Dear Captain,
Following our recent discussions regarding the monitoring of « open sea » qualifications for voyages eligible for the French Commercial Exemption (FCE), I would like to clarify an important point concerning the term « Outside 12 NM. »
Although commonly used, the expression « 12 NM » can be misleading. From a legal and operational perspective, the relevant criterion is being outside territorial waters, rather than simply sailing more than 12 nautical miles from the coast.
This distinction is important for two reasons:
- Territorial waters are not always 12 nautical miles wide.
While 12 NM is the standard under international law, several Mediterranean jurisdictions apply different limits. For example:
- Gibraltar: 3 NM
- UK Sovereign Base Areas (Cyprus): 3 NM
- Turkey (Aegean Sea): 6 NM
- Greece (Aegean Sea): 6 NM
As a result, relying solely on a fixed 12 NM distance may lead to incorrect navigation decisions depending on the area.
- Territorial waters are measured from the official baseline, not from the visible coastline.
The territorial sea begins from a legally defined baseline, which often connects prominent headlands across bays and therefore extends well offshore compared to the natural coastline.
For this reason, measuring 12 NM from the nearest headland or shoreline does not necessarily mean that the vessel has left territorial waters.
To illustrate this, please find attached:
- a chart showing the French and Italian internal waters in the Ligurian Sea; and
- a practical example explaining the baseline between Cap Ferrat and Cap d’Antibes.
For navigation purposes, we strongly recommend ensuring that your ECDIS displays the official territorial waters boundary, rather than the standard 12 NM (fishery) line.
Finally, based on our experience, several yachts have unfortunately failed to qualify as « open sea » because they turned back shortly after crossing what they believed to be the territorial boundary, while in reality they had not yet exited territorial waters.
As a matter of good practice, we recommend remaining at least 10 minutes outside the official territorial waters boundary, corresponding to approximately 1 nautical mile beyond the boundary under normal cruising speed. This provides a reasonable margin of safety during a tax audit.
Should you have any questions regarding territorial waters, voyage planning or FCE qualification, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Here is the link for the: MANAGING SHORT EXITS OUTSIDE NATIONAL TERRITORIAL WATERS_FR_EN
Kind regards,
The FLYN-YACHTING Team