Bora Bora: Boat Hire Suggestions (non-licencesed)

I've been reading a lot of Bora Bora threads suggesting to rent a boat for the day whilst in port and I'm keen to take up this option. I don't have a boat license and I just want to potter about the lagoon for the majority of the day. There will be four us including two younger kids.

I'm looking for recommendations of which company to rent with. There seems to be a few options I've seen whilst googling.

We are booked with a private boat rental on Bora Bora with La Plage. Isabelle has been my contact very helpful. They do have a web site as well. Hope this helps

Andrea

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'm also renting from La Plage, but I decided to go ahead and get my boating "license". If you rent from La Plage without a license, they can only allow you a 6 hp motor - think trolling speeds.

Per their web site:

"In accordance to the French laws, a boat license is requested to drive any boat above 6hp.

That’s why you can hire our 6hp boats without any license or the 15hp with a boat license (original document to be produced upon departure).

The law recognizes any Foreign boat license, provided it was delivered by an approved local organization. For the US citizens, the driving license is not accepted. However, the “Boat Certificate” is correct."

The "Boat Certificate" mentioned for US Citizens is simply the boater education card issued by most US states and Canadian provinces. You probably need one of these anyways to legally operate a boat in your state/province. Google "boater education card" for more info. To get one of these, you take a 75 question multiple choice test and pay a fee of $10 to $40, depending on your state and who you use for the test.

It looks like Australia has a similar system. But it appears they have more hoops to jump through, specifically the "practical boating experience" requirement. See http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/licence/boat-pwc/boating-safety-course/index.html

Here is what the "Boat Certificate" looks like for Washington state: