Two products share the word charter. On a bareboat you are the captain: your licence, your responsibility, your anchor watch at 3am when the wind swings. On a crewed charter professionals run the boat and you are the guest. Everything we book is crewed, on purpose.
What bareboat really involves
A recognised licence plus, in most Mediterranean countries, local endorsements. Skippering competence your insurance company believes in. Provisioning, passage planning, weather calls, berthing a large boat in a crosswind in front of a full quay of spectators, and the legal position of being responsible for everyone aboard. For experienced sailors that is the fun. For everyone else it is a working holiday with liability attached.
What crew actually adds
Local knowledge is the quiet one. A captain who has worked a coast for years knows which bay is calm in this afternoon's wind, when the crowds land in the famous lagoon and how to be gone before it, which taverna on which island answers the phone in August. You cannot download that. On top of it: safety, cooking, cleaning, driving the toys, watching the anchor while you sleep ashore of a beach bar. The maths of it is covered in what is included.
The licence question, answered
For anything on our site: no licence, ever, because every boat comes with its own professional crew. You board, the captain runs the day, you own the fun parts. This also means no charter we arrange depends on anyone in your group overstating their sailing CV, which is a more common failure than the industry admits.
If you do sail
Genuinely licensed and experienced? A crewed boat still buys you the local knowledge, and good captains happily hand the helm over in open water. You get the wheel without the 3am anchor watch. Tell us you sail when you enquire and we will match you with a crew that enjoys guests who do.