I have crossed to France in my own boat eleven times. Twice before Brexit, when nobody asked me a single question, and nine times since, when the rules grew teeth. The boat is the same 11-metre sloop on the same Red Ensign. What changed is everything that surrounds her: how long I can stay, what the boat's tax status is, and the small folder of documents I now keep in a dry bag by the chart table.
If you learned to cruise France in the easy years, the post-2021 version feels like a different country. It is not as bad as the forum panic suggests, but you cannot wing it the way you used to.
Two separate clocks, and most people confuse them
The single biggest mistake I see is treating the boat and the crew as one problem. They are not. Since 1 January 2021 a UK boat in France runs two independent clocks, and you have to manage both.
The first clock is yours, the human one. As a third-country national you get 90 days inside any rolling 180-day period across the whole Schengen area. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece: it is one shared budget, not 90 days per country. Overstay it and you risk an entry ban, not just a telling-off. I keep a simple spreadsheet of entry and exit dates because the calculation is genuinely confusing once you have hopped in and out a few times. There is a fuller breakdown in our piece on the Schengen 90/180 day rule for boaters, and it is worth an hour of your time before you plan a long summer.
The second clock belongs to the boat: customs and VAT. This is where it gets interesting.
The VAT question, told straight
Before Brexit, a VAT-paid UK boat was VAT-paid throughout the EU. That single status no longer exists. The day the transition period ended, UK boats outside EU waters lost their EU VAT-paid standing. So the honest answer to "is my boat VAT-paid in France" is usually: not in the EU sense, no.
That leaves UK owners in one of a few positions.
If your boat was physically in the EU on 31 December 2020 and stayed, it may have retained EU VAT-paid status. Mine was in Falmouth, so this did not help me.
If you keep the boat in the UK and visit France, you face a choice that catches people out. UK residents whose boats are UK-flagged are generally treated as non-EU, and the EU's Temporary Admission relief is meant for visitors who are not EU-established. The mechanics are debated endlessly on the forums, but the practical reading most owners take is this: you cruise France on shorter visits, you keep the boat moving, and you do not leave it parked in the EU for years assuming nothing is owed. If you want to base the boat permanently in France, you are looking at paying French import VAT (20%) unless you qualify for a specific relief. Our detailed write-up on VAT status of a boat in EU waters goes through the proof you need to carry.
The good news on the homeward leg: the UK waived the three-year condition for Returned Goods Relief on recreational craft on 1 January 2022. So a UK boat that has been in UK ownership at some point can return to the UK without being re-charged UK VAT, regardless of how long it has been away, provided it is the same ownership and has had only running repairs abroad. Keep your marina and fuel receipts. I keep mine in a folder labelled by year, because the only proof of where a boat has been is paper.
Clearing in: not optional any more
Pre-Brexit, arriving from the UK meant tying up and going for a beer. Now France is an external Schengen border for you, and you are supposed to clear customs and immigration on arrival from a non-EU country.
In practice this means flying the yellow Q flag on entry to French territorial waters and reporting to the authorities at a designated port of entry. The Q flag stays up until you are cleared, then comes down and the French courtesy flag goes to the starboard spreader. If you are hazy on the protocol, read do you need a French courtesy flag before you sail, because getting the flag wrong is the fastest way to look like you do not know the new rules.
Where you must clear in matters: not every harbour is a legal port of entry. The list and the mechanics are covered in clearing customs when you arrive in France by boat. Have your passports ready for every crew member, including non-British crew who may have their own requirements.
The documents the Gendarmerie actually wants
I have been boarded twice by the Gendarmerie Maritime, both times polite, both times thorough. They are not hunting for tax evaders in a 36-foot cruiser. They want to see that the boat is what you say it is.
Carry the originals, not photocopies. French law is strict on this point: a copy does not satisfy the requirement to carry a document. The core set is your registration document (SSR or Part 1), your insurance certificate, and your radio licence if you have VHF or DSC fitted. Proof of VAT status helps if you have it. A full checklist sits in carrying your boat documents in France.
One thing that surprises British skippers: France runs its own safety equipment standard, Division 240, but it applies to French-flagged boats. As a visiting UK boat you comply with your own flag state's requirements, which for the RYA-equipped cruiser usually means you are already fine. Do not let a chandler sell you a French flare pack you do not need.
Competence and the licence myth
Half the marina bar will tell you that you now need a French licence. You almost certainly do not. France recognises that a visiting foreign-flagged skipper holds the qualifications their flag state requires. For a UK-registered boat under 24 metres in coastal waters, the UK requires no licence at all, so France asks for none either. The detail, including where an ICC genuinely helps, is in do you need a licence to sail in French coastal waters.
The one place you do need paperwork is the VHF. The right to navigate and the right to transmit are separate. To use the radio legally you need a recognised operator's certificate, and the UK SRC is fine.
Where you can actually clear in, and a real arrival
Not every pretty fishing harbour is a legal port of entry, and arriving somewhere that is not one technically means you have not cleared the border. The designated ports of entry are spread along the coast (Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Brest, La Rochelle, and the major Med ports among them), and they are where customs and immigration can be reached. The full list and the mechanics are in French ports of entry: where you must clear in.
In practice, my last few arrivals have gone like this. I call ahead or use the relevant reporting channel, fly the Q flag from the moment I am in French waters, and head for a port of entry. At a quiet marina the harbour office often handles the practicalities and points me to the right authority. Sometimes nobody comes and the clearance is light-touch; other times the Douanes take an interest. The variability is the point: you cannot predict it, so you do the right thing every time and keep your folder ready. Once cleared, the Q flag comes down and the Tricolore goes up.
The other admin trap is leaving the boat in France over winter. A UK boat left ashore in a French yard while you fly home does not pause the boat's customs situation just because you are not aboard, and you still need to think about how long the boat has been in EU waters. If wintering in France is your plan, read leaving your boat in France over winter before you book the yard, because the paperwork side is easy to overlook when you are focused on the cradle and the antifoul.
Five things I wish someone had told me in 2021
- Track your 90 days from day one. The rolling 180-day window is genuinely hard to eyeball once you have made two or three trips. A spreadsheet or one of the Schengen calculator apps saves you from an accidental overstay.
- Keep every marina and fuel receipt. They are your only proof of where the boat has been, and they matter for both VAT questions and Returned Goods Relief on the way home.
- Carry originals, never copies. France means it. A scan on your phone does not count for registration, insurance or radio licence.
- Sort the radio certificate. The right to sail and the right to transmit are separate; you need a recognised operator's certificate (the UK SRC) to use VHF legally.
- Do not assume the easy-years habits still apply. The boat is the same, the sea is the same, but the border is real now. Clearing in is a step, not a courtesy.
My honest summary after nine post-Brexit summers
The crossing is the same. The sea does not know about Brexit. What you are really managing now is time and paper: 90 days for you, a moving VAT clock for the boat, and a dry-bag folder of originals.
Plan the season around your 90 days first, then the cruise. Carry originals. Keep receipts. Fly the right flag. Do that and France is exactly as good as it always was, which is to say, the best cruising ground in northern Europe.
