I also hired a sailing boat 2 years ago in Australia and was sailing aroung Whitsunday islands....living in the boat and mooring in Marina of islands with the region. No license is required for boats below certain horse power..can't remember exactly what the horse poweris . If I am not mistaken, it is below 100 horse power. For information, please search the respective web..you can type bear boat hiring Austrailia..I hired the boat for a week and on average it is about HK$1800 per day.
Some 10 years ago I hired a motor boat in Geneva, Switzerland and sailed on Lake Geneva all the way to the French border.
No licence was required and one could skipper it all on one's own. It was a nice way to spend a day or so on the water, and a nice change from rolling on four wheels all the time!
It was a small boat, perhaps 15 feet or so, the power was probably not great but sufficient and as far as I remember, the boat may not even be able to plane (I had little knowledge of boats then).
As far as I know, in some countries such as the UK, one does not need a licence at all to skipper a recreational vessel.
我初來到美國時發現老美真的很落後,就連很多地方沒都有交通燈號,十字路口只有4 way stop 標示(香港的八角紅色停車牌 ,但縱使很多車輛,每輛車都以先到先行的方式輪候。 起初我感覺沒什麼大不了,直至有一次全市大停電,所有交通燈號都沒有了,但奇怪的是交通並沒有大亂,每輛車來到了路口都自動停下來,就好像平日的4 way stop 一樣先到先行,誰都沒有爭先恐後的想法,這樣我就看出了人民素質的分別。 假如換了是香港,開車起步慢了半拍恐怕娘親都被人問安了。