Boat license, medical examinations directly in nautical schools: about time!

We have already told you about the case of our reader Manlio Laschena’s extremely difficult boat license renewal forced to take the infamous “spatial contrast sensitivity” exam. Absurd exam, difficult to interpret, certainly not necessary in this form to determine who is fit or unfit to run a boat. This exam since 2013 covers the boating license but not the road driving license. But as the countless testimonies received say, it is hard not to think that it is more dangerous to drive a car at 80 mph at night than to drive a boat.

THE MEDICAL EXAMINATION FOR THE BOATING LICENSE? YOU CAN FINALLY MAKE IT IN NAUTICAL SCHOOLS

Added to this is another anomaly that makes the procedures even more “cumbersome” for those who are instead preparing to obtain a boat license: if you want to take it, the first obstacle you encounter is at the medical examination for fitness. The examination, as of today, can only be performed at public facilities (e.g., ASLs): often with uncomfortable travel and extended time. Here, too, the comparison with the world of cars comes in handy, where medical examinations, often, can be conducted directly at the driving school where the course for obtaining a driver’s license is taken.

In this case, in Parliament–the “pressure” work done by Confindustria Nautica is important here–they are trying to put a patch on it. In the text of the corrective decree of the Recreational Boating Code, which will come into force, at the latest, on August 13, 2020, it is stated that there are “simplification measures aimed at conducting medical examinations not only at public facilities, but also at medical cabinets, including those set up on the premises of nautical schools and consortia for nautical school activity.”

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