BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide

Bareboat Charter in Greece: Licence, Co-Skipper and Paperwork

Greece requires two things for a bareboat: a recognised licence for the skipper and a second crew member declaring sailing experience. What Greek charter companies actually ask for, paperwork included.

Greece is one of the world’s largest sailboat charter markets — and one of the few countries with precise rules on bareboat chartering, i.e. renting without a skipper. Before booking a week in the Cyclades or the Ionian, it pays to know exactly what Greek regulations and charter companies will ask of you.

The Greek rule: a licence plus a co-skipper

To charter bareboat in Greece you must meet two conditions: the skipper must present a recognised sailing qualification (an ICC — International Certificate of Competence —, a national certificate such as RYA Day Skipper, or equivalent), and a second crew member must attest to sailing experience, usually via a simple declaration form supplied by the charter company. The co-skipper requirement is a Greek specificity: it aims to guarantee that someone aboard can back up the skipper if anything goes wrong. No recognised qualification? There is always a professional skipper, or an organised flotilla — two good ways in, covered in our guide to a first sailboat charter.

Motor-licence holders: read this first

Many national boating licences — including the French permis côtier — are motorboat qualifications: fine for renting a motorboat, but for a bareboat sailing yacht Greek operators want a document that attests to sailing skills. Many accept an ICC with a sail endorsement or a sailing-school certification booklet backed by a detailed sailing CV — send your documents to the operator before paying the deposit to avoid a bad surprise, just as we recommend in our guide to foreign licences (the mirror-image problem exists in the other direction).

Ship’s papers and formalities: what the operator handles

A Greek charter yacht sails with its professional documents (charter licence, insurance, safety inventory): that is the operator’s job. Your part: the crew list — the passenger manifest with passports, drawn up at departure — and complying with local instructions, as the harbourmaster or port police can check qualifications and crew list at any stopover. The departure briefing, often long in Greece, is best prepared with our pre-departure checklist.

A huge market, with bases for every programme

Boating weighs heavily in Greece’s tourism economy: academic work on Greek maritime tourism documents the central role of yachting and chartering in the country’s tourist flows (Diakomihalis, Greek Maritime Tourism: Evolution, Structures and Prospects, Research in Transportation Economics, 2007, see the study on Google Scholar). Concretely, that means deep fleets and competitive prices at the major bases: Athens (Alimos or Lavrio) for the Cyclades and the Saronic, Lefkada for the Ionian, Kos and Rhodes for the Dodecanese.

Compare before you sign

From one platform to another, the same yacht on the same dates commonly varies by 10–20% — and deposit and cancellation policies differ. Boat-Comparator compares Boataround, SamBoat and Click&Boat live across all Greek bases; our guide to sailboat charter in Greece adds advice on choosing your cruising ground and season — avoiding the peak-summer meltemi for a first bareboat.

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Also worth reading

• How much does it cost to rent a boat in 2026? Real prices
• License-Free Boat Rental in France: Rules, Prices & Where to Book
• Renting with or without a skipper: how to choose