"Varis" wrote in message
oups.com...
This seems to be one of the perpetual boating discussion topics in
Finland as well. We still live in a free wild world, though there has
been some effort in building a formal education system. One fear is
that if the authorities get involved in setting up the system it will
introduce quite a bit of costs to burden boaters.

By all means the beaurocratic BS must be kept to a minimum and the education
should be immediately available to all and free. No one wants to buy their
boat, or God help us a PWC, then spend the summer taking a class before they
can put the boat in the water!

I see 2 levels of certification: a mandatory quickie information only
computer course before registration of the vehicle can occur and a longer
voluntary hands on course.