Dimensions, documents and the day itself

The dimension boards only matter if you know your own numbers cold: draught, air draught with antennas down, beam. River levels move metres between seasons, so posted headroom is referenced to a marked gauge level — on a rising river, yesterday’s clearance is a rumour. The inland skipper’s pre-passage check is the sea skipper’s tide table swapped for the river gauge.

Paperwork travels with you on inland Europe in a way the open sea never asks: the ICC WITH its inland (CEVNI) endorsement for the helmhelmThe steering position (tiller or wheel) — or the person steering.full glossary →, the ship’s registration, insurance — and on many waterways a copy of the local regulations aboard. Checks are routine, not hostile; the folder by the chart table ends most of them in two minutes.

The endorsement test itself is a short multiple-choice paper on exactly what this course drills: sign recognition, the conduct rules, the light and sound signals. Run the trainer until your score is boring, sit the paper with an authorised provider, and the endorsement goes on the ICC that your Day Skipper work already earned. Then the canals of Europe are open — at eight kilometres an hour, with the kettle on.