BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide

The Boat License's New Secure Card Format: What Changed

The old salmon-pink paper has given way to a plastic, credit-card-sized licence: what this new format changes for renting a boat, in France and abroad.

If you took your boat licence a few years ago, the document you now pull out of your wallet barely resembles the one from back then — and it's more than a cosmetic detail.

No more salmon-pink paper folded in four

Since 3 October 2024, the French pleasure boating licence has been issued as a secure plastic card, in a credit-card format (85.6 x 53.98 mm), permanently replacing the old salmon-pink paper document, folded in four and far easier to damage inside a dry bag or to forge.

Why the change

The new format follows the same logic already applied to the national ID card and then the driving licence: a more compact support, more resistant to moisture and wear, and above all more legible and better recognised during a check, including by foreign authorities unfamiliar with the old French model. The document is still mailed to the holder once the file has been processed.

What it changes at rental time

For a renter, the practical takeaway is simple: present this new format with no concern, it carries the same legal weight as the old salmon-pink paper, whether you took your licence before or after October 2024. No automatic renewal is required if you still hold the old valid format — both coexist, and operators accept either one. The identity check when handing over the boat stays the same, covered in our guide to documents to carry aboard.

An advantage abroad

The card format, closer to international standards, makes checks outside France easier in practice — a point that ties into our guide on recognition of foreign licences, which also works the other way round for a French renter on holiday in Croatia or Greece.

Taking your licence this year

For anyone planning to take their coastal licence before renting their first boat solo, the administrative process itself — registration, exam scheduling, theory test, practical sign-off — has also been simplified and standardised in recent years, generally with a shorter turnaround than before.

Boat-Comparator doesn't check your licence for you, but every operator will at handover: better to have it on you, whatever its format, before comparing available RIBs and motorboats.

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