The first time I took our Sadler 34 across to Cherbourg after Brexit, in the summer of 2022, I made the mistake of treating the passage exactly like the old days. Fill the diesel, check the tides at the Alderney Race, wave at the customs office that nobody ever visited, sink a few beers in the marina bar. Three of those four things still apply. The customs bit does not, and getting it wrong now costs you real money and, in the worst case, a denied entry stamp that follows you around for six months.
So this is the brief I wish someone had handed me back then. It is long, because the admin genuinely has more moving parts than it used to. Read it once before the season, not at 0500 with the engine running and the forecast closing in.
The Big Picture: What Brexit Actually Changed
You are now a third-country national arriving from outside the Schengen area, and your boat is a non-EU good arriving in the EU customs territory. Those two facts drive everything below. One is about you and your crew (immigration). The other is about the boat (customs and VAT). They are processed separately, sometimes at the same desk, sometimes not.
Before 2021 a UK boat could wander the Channel for the whole summer with nobody asking a question. That world is gone. The flip side: France has worked hard to keep the process bearable for visiting yachts, and as of 2026 it is far smoother than the panic of the first post-Brexit seasons suggested it would be.
Part 1: You and Your Crew (Immigration)
Passports and the 90/180 rule
Every British passport holder is limited to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period across the whole Schengen zone, not per country. The clock starts the moment you cross your first Schengen border and it counts calendar days, not nights. Spain, Italy, Greece, all of it pools into the same 90.
This single rule reshapes how long-distance cruising works for Brits. A full summer afloat in France used to be normal. Now a continuous cruise longer than 90 days inside Schengen is off the table unless you hold a long-stay visa. I cover the maths, the counter tricks and the visa workarounds in the dedicated piece on the schengen 90 day rule sailing, because it deserves its own read and people get it wrong constantly.
EES: get your face and fingers scanned
The EU Entry/Exit System went live on 12 October 2025 and reached full operation on 10 April 2026. It replaces the old passport stamp with a biometric record: facial image, fingerprints, and an automatically logged entry and exit. The upside is that your Schengen days are now tracked by computer rather than by a tired border guard finding a clear page. The downside is that the first time you enter under EES, your biometrics have to be captured at a staffed border point.
For yachties that means the very first arrival of the season may require you to present yourselves at a port that has the kit and the officers, rather than a quiet fishing harbour. Plan the first landfall around that. After enrolment, subsequent entries are quicker.
ETIAS is coming but not yet
ETIAS, the travel authorisation you apply for online, is expected in the last quarter of 2026. The fee has been set at 20 euros for adults, with under-18s and over-70s exempt, valid for three years. It is not live as I write this, so do not pay any website claiming to sell it. When it does arrive, treat it like the US ESTA: cheap, online, sorted before you leave.
The crew list
France wants to know who is on board. For a non-Schengen arrival you submit a declaration giving the names and passport details of everyone aboard plus the boat's particulars. Keep a printed crew list anyway, it has saved me arguments at fuel docks and lock gates. The detail of who counts as crew, what non-EU nationals on board need, and how the form works lives in the guide to crew lists and passport rules.
Part 2: The Boat (Customs and VAT)
The Q flag question
Old habit: hoist the yellow Q flag on entering foreign waters. Current French position: there is no requirement to fly Q in France unless you have something to declare. Many of us still hoist it out of courtesy and to signal that we are an arriving foreign vessel, which is harmless. What is not optional is the courtesy ensign. The full etiquette, including when Q actually matters, is in the note on the french courtesy flag.
Clearing in
Since 1 June 2024, France runs a two-tier system for arrivals from outside Schengen. You either clear at an official border crossing point (a PPF, point de passage frontalier) or at one of the marinas authorised under the protocol introduced that year, which numbered 53 ports at launch. The protocol marinas process your entry and exit declaration, often by email, without you needing to divert to a big commercial port. The Fédération Française des Ports de Plaisance confirmed the protocol continues for 2026.
The mechanics, the forms, the timing windows and what actually happens when you tie up are covered step by step in clearing customs when you arrive in france by boat. One rule worth burning into memory now: if you enter France at a PPF, you must also leave from a PPF. Mixing the two trips up the system.
Where you are allowed to clear
Not every pretty harbour can check you in. The list of PPFs and protocol marinas matters when you plan your first and last French ports of the trip. I keep an annotated version in french ports of entry, because the list shifts year to year as marinas join or drop the protocol.
Proving your boat's VAT status
This is the one that bites people hard. Your boat needs demonstrable VAT-paid status to move freely in EU waters, or it needs to be operating under a relief such as Temporary Admission. If a French customs officer asks and you cannot show paper, the conversation gets expensive fast.
Acceptable proof is, in order of strength: the original VAT-paid invoice from a dealer, an import/customs release document, or a T2L if your boat qualifies. For a boat that has bounced between owners and jurisdictions, assemble the full chain of bills of sale before you go. Everything about what counts, what does not, and the awkward grey zone for boats that were in the EU on 31 December 2020 is in the breakdown of boat vat status eu.
Returned Goods Relief, if you are bringing the boat back later
Good news from late 2025: the UK government moved to waive the old three-year time limit on Returned Goods Relief for recreational craft that have been based in the UK under their current ownership at some point. In plain English, if your boat has UK VAT-paid history with you, you should not be charged UK VAT again when she comes home, regardless of how long she has been away. Verify the current wording with HM Revenue and Customs or the RYA before you rely on it, because the exact legislation was still being laid as the change took effect.
Part 3: The Passage Itself
sPCR before you sail
The submission of Passenger and Crew details to UK Border Force, the sPCR, applies to pleasure craft sailing to or from the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. You submit it online, within a window that runs from 24 hours up to 2 hours before departure or arrival. Set up your account at the Home Office sPCR portal well before the trip, not the night before, because the registration step is fiddly.
Tides, traffic and the obvious seamanship
None of the paperwork helps if you arrive at the Alderney Race against six knots of spring tide. The classic Solent-to-Cherbourg hop is roughly 60 nautical miles and most cruising yachts plan it as a single daylight passage timed around the tidal gates. If you are crossing the Dover Strait, you are putting a small craft across one of the busiest shipping lanes on earth, and the traffic separation scheme rules are not advisory. Those are separate topics, but they belong on the same checklist as your passports.
Insurance and documents on board
Carry the boat's registration (SSR or Part 1), insurance certificate with EU cruising cover confirmed, the VAT evidence pack, ship's radio licence, your competence certificate (ICC or equivalent), passports, and the crew list. French authorities, including the Gendarmerie Maritime, can and do board for spot checks. Having a tidy document folder turns a ten-minute stop into a two-minute one.
One detail British owners overlook: confirm in writing that your policy covers EU waters, and check the geographical limits clause. Some UK policies quietly cap cover at a certain distance offshore or exclude single-handed passages over a set length. A Channel crossing and a summer in France should be a phone call to your broker, not an assumption. While you are at it, verify the policy meets French third-party expectations, because while France does not run a universal compulsory pleasure-craft insurance regime the way some countries do, marinas routinely demand proof of third-party cover before they will give you a berth.
Competence certificates: ICC, not your RYA card alone
France recognises the International Certificate of Competence (ICC) for visitors. Your domestic RYA qualifications are respected, but the document France actually expects to see for coastal pilotage and for chartering is the ICC, which UK sailors obtain through the RYA. If you plan to dip inland onto the canals, you will additionally want the CEVNI endorsement, which tests the inland waterways signs and rules. Sort the ICC well before you sail; it is not something you can produce overnight at a French marina office.
Part 4: Pets, Diesel and the Small Print
Taking the dog
The EU pet passport scheme no longer works for UK-issued passports post-Brexit. To bring a dog or cat from the UK you now need an Animal Health Certificate (AHC), issued by a vet within ten days of travel, valid for a single trip into the EU and for onward travel within it for four months. The dog needs a microchip and a valid rabies vaccination (the rabies jab must be at least 21 days old before travel). Tapeworm treatment rules apply on return to the UK. The AHC is not cheap and the timing is tight, so book the vet appointment early. Many cruising couples now look at the alternative of a GB pet passport equivalent or an EU-issued passport obtained while abroad for repeat trips, which is worth investigating with your vet if you cross often.
Red diesel and fuel
UK boats are used to red (rebated) diesel. In France the rules for visiting boats differ, and you should not assume you can fill with anything other than standard white diesel at the duty-paid rate at most marina fuel berths. Carrying residual red diesel in your tank from the UK is generally tolerated for genuine transit, but the legal position has nuance, so confirm the current rule with French Customs (Douanes) rather than guessing. Budget for full-price French diesel as your working assumption.
Courtesy ensign and flag etiquette
Fly the French tricolour as a courtesy ensign from the starboard spreader while in French waters. It should be in good condition, not a sun-bleached rag, which French sailors notice and quietly judge. Keep your own national ensign flying astern. It is a small thing that signals you know the etiquette, and it costs a few euros to get right.
A Realistic Pre-Departure Checklist
Run through this the week before, not the morning of:
- Passports valid, with at least six months remaining and issued within the last ten years
- Schengen day count calculated for every crew member (use a Schengen calculator)
- First French port chosen as a PPF or protocol marina, and EES enrolment factored in
- sPCR account created and the form ready to submit in the departure window
- Entry/exit declaration form for France downloaded and partly filled
- Crew list printed, with passport numbers
- VAT evidence pack aboard: invoice, bills of sale, import papers
- Boat registration, radio licence, ICC, insurance with EU cover all in the folder
- Courtesy ensign aboard and not faded to pink
- Tidal gates and weather window confirmed for the actual passage
What I Got Wrong So You Do Not Have To
That 2022 trip, the one where I ignored customs: we tied up in Cherbourg, enjoyed two days, then realised on the way home that nobody had recorded our entry and the rules had changed under us. We were lucky. A friend on a Dutch-built ketch was not. He cleared in at a PPF, sailed west, and tried to clear out from a small Brittany port that was not a PPF. The mismatch cost him a long phone call, a longer wait, and a lecture. Enter and exit through the same category of port. It is the single most common avoidable mistake British sailors still make in 2026.
The admin is heavier than it was. It is also entirely manageable once you have done it once. Build the document folder, learn the 90/180 maths, pick your first and last French ports with care, and the Channel is exactly as good as it always was. The harbours have not moved. Only the paperwork did.
Plan your first French landfall, check which marinas hold the protocol, and map your crossing on BoatMap before you cast off. I would rather you spend the evening reading tide tables than reading customs regulations, so get the admin done early and keep the romance for the water.
