Yes, I had to deal with this in Europe. I was refused clearance to sail from a Portuegese port. (I used it later in Northern Europe also). I had been a commadore of a yacht club, and still had some YC stationary. I composed a letter, in English, which stated my qualifications and experience, plus that I had taken a basic CG Auxillary coarse, sailed as watch Captain and Navigator of a 55 foot Racing vessel on a 2500 mile voyage, had skippered my own racing vessels for over 40 years, and had voyaged about 20,000 miles to get to Europe. Stated that Robert C Austin was a Competent mariner and signed it myself. Affixed my ships seal to the bottom No problems. Presented this when I was asked and never questioned further. Most European countries have various license requirements to sail/power vessels. These are earned by either taking classes, or under a tutorship type of system. There is no real equivilant in America, except perhaps some of the ASA courses (which did not exist when I sailed to Europe). U S sailing also has small boat competency courses. Also I suspect that any level of Coast Guard license is sufficient. My impression was that it was paperwork for an American--and if you had something which they could look at and check off the list, it was satisfactory--but not so for the nationals for the various European countires--they took this very seriously. Bob Austin