Minimum qualifications for bareboat chartering

 Sailing qualifications 

As each country has their own official yacht or maritime institution, training qualifications vary depending upon where you are from, but the table below gives a list of minimum qualifications required to charter either a sailing yacht or catamaran.

In addition to the local qualifications, there are two key international training schemes, which are available in most countries – regulated by the RYA and the IYT. If you have an RYA Day Skipper (or above) or IYT Bareboat Skipper (or above), then you are also qualified to charter a yacht or catamaran. Many local qualification board also issue 'ICC' (International Certificate of Competence') qualifications, which are also accepted internationally.

Qualifying through experience

In the Caribbean, some yacht charter operators allow you to charter a yacht if you can demonstrate you have sufficient experience at sea. In Greece, Croatia and the Med, this is not ordinarily possible.

Plus VHF Licenses in Croatia

In addition to a sailing license, to charter bareboat in Croatia at least one of you (either the skipper or one of your crew) will need to have a VHF qualification (to operate the VHF radio) - but you don’t need a formal qualification for this elsewhere in the Med, or in the Caribbean.

 Qualifications accepted for bareboat chartering (by country) 

The following qualifications are accepted by charter operators of evidence of competence when chartering a yacht (This list is not exhaustive, and just covers the key qualifications - ask us if your qualification is not listed here).