Leaving the EU at a UK port

A call in Great Britain ends a yacht's EU Temporary Admission and her non-EU crew's Schengen stay together, which a call in Norway or Ireland does not.

A private yacht owned outside the European Union spends its time in European waters on two clocks. The yacht runs under EU Temporary Admission, which allows 18 months for a privately used vessel under Article 217 of Delegated Regulation 2015/2446, and her non-EU crew and guests run under the Schengen rule of 90 days in any 180. The two regimes are administered by different authorities, and a departure that stops one does not always stop the other.

Temporary Admission ends when the yacht leaves the customs territory of the Union. The Commission's guidance note for pleasure craft, published in April 2026, confirms that a new period may begin on her return and that the rules set no minimum absence. Member states have not read this alike. France has required a call at a non-EU port, Spain has accepted passage beyond twelve miles, and Italian customs confirmed in May 2026 that evidence of reaching international waters is enough; a call at a non-EU port satisfies the strictest of these readings.

The Schengen stay is now counted by the Entry/Exit System, fully operational since 10 April 2026, which records each entry and exit electronically in place of the passport stamp. The trade still calls it stamping out. A yacht arriving from or leaving for a country outside the Schengen area uses a designated border crossing point, with her crew list sent ahead, and days spent outside the area do not count towards the 90.

Great Britain is outside both. Norway is outside the EU customs union and VAT area but inside Schengen, so a call there ends the yacht's period without ending the crew's; Ireland is the reverse, and in Northern Ireland EU customs rules still apply to goods, so a call there may not end Temporary Admission at all. A call at Falmouth, the Solent or London ends both. The yacht may then remain in Great Britain for up to 24 months under UK Temporary Admission, and crew who arrive and leave with her do not need permission to enter.

None of this replaces advice on the particular yacht. No EU text settles whether yacht crew count as seamen for the Schengen derogations, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System has not yet started, and a yacht in commercial use is admitted on different terms. Watermans confirms the position for each yacht before she sails for the United Kingdom.