Chartering a Yacht for More Than 12 Guests: Where It Actually Works

Chartering for more than 12 guests is possible, and the list of places it works is short. One yacht can legally take 13 to 20 people in Croatia and Turkey. Above 20 guests Croatia is where it is easiest. In the Caribbean it is almost always two yachts.

This page is for the family reunion, the wedding party, the milestone birthday or the corporate group that has just found out most charter yachts stop at 12.

• 13 to 20, Mediterranean: one yacht, in Croatia or Turkey.
• 13 to 20, Caribbean: two yachts.
• 21 to 30: one Croatian vessel.
• More than 30: a small ship, chartered whole.

The rule is below, then where each group size actually works.

The limit comes from SOLAS, the international convention on safety at sea. It defines a passenger ship as one carrying more than twelve passengers, and it counts people on board rather than beds.

Take a thirteenth guest and the yacht becomes a passenger ship, in the same category as a ferry, and almost no owner pays for that. It means ferry standards for:

• construction
• lifesaving equipment
• crewing, and crew are counted separately from guests

There is a proper route above twelve. Red Ensign Group Yacht Code Part B covers yachts carrying 13 to 36 passengers, and very few charter yachts hold it. Everything else is licensed country by country, which is why a handful of places work and the rest do not. Our glossary has the short version of the 12-guest limit.

A yacht has two guest numbers, and only one of them decides your charter. The overnight number and the daytime number are set on the individual vessel rather than by a rule, and our own boat-show notes record the two separately.

• Overnight. This is the one that decides your charter.
• Day guests. These need the captain’s agreement and a name on the guest list, because the port and the license both count heads.
• A dockside event for a larger group. Arranged with the yacht’s flag state in advance, not a general allowance.

Confirm both numbers before you plan around either.

Croatia is the answer, with Turkey behind it, and it comes down to the type of boat. The modern Mediterranean motor yacht fleet stops at twelve. Gulets and motorsailers carry national passenger licenses those boats do not, so they take 14, 16 or 20 people when a 40 meter motor yacht cannot.

Between them the fleets we search list more than 40 boats sleeping 13 to 20 guests, a floor rather than a full count. There is real choice at 14 and 16. At exactly 20 the list is short in both.

• Croatia is the one for big groups. It has the deepest list, and it is strongest at the top of the band on its modern motorsailers.
• Turkey works too, on the deeper gulet fleet licensed above twelve. It suits a big group that wants a gulet week.
• Greece is more limiting. Usually two yachts or a yacht plus a support boat. See below.

In the Caribbean a group this size means two yachts. Across the region the crewed fleets we search hold two boats licensed above twelve, and one of those splits her season with New England.

• The dependable exception is CUAN LAW in the BVI, a 105 foot trimaran with 10 double cabins that takes 20 guests on all-inclusive terms. She is the one Caribbean boat we would put a group of 20 on.
• The Bahamas has nothing. Of the 271 crewed yachts we search there, not one carries more than twelve. A Bahamas group of 14 is a two-yacht week from the first conversation.
• The BVI is where two yachts work best. It is the easiest place in the region for pairing two crewed yachts.

Croatia is where this gets straightforward. From 21 to 30 guests it holds 13 vessels in the fleets we search, against a handful each in Greece and Turkey and none in the Caribbean. Our Croatian site ranks the yachts that take 13 to 30 guests.

That license does not travel. A vessel licensed for 22 guests in Croatia reverts to twelve outside Croatian waters, and a Turkish gulet does the same at the Greek border.

Above 30 guests you are looking at small ships and mini-cruisers. Croatia has the deepest list and Greece is close behind, and the ceiling is around 70 guests. These are still private charters: the whole ship and her crew for your group alone. Our Croatian site lists the small ships that take 30 or more guests.

A tandem charter does not need special boats. Any two crewed yachts based close enough to cruise together can be booked as a pair, which turns a short list into the whole market.

• Two crews, two galleys and two sets of toys.
• Nobody ends up in the smallest cabin. On a single yacht somebody always does.
• It works in every region, including the ones with no licensed-for-more fleet at all.

Greece runs a third shape. Where a group just over twelve wants a modern motor yacht rather than a motorsailer, a licensed support boat joins the charter so the whole group can be carried legally.

Greece is far more limiting than Croatia for a large group, with only six of its own yachts sleeping 13 to 20 and four of those motorsailers. We have curated the Greek yachts that do charter above twelve so you can see the whole of it.

Our Greek site explains how a tandem charter is run.

Start with the headcount. It decides the region faster than anything else.

• 13 to 20, Mediterranean: a Croatian gulet or motorsailer for 14 to 22, or a Turkish gulet.
• 13 to 20, Caribbean: two yachts in tandem, unless CUAN LAW is free. See how BVI tandem charters work.
• 21 to 30 guests: one Croatian vessel, from the 13 to 30 guest list above.
• More than 30: a Greek or Croatian small ship, chartered whole.
• A modern motor yacht just over twelve: Greece, with a support boat, or one of the Greek yachts licensed above twelve.
• Anywhere none of the above fits: two yachts, or three above 24.

Tell us how many people you are and the week you have in mind, and we will come back with the yachts that can take you.