Having a professional skipper aboard does not by itself turn a bareboat charter into a crewed one. What decides it is who supplied the skipper.
This sounds like a technicality. It is not, because the classification drives the operator's licensing, the crew list obligations, and the basis on which the boat is insured.
The test
A bareboat, or demise, charter is one where the owner hands over possession, command and navigation of the vessel to the charterer. The charterer is then responsible for crewing it.
The Croatian Maritime Code follows the same logic through two different contract types:
Lease of a ship (ugovor o zakupu broda). The owner hands the vessel over completely and the charterer crews and navigates it. If the guests hire their own skipper, it stays a bareboat lease.
Time or voyage charter. The shipowner provides the vessel equipped and crewed. If the charter company bundles the boat and the skipper together, it falls here, and the charter company becomes the employer of the professional crew.
Why it matters to you
If you are engaged by the guests, or by a tour operator who has taken the boat on demise, the charter remains bareboat and you are the charterer's skipper. That is the ordinary freelance arrangement.
If the charter company that owns or manages the boat placed you aboard, you are their crew, and the charter is a crewed one whatever the booking confirmation says. Different licensing, different obligations.
The insurance point
A bareboat hull policy is written on the basis that the charterer crews the vessel. If a professional is bundled in by the operator, the contract type may have changed and the underwriter priced something else. Ask in writing rather than assume. See also: As a freelance skipper, am I covered by the boat's insurance?
Last reviewed 16 August 2026. General information, not legal advice.