Yacht charter in Croatia

Author: Neven Grubisic

Before planning a sailing trip to Croatia there are few things everyone should know in order to have nice and stress less vacation. Otherwise you can encounter some serious problems that could affect your holidays.

There are two main charter types - bareboat charter and crewed charter. For bareboat charter at least one person on the board must have a boat leader's license. The license must me issued by a state institution. If a license is certified by a foreign state institution the Croatian law accepts it in most cases. The license must be related to the sea and open waters and not to the rivers and channels. Law in Croatia does not accept any Sailing Club Certifications. Also at least one person on the board must have a VHF license. Usually boat leader's license exam covers the VHF part as well. In case none of the guest has such a qualifications then a skipper must be hired. For crewed charter no license is required. Depending on the yacht size, the crew usually consists of captain, hand man, cook, hostess...

In every way the usual charter week in Croatia starts on Saturday afternoon ( 3 pm to 5 pm ) and ends on Saturday morning ( 8 am to 10 am ). Some of the charter companies require to have the boat back from the charter to base marina on Friday afternoon. In this case guests are able to stay on board until Saturday morning. On Saturday can be very crowded in marinas since all charter companies have takeover of all their yachts on that day. Guests should be prepared and very patient keeping in mind that marina staff is doing their best. When taking the yacht ,it is not advised to get in marina much in advanced. There is just a slight chance that your boat will be ready and cleaned among the first boats that were in charter previous week. In case you are already early , it would be much better that you leave your luggage in marina and take a swim on a nearest beach.

Every yacht for charter in Croatia has Casco insurance. The charter companies ask for deposit to be left in base marina in amount of insurance franchise. Depending on the size of the yacht and insurance contract deposit goes from 500 EUR to 2500 EUR and can be paid in cash or by credit card. Credit card will be just slipped and not charged yet. In case the yacht is damaged the charter company will cover the damage from the deposit left by guest and the rest from the insurance company.

All charter companies in Croatia ask 30%-50% of rental payment at the moment of the booking and the rest at least 4 weeks prior to embarkation. In case of booking cancellation , in most cases the complete amount will be returned if the booking was canceled more than a month before charter. This is a part of general charter terms and conditions used by all charter companies in very similar form. Although, there are some differences between one charter company and another. So, it would be good to read the conditions at the moment of booking very carefully.

There are over 100 yacht charter companies and over 3000 yachts in Croatia and each one of them has its own price and terms. To find an ideal yacht for yourself one should contact every charter company asking for availability and prices. Huge list of companies can be found in Croatian tourism official web site croatia.hr . Much easier way is to contact the agency ( like Yacht charter Croatia ) to do it instead of you. There are some agencies having a complete database of all the yachts in Croatia ( Charter yacht Croatia ) and they can make you very quick offer. The price will be the same as you contact the charter company directly because the agency gets the rabat from the charter company. In some cases the agency price can even beat the charter company price because of the bigger rabat.