Who is allowed to teach you to handle a boat, under the rules
Teaching the practicals of the Licencia de Navegación — Spain's entry-level boating licence — takes more than knowing how to navigate, and more than holding a PER. The rules call for a professional qualification, and the two acronyms get confused daily.
The school · · 4 min read
PER and PPER are not the same thing
The PER is the Patrón de Embarcaciones de Recreo, the recreational craft skipper's licence: a recreational qualification, the one taken by anyone who wants to handle their own boat. The PPER is the Patrón Profesional de Embarcaciones de Recreo: a professional qualification, the one that entitles the holder to handle recreational craft used for a commercial activity.
One letter apart and two different worlds: the PPER requires specific training, a professional medical examination and maritime safety certificates that the PER does not ask for. It is not an upgraded PER, it is another thing altogether.
What article 31.1.b requires
To teach the practicals of the Licencia de Navegación, the rules require whoever is in command to hold a professional qualification. The PER, however much experience its holder has built up, does not entitle anyone to give those lessons.
It is a requirement with practical sense behind it, not a bureaucratic one: during those four hours there are up to six students on board, none of them has ever handled a boat and the boat is genuinely under way. Whoever is in command there answers professionally for whatever happens.
How to check who is going to teach you
Ask outright: who teaches the practicals, and with what qualification. A school that has it sorted answers in one sentence; if the answer wanders off, or settles for “a skipper with plenty of experience”, then it has not.
Here the practicals are taught by a skipper holding the PPER, and that is the reason this project exists: it is the requirement that most small schools cannot manage to cover.
And what it means for a school to be authorised
That the Direcció General de Política Marítima i Pesca Sostenible has resolved its application and allows it to teach the course and issue licences. It is not resolved by the training body that runs the exams, and being registered as a company is not enough.
This school is not yet authorised, and the application is in preparation: that is why today there is only a waiting list and no course dates. When the decision arrives, this very website will say so.
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
Can a skipper with a PER teach me the licence practicals?
No. The rules require a professional qualification to teach them, and the PER is a recreational qualification. A PPER is needed.
How many students are there per boat on the practicals?
Six at most, with a skipper holding a professional qualification in command.
Is the school authorised yet?
No. The application is submitted to the Direcció General de Política Marítima i Pesca Sostenible and is in preparation. Until it is resolved there are no course dates and no places: only a waiting list.
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.