qualification we teach here.
It is the one that, from 1 October 2026, the law requires in order to hire the sort of small boat that until now needed nothing at all, and that is why it has gone from a curiosity to the most-asked-about qualification on this coast.
PNB — Patrón para Navegación Básica
The basic navigation skipper's licence. Boats up to 8 m in length, up to 5 nautical miles from shore, by day and by night. With the added sailing practical, sailing boats too.
It has an official government exam, with its own sitting dates and separate fees, plus the basic safety and navigation practicals. It is the first “real” step in the bureaucratic sense: a school's certification is no longer enough.
PER — Patrón de Embarcaciones de Recreo
The recreational craft skipper's licence: up to 15 m in length and up to 12 nautical miles from shore, by day and by night, with the option of an endorsement for the crossing to the Balearics. It is the standard qualification, the one any serious charter asks for and the one most people end up taking.
A broad syllabus, an official exam, compulsory safety and navigation practicals, and radio practicals if you want the corresponding certificate. Count it in months, not days.
Where to take the PNB or the PER
Not here. This school teaches only the Licencia de Navegación, and saying so plainly is more useful than padding the answer: the PNB and the PER are qualifications with an official government exam, and any approved boating school in Girona or Barcelona prepares them.
If you write to us asking about them, we will point you towards where to prepare them, with no interest beyond saving you three phone calls.
The course, in case you got this far
All of this is the small print of a six-hour course in a single day, in the Port of Blanes: two hours of in-person theory and four of practical on board. The school is awaiting authorisation, so today there are no course dates and no published price.
Questions about this
Does the Licencia de Navegación let me hire any small boat?
No: only motor boats up to 6 m in length, to navigate less than 2 nautical miles from shore and in daylight. Plenty of hire boats fall inside that limit, but it is worth checking the official length of the particular boat, which is the one on its registration papers and not the one in the model's trade name.
Can I move from the licence to the PER by having something recognised?
There is no conversion: they are independent qualifications and the PER requires its own official exam and its own practicals. What the licence does give you is real hours at the helm before you start.
Is the PNB worth it, or is it better to go straight for the PER?
It depends on the length and the distance you want to navigate. Plenty of people skip the PNB because the extra effort up to the PER is not that much greater while the entitlements clearly are, but that decision is yours and we have nothing to gain either way.
We open soon. We'll tell you as soon as there's a date
The school is awaiting authorisation: today there are no places, no course dates and no final price. Leave us your email and you'll be among the first to know. If you'd rather ask, a real person answers on WhatsApp.