No border control inside Schengen area

After Poland and the Baltic states joined the Schengen treaty, clearance in a "port of entry" is only necessary when sailing to or from Russia.

Recently, pleasure crafts needed to call "ports of entry" in order to check in for for passport and customs control. The Schengen treaty now include every country around the Baltic sea, except Russia. If you sail between Schengen countries, no passport or customs control is performed at the border. Thus, there are no reason to look up a special port in order to visit the authorities.

Within the Schengen treaty, citizens from Schengen countries no longer need to bring their passport. But, on demand, you have to prove that you are a Schengen country citizen. In some countries, the citizenship is written on ID card. On demand, you have to show it to the authorities.

In some countries, for example Sweden, the citizenship is not included in the ID card. In such cases, the absurd situation is that you have to bring your passport in order to prove that you are a citizen that not need any passport. (But it is only in rare cases someone asks)

On a voyage between to Schengen ports, you may sail in international waters. In these cases you pass the "Schengen border", and one may think that clearance into Schengen is necessary.

That is not the case. There is no border control if you sail directly between two Schengen ports,  On this point it is unclear how the trety is going to be enforced in the new Schengen countries. Perhaps their will be special procedures near Russian waters.  If so, it is up to the authorities to contact your ship in oder to check your port of departure.

In port

In international sailing, crewlists were often required, first upon arrival to a new country, and later in every port. These procedures should cease now, but can be replaced by other formalities. For example, in Sweden "hotel" registration is done in guest harbour. Like in hotels, the foreign guest is asked to fill in a form form that later on is passed to the police.

Like before, you must be able to prove the ownership of the vessel. This is done, according to the registration rules of the flag country (the nationality of the ship). In many countries, there are no official registry for pleasure crafts. For Swedish boat a special "international certificate" is issued by the big yachting organizations. In this there are information on the boat type, ownership, engine etc.

Clearance out of Schengen

If you leave Schengen for Russia, you have to visit a border control on the Schengen side before the last leg into Russia. The same procedure is followed on return into Schengen.

The border control posts you may use, are  Santio or Haapasaari in Finnish Gulf of Finland or Narva-Jõesuu in Estonie.

If you visit Kaliningrad you can choose between Klaipeda in Lithuania, or Hel, Gdansk and Gdynia in Poland.