About Recreational Boating in Sweden

Sweden has one of the highest numbers of boats per capita in the world. So what does the Swedish Maritime Administration do for the recreational boating sector?

Produces charts and other publications

Small craft charts are offprints from the regular chart illustrations. The basic information is the same as in regular navigational charts. In addition, small craft charts include certain supplemental information, such as nature preserves, bird sanctuaries, public phones, etc.

Responsible for aids to navigation

Managing and maintaining Swedish fairways is one of the pillars of the the Swedish Maritime Administration’s operations. Maintaining, marking, planning and improving our fairways is a neverending task that we must carry out to meet standards of environmental protection and maritime safety.

The Swedish Maritime Administration has also established a number of recreational boating fairways, which are used by merchant vessels very little or not at all. Safety standards are high from that perspective.

Responsible for Swedish maritime search and rescue

The Swedish Maritime Administration is responsible for the Swedish Maritime Search and Rescue Service. The purpose of maritime search and rescue is to save human life at sea. Our field of operations is the ocean around our coasts both inside the belt of skerries and in open waters, as well as the three largest lakes in Sweden, Vänern, Vättern and Mälaren. State, municipal and private bodies also participate in maritime search and rescue missions.

All search and rescue personnel are trained at the Maritime Search and Rescue School on the island of Arkö, which is run by the Swedish Maritime Administration.