Norway - Yachting Essentials
Norway Yachting Essentials
Electricity:
- Voltage: 220 V
- Frequency: 50 Hz
Fuel:
Most harbours have fuel berths for yachts. During the summer, petrol is readily available on the south coast for boats with large outboard engines, while the rest of the coast requires carrying jerry cans from the nearest gas station. Petrol is also available in big marinas.
The green diesel dispensed in Norway does not contain any biodiesel.
Diesel sold at roadside filling stations contains 6 to 7% biodiesel.
LPG:
AGA and Nippon are major propane suppliers in Norway, exclusively dealing with standard cylinders which can be exchanged. The cylinders are refilled in large automated plants. Foreign cylinders, however, are not accepted.
LPG Norge has a chain of propane filling stations for cars, where you can get foreign propane bottles filled, including Camping Gaz, but these locations may not be convenient for boats. It’s recommended to carry an adaptor for your specific cylinder.
VestGass, located north of Bergen in Straumane, may also fill foreign propane tanks.
Although the situation is evolving, it is still impossible to fill foreign cylinders in most areas in Norway.
Butane is available only in small disposable canisters for camping cookers, grills, etc.
This site is useful: https://www.mylpg.eu/stations/norway/
Getting Work Done:
Maintenance facilities for sailboats are limited, particularly in the north, but there are fishing boat facilities that offer repairs, provided you have a decent supply of spare parts. Due to the cost of parts and shipping, it is recommended that you stock up before heading for Norway.
Provisioning:
Groceries are expensive in Norway, so if you are coming from a country where costs are lower, you may want to stock up before leaving.
Norway offers easy access to fresh provisions in larger centres and villages, with small shops providing basic groceries for those in need.
Navigation Hazards:
All warnings and Notices to Mariners are published on webpage of the Norwegian Mapping Authority.
Not all of Norway’s many fish farms are shown on the charts as their positions vary frequently, so keep an eye out for them.
Military exercise areas does not interfere with normal boating. There are a few small military areas indicated on the chart, some of which cannot be visited and others that can be transited without anchoring, fishing, or diving. Special rules apply to boats weighing more than 50 tons or 24 metres in these areas.
Bridges are marked in every official nautical chart.
In Norway, overhead power cables are common. They are marked on the charts by a red broken line, with the lowest height in metres highlighted in red. Be aware that the mooring ropes have been known to run between the surface buoys and the shore with nothing to warn the mariner of their presence. Note: in remote places in early spring it is advisable to allow for sagging of cables due to icing.
Norway’s lobster season begins on October 1. The buoys are small, usually without flags, and difficult to detect even in broad daylight in a flat calm. These present a concern to late-season cruisers making an inshore passage.
Tidal streams east of Lindesnes are minimal, though strong currents may be found at the mouth of large rivers such as Skjenselva and Drammenselva (5 knots is not uncommon).
Transit planning is required in the west of Lindesnes due to significant tidal streams in inshore channels and fjords due to river flow, wind, and other factors.
The following sites are useful: https://www.kartverket.no/en/at-sea/efs and https://www.bridgeinfo.net/list/norway/clearance
Docking/Marinas:
Individual marinas or clubs should be contacted in advance, however, major marinas will accept guests as they turn up.
There are challenges in anchoring in Norway. Some of the issues you may face are sea bottom conditions (thick kelp, stiff clay with weed, and hard sand), depth (Norwegian anchorages tends to be deep), and limited, sloping shelf of suitable depth.
Small anchorages often have fortøyningsbolter (mooring bolts), T-shaped metal pickets or rings set into the rock, often marked by target-like rings, making them difficult to see without.
Visitors’ berths (gjestebrygger) are increasingly found in larger towns and cities, often equipped with electricity, water, showers, and washing/drying machines. Many private boat clubs also have space designated for visitors and/or allow visitors to use members’ vacant spaces.
More harbors are incorporating floating pontoon systems (flytebrygger) with finger piers for easy berth separation, making them convenient and easy to tie to.
Avoid tying up to private docks or pontoons without the owner’s permission, and never plug into someone’s private electricity outlet without a compensation agreement. If there are no visitor berths available, it is recommended to find the nearest anchorage and visit the village by dinghy.
Quays may be necessary in areas where there are no docks (flytebrygge), where the pontoon is overcrowded with visiting boats, or the pontoon is too small.
Local boating clubs have long provided moorings for their members, but various agencies are now installing moorings that are available for all to use for 24 hours at a time. The usual warnings apply when picking up a mooring that you are unfamiliar with.
Pump-out stations are common in major marinas. Suction fittings on deck are used. See Restrictions for more details on Holding Tanks.
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As a 49 foot British sailing vessel wanting to sail from England To Norway and spend several weeks cruising along the coast heading towards Sweden and thence to Denmark Germany the Netherlands and back to the UK we looked carefully at the immigration requirements. This is our experience.
In summary our sailing experience in Norway was extremely positive. We enjoyed a very easy and pleasurable few weeks in Norway and would definitely return. During our stay we did not encounter a single other yacht of any description that was British or from any other country outside the Schengen area.
The Norwegian government website indicates that yachts arriving from outside of Schengen should register, in the first instance with SSNN (safe Sea Net Norway) although my research indicated this might be tricky and also indicated that reporting and obtaining permission to move and drop anchor was really important.
After failing to complete the registration process for SSNN, which seemed to be set up for large commercial vessels only, my next move was to contact the police authority of the district where we intended to make landfall – Stavanger csc@ccss.mil.no.
We were then required to submit a copy of our boat registration certificate, confirming our length to be 14.95 metres. If we had been just five centimetres longer -15 metres- I was informed that we would have to register with the military. A swift e-mail reply from the authorities confirmed that unless we had “special capacities” our vessel was not required to report in to the Coastal Surveillance. We were told that if we had been required to report in we could do so without the SSNN registration by using the e-mail given above, but we would still have to report in an ETA and destination and obtained permission in order to move the boat.
The last instruction was to call or e-mail the police on arrival in Stavanger and the sender wished us a pleasant voyage.
It was an interesting and largely enjoyable sail from Hartlepool in England (before departure we informed the UK authorities of using a sPCR form from the UK government web site); past wind farms, drilling rigs and oil and gas platforms, and with a fair number of cargo, fishing and pleasure vessels.
As we approached Stavanger I telephoned the police on the given number to report our imminent arrival I was told they would call back in due course we tide up in Stavanger guest haven a small self-service Marina situated conveniently in the heart of the Old Town and immediately adjacent to the petrol museum for the record this cost 250 Norwegian kroner per night for our 14.95 metre vessel which included free access to the shower and washrooms and also the laundry.
Our next contact from the police was to arrange a time for them to visit us and stamp our passports. We were offered a morning visit the following day and were advised it was fine for us to leave the boat in order to explore, eat, visit the museum and buy provisions which we did keeping our yellow Q flag flying.
Two very pleasant lady police officers came to a vote the following day they sport asked us if we understood the rules of Schengen in terms of the time limit and advising us that whatever country we took parted back to the UK from we should ensure that we had our passports stamped. Interestingly, the fact that they had taken 24 hours to visit us gave us an effective free Shengen day.
They reassured us that we did not have to report in and with that they wished us a good day and left it appeared that they had not often if ever had to perform this particular duty.
And that was it. A few days later at the small port of Tananger, we were approached by some police. We offered them sight of our stamped passports and boat papers and they left us with a cheery wave moments later.
We spent three happy weeks cruising the Norwegian coast finding it beautiful easy and friendly wherever we went. We have just left Norway en route to Sweden.
Clearance August 2024:
We tried to set up a SeaSafe account, but didn’t manage because it seems to be set up for professionals only. We arrived from Scotland without prior notice, then called +4702800. We were transferred to a border force officer, who informed us that we should have notified them by e-mail prior to coming to Norway. The e-mail address for arriving in Agder Province (Southern Norway) is: Agder.grensekontroll@politiet.no
No one needs to take a test before or after entering Norway. The info on here is dated.
Thanks for letting us know Steve – really helpful. Yes I see rules changed last week and we’ve updated the biosecurity section accordingly.
The best pilot guide we used was, in fact, an app downloaded to our iPad and phone: https://www.harbourguide.com.
Norway is very capable when it comes to gas refilling. We found that our existing UK Calor bottles could be refilled with Propane by a professional for the same or less than in the UK. We did not have to buy a Norwegian bottle.
Rorvik and Harstad are where we filled our bottles but it seems like you can do it in most major towns. This site is useful: https://www.mylpg.eu/stations/norway/
To be more precise phasing out is a process as I have explained here: http://59nord.pl/en/radio-2/
It will be finished at the and of the current year, so there is still a good chance that this season visitors to Norway may be able to use their FM receivers.
When it comes to weather forecasts I have elaborated on that here: http://59nord.pl/en/weather-forcast-on-nrk-radio/ and here: http://59nord.pl/en/marine-radio-weather-forecast/
I want to highlight that Norwegian radio has shut down their FM senders from 2017 and the only way to access public radio is by having Dab+ in your boat as this is the only transmission remaining.
To access weather, check VHF Ch 16 where they inform which working channel they will broadcast the weather every day at 9:00, 12:00, 15:00 and 21:00 local time.
Being Norwegian, I would like to expand on your statement about all shoreline being private (Restrictions section).
Few countries, if any, give a sailor better access than Norway. The public intention is to keep all shoreline within 100m open to the public. Deviations from this rule are unfortunately many. Some because of existing buildings when the law was passed, some because of too good lawyers. But the general rule is that you can freely use the shoreline.
You can anchor outside the private property. You can take your dinghy ashore anywhere that is not obviously private. You can spend the day at the shore, collect firewood, and pick berries. All this without asking anybody for permission.
Any “private” signs are most often illegal. With exceptions for the densely populated southeastern part of Norway, the vast majority of the shoreline is free to use.