Seychelles - Facts
Seychelles Facts for Sailors
- Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa.
- Under French rule in the 1700s followed by Britain at the end of the century it’s not surprising that both French and English are spoken here. Seychelles gained its independence in 1976 but still retains much of its French influence.
- Having been uninhabited by man until 200 years ago, the islands are rich in unique wildlife, such as the giant land tortoise, many species of birds, strange plants such as the giant Coco de Mer, and untouched forests.
- The main large island of Mahé houses the capital Victoria where over a quarter of the population live (total population approx. 96,000).
- Seychelles Inner Islands lie NE of Mahé on Seychelles Bank, the largest island being Praslin along with La Digue and Curieuse. All are granite islands with wonderful rock formations.
- Seychelles Outer Islands are remote lying more than 100 miles SW of Mahé. Aldabra is a world heritage site and permission to visit it must be obtained in Mahé.
- The most widely spoken language is Seychelles Creole. About half the population speak French and about 40% speak English.
- The currency is the Seychelles Rupee. See General Info for specifics.
- The Time Zone is UTC +4.
- Seychelles enjoy a tropical and equable climate with a rainy season from December to March. See Weather below for more details.
- The best anchorages are on Mahé. The outlying island anchorages are very exposed and subject to uncomfortable cross-swell conditions. The anchorages at La Digue and Praslin Islands are particularly striking and one of the chief attractions on the latter is Baie St Anne, with its thousands of Coco de Mer palms, some of them reputedly 800 years old.
- With the increase in the number of cruising yachts visiting Seychelles and also because some charter boats are based there, facilities are steadily improving.
- All repair services are concentrated in Victoria, where there are several boatyards with slipways. Two new marinas have opened on Mahé, as bases for charter operations but with facilities available to visiting yachts. There are also limited facilities on Praslin and La Digue. For more information on supplies and services, see Yachting Essentials.
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Temporary Import of Private Yacht into the Seychelles
You can complete the process yourself but it is time consuming and involves trips to several offices across Victoria.
Customs will recommend you use an agent. There are several agents given glowing recommendation and others who have … not.
The whole process of using an agent was quoted to me as costing SCR 3000.00 that includes
– Temporary importation permit application
– Custom Division Temporary Admission application
– Import bill and export bill processing
– Agency fee
These three steps can be done by yourself… the first two just involving email. The process takes some time so start early .. as soon as you have checked in as you have one month before you need to have completed the process. They are different departments so you have to send everything to each of them (they don’t seem to connect electronically!)
Temporary Import Permit :FINANCE
Shabella Kohlhousen (Ms)
Senior Processing Officer | Trade Division
Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade
2nd Floor, Maison Esplanade, Victoria, P.O.Box: 313
Republic of Seychelles
Phone: +248 4382162
Send Shabella Kohlhousen (Ms)
s.niole@finance.gov.sc
an email requesting your temporary import permit along with the following :
– Registration certificate
– Copy of captain’s passport
– A document detailing the dimensions of the vessel
– Photos of vessel .. bow, stern, side (name of vessel visible)
– Bill of sale of vessel to you
– Builders Certificate
– Insurance of vessel
– Letter of intent stating : Purpose of visit: tourism Date of entry: Date of departure: Work done on vessel: Mooring location: Signed ..Name (owner of vessel) …Date
– Completed Application for Temporary Import form (we printed it off, filled it in and took a photo of it) (see below)
You will then be sent a stamped Import Permit when you are approved.
Custom Division Temporary Admission application SRC (Seychelles Revenue Commission)
Ms. Sibila Fanchette
Customs Officer
Sunshine Building
3rd Floor, Room 307
Providence
Mahe, Seychelles
Send Ms Sibila Fanchette an email
sibila.fanchette@src.gov.sc
requesting temporary import of your boat along with the following:
– completed SRC temporary admission of vessel form (see below)
– Registration certificate
– Copy of captain’s passport
– A document detailing the dimensions of the vessel
– Photos of vessel .. bow, stern, side (name of vessel visible)
– Bill of sale of vessel to you
– Builders Certificate
– Insurance of vessel
– Letter of intent stating : Purpose of visit: tourism Date of entry: Date of departure: Work done on vessel: Mooring location: Signed ..Name (owner of vessel) …Date
When you are approved (this took several weeks for us) Ms Fanchette will send you an approval letter stating that you need to supply a bill of entry within 48 hours.
Data Capture POST OFFICE
You then need to go to the Post Office:
Raising the bill of entry
Contact person: Miss Rania Rosette
Address: P.O.B 60, Liberty House, Victoria
Tel: +(248) 2724369\ 4288555
Email: datacapture@seychellespost.gov.sc
Miss Rosette will ask you for a copy of all the above documents including the SRC approval letter and the Import Permit.
She will then work on raising a bill of entry for you. Once this is ready she will notify you and you need to go to see her at the Post Office and pay SRC 270 for data capture services and she will give you all your papers together with a print out of the bill of import all stapled together and an invoice for SCR 25 which you have to take to Customs House (SRC) (opposite the port offices on the other side of the road) and pay.
INLAND REVENUE
Once you have paid this invoice and given all the documentation to SRC at Customs House you can contact Danielle Camille at Inland Revenue
WhatsApp +248 2 723 089
inland.revenue@src.gov.sc
and Danielle can confirm when the process is complete!
Total cost of import SRC 295
Export of Private Yacht into the Seychelles
Contact Miss Rania Rosette at the Post Office at least three days before you wish to depart to request that she start the process of raising the Bill of Export.
(In the meantime you can go to SMSA (Seychelles Maritime Safety Authority) in Trinity House with a completed SMSA departure form and a crew list and pay SRC 200 to receive your documentation required by Immigration)
Advance notice of departure form for vessel leaving seychelles (3).docx
It took us more that three days because something got lost along the way but if all goes to plan Rania Rosette at Data Capture at the Post Office will email you to say the Bill of Export is ready and you need to go in to collect it, pay SCR 270 again and go to SRC to pay SCR 25 tax. After that Danielle will clear you at the Inland Revenue.
For departure you need then to visit Immigration, Accounts (where they will calculate your exit fees which you then pay) Harbour Master and last of all Customs who will give you your Zarpe.
Total cost of export SCR 295
So if you do the whole thing yourselves you will pay SCR 590 and spend a lot of time walking between town and the SRC and Port Authority for departure!
From Jane Halling, posted on Taylor Smith Shipyard business listing:
We can highly recommend TS Naval in the Seychelles. We were lifted out, had some gel coat repairs, antifouled, did electrical work and had some engine repairs done. We are a 55ft monohull lifted in August 2024. We cannot recommend their team highly enough – everyone did a great job. The work came in on time and on budget. Overall costs were broadly comparable to the UK with the exception of prop speed which is very expensive due to import costs. Rajen, the boss is extremely knowledgable and helpful in all aspects including finding the cheapest/quickest way to source parts.
We had a fabulous 5 month stay here in Seychelles and used Eden Island Marina as a base. We also left the boat herer whilst we had a 3 week trip. I cannot praise the team at the marina enough. Always happy and super friendly and helpful. There was a very good level of security and we were very confident leaving our boat here.
Left our yacht at the Eden Island Marina, Seychelles for two months while we were back in the US. Had other yachties keep an eye on it. When we returned we found it had been broken into. Stole cameras, lenses, cash, liquor, etc. Police were quick to investigate and take a report.
Seychelles General Info June 2018
We visited the Republic of Seychelles April until July 2018 and would like to share, in no particular order, observations that may be useful to other yacht owners crossing the Indian Ocean.
1. Visiting Seychelles is not as expensive as we were led to believe. There is a fee for checking into the country, but it’s less than we’ve paid in many other places, around US$20.00. There are fees payable each time one checks in and checks out of Victoria Port, but it is not necessary to check in and check out each time the vessel returns to Victoria for provisions unless one wishes to anchor in the inner harbor. There are other suitable places to anchor without incurring fees. It is possible to visit many of the “inner islands,” the granitic islands around Victoria, without paying National Parks mooring fees.
Those fees are approx. US$15 per night, the marine park perimeters are clearly marked by large white buoys, and there are plenty of lovely anchorages outside the park boundaries. Upon arrival, one receives a free 30-day visitor permit, which is renewable for an additional 60 days at no charge. A further extension is expensive at approx. US$360 per person. In our first month in Seychelles, we paid less than US$125 in fees including check-in formalities, park fees, and mooring fees.
2. Restaurants and bars are very expensive and Creole cuisine is far less impressive than that of India or Southeast Asia, so we eat most of our meals on board as do other cruisers in Seychelles. Most resorts serve mediocre buffet meals to their guests as part of an all-inclusive accommodation plan. Those who welcome outside guests and many do not charge very high prices for the buffet. A good cocktail in a nice establishment can cost US$20.00. If you like to eat all your meals in tourist-oriented restaurants you will find Seychelles exorbitantly expensive.
If you like spicy flavors you will be disappointed. A bottle of Seybrew, the local beer, served at Marine Charter or the SYC, costs US$2.20. The same beer will cost up to US$10.00 at a resort or at a restaurant with an ambiance. Local eateries are more modestly priced and generally of average quality.
3. Anchoring is very slightly restricted. We came prepared with detailed information on where to find the few mooring buoys installed by the Marine Parks and Tourism Board, the limitations for their use, the associated fees, and fines for overstaying the 1-night limit. In fact, there are no mooring buoys at all for public use anywhere around the inner islands. No one monitors the length of time a yacht remains in one place and no one comes to collect any kind of fees except in the National Marine Parks where overnight anchorage (no moorings) costs less than US$15.00. Pleasant and courteous park rangers come to your yacht to collect fees if you overnight in a Marine Park.
There are strict prohibitions against anchoring in some locations clearly expressed in the helpful information packet given to us by officials at the time we checked in. However, yachts anchor freely in those places without penalty and without time restriction. These mooring/no anchoring policies may have been a good idea and may have been enforced in the past, but the moorings simply don’t exist and the restrictions are universally ignored by both yachties and officials. Only the National Marine Park regulations are enforced and even their one may anchor as long as desired at a rate of US$15.00 per day.
4. The information packet provided upon arrival is comprehensive and helpful, but it fails to inform yacht owners that they must apply for temporary importation of the yacht at the expiration of the initial 1-month visitor permit. We did not understand this and only learned of the regulation from another yacht owner who had made the same mistake. Upon submission of the proper forms to the Customs Inland Revenue Department, temporary import is generally granted, together with a firm lecture and possibly a fine. You’d think this would be explained in the 20-page information packet, but it is not even mentioned.
5. There is an excellent shipyard in Victoria, Taylor Smith Shipyard, which has been in operation for about 4 years. It’s run very professionally, management and most of the skilled tradesmen have been hired from outside Seychelles and quality work, though expensive, can be expected. The yard has a 150-ton Travelift, plans to buy a larger one, and can lift just about anything, including large catamarans.
6. We are sorry to report that security is a problem in Seychelles. Our yacht was burglarized during the night while we were asleep at anchor, our own fault for leaving the companionway open in the hot weather. We know of three or four other yachts that were burglarized in the same way in recent months. Thefts occur at multiple locations. The thief approached our yacht in a stolen sailing dinghy.