The  Int'l Certificate of Competence is not recognised by the Spanish if you are skippering a Spanish reg'd boat.  However, it is sufficient if your boat is British and SSR'd (and of course you have a VFH radio licence).  If you have a boat here and you have residencia then the wise thing to do is transfer ownership to a person (family member?) in UK, not forgetting to tell your insurer s (and having an ins. cert in their name plus a written permission from them for you to sail their boat).  There is absolutely nought against a UK resident having their boat here 12/12 months; the issue is the owner being skipper being resident.  Therefore, don't be.

The ICC is issued by the Royal Yachting Assoc and is based upon a series of theory and practical courses, instructions and exams.  They are all based on supporting a voluntary education/training program - unlike the French and Spanish mandatory approach - the RYA encourages further and on-going traing.  Support it if you can as it's the best scheme in europe and copied (oops, franchised)across the world.  There is a local RYA instructor/ examiner but he seems to keep a low profile.  Let me know if you want details.

Enterprising as usual, thank you Nigel.  I'll get down there within the next 2 weeks and revert; I have never heard of this anywhere else in Spain so perhaps it's Catalan local - certainly none of the live-aboard or cruising fora (that I know of) have carried anything like this.

This 'Boat License' topic seems to have concentrated on what I would call skipper's license. Looking into this I can see no way of also needing a Certificado de Navigabilidad or a seaworthy certificate for the boat. For sub 6 mtere boats this is only required once i.e. no renewels fort e life of the boat. The list of equipment to be carried does not seem to be too daunting.

Can anyone comment on this requirement. I have no experience in this area as I had to commercially codify my boat.

Question was nothing to do with sailing boats and the navigability of the Ebro but rather whether people using <6 metre boats agree that a Certicado de Navigabilidad is an essential. Your opinion would be appreciated.   

PS, Thank you for the spelling lesson. Maybe we should use 'draught' then.