Owners tend to picture the private/commercial line as a category — a box ticked somewhere, a different rate of something. In Montenegrin law it is not a category. It is a different set of documents that must physically be aboard, a different person carrying the obligations, and a different rule about who may legally be on the yacht while it is under way.
This page is about that operating layer. Who may run a charter business, and what the flag has to do with it, is set out on our yacht registration and charter page — in short: Article 35 of the Law on Yachts puts the requirement on the operator, which must be a company or entrepreneur registered in Montenegro for that activity, and that operator may charter a yacht owned by a foreign person and flying a foreign flag. The flag is not the obstacle.
What follows is what changes once the yacht is actually in that trade.
References are to the Law on Yachts (Zakon o jahtama), Official Gazette of the Republic of Montenegro no. 46/07, as amended by Official Gazette of Montenegro nos. 73/10 and 40/11.
What the charter adds
| Obligation | Who it binds | When | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certified crew and passenger list | Master of a foreign yacht | At border control, and before each departure from port | Arts. 27, 31 |
| Charter evidence book | The operator | Kept continuously; an extract must be aboard | Arts. 38, 30 |
| All duties under the Act | The operator, even where it does not own the yacht | For the duration of the charter | Art. 36 |
| Documents aboard | Master | Whenever navigating | Art. 30 |
| Pilotage in the Bay of Kotor | Foreign yachts and yachts of 1,000 GT | On entering | Art. 29 |
| Departure formalities, then 24 hours to leave | Master | Before leaving Montenegrin waters | Art. 31 |
The passenger list — and the rule that catches private owners
Article 27 is the provision most owners have never read, and it applies to foreign yachts whether or not they are chartered.
The crew and passenger list is a list of named persons who may be aboard while the foreign yacht navigates in Montenegrin waters. The master submits it to the authorities on presenting for border control, and it is certified by the Harbour Master's Office (Kapetanija) or its branch. It may be completed in full or by additional entries — but additional names must be entered before the yacht departs the port, and certified when entered.
Two consequences follow, and they are strict:
- A person who is not named on the certified list may not be aboard a foreign yacht that is under way. Not "should not" — may not. Guests who join at the last moment are a paperwork problem before they are a hospitality one.
- Persons staying aboard while the yacht is in port or at anchor are not entered on the list. The obligation attaches to navigation, not to presence.
Then the rule that surprises private owners specifically. For yachts that are not chartered under this Act, the total number of persons on the list during the validity of the vignette may not exceed four times the maximum permitted number of persons determined by the yacht's own documents.
Read that again if you keep the yacht here privately and rotate friends and family through a season. A twelve-berth yacht is not looking at twelve names; it is looking at a ceiling of forty-eight across the vignette year. That ceiling is one of the practical places where "private use" stops being unlimited — and it exists whether or not anyone ever pays you.
Once it is chartered: the evidence book
Article 38 puts two duties in place.
The operator must keep a charter evidence book (knjiga evidencije iznajmljivanja jahti). The form of the book and the manner of keeping it are prescribed by the Ministry.
The master must certify the crew and passenger list at the Harbour Master's Office or its branch, at the latest before departure. The certified list must then be aboard, and the master must produce it to an authorised person on demand.
These are not filing formalities that can be reconstructed later. Both are documents that a boarding officer expects to see in physical form, in the moment.
Who actually carries the liability
Article 36 allocates responsibility, and it does so in a way that matters to every owner who lets someone else commercialise their yacht.
Where the operator charters a yacht that it does not own, all the obligations, rights and responsibilities prescribed by the Act rest with the operator — while the owner's liability under separate regulations is not excluded. So the Act shifts its own duties to the operator; it does not clear the owner from everything else.
And where the yacht is chartered without a crew — bareboat — the person taking it assumes by contract the operator's rights, obligations and responsibilities in the use of the yacht, under this Act and under separate regulations.
That is the sentence to hold in mind when a management company proposes putting your yacht into its charter fleet. The allocation is real, but it is bounded: it moves the Act's duties, not everything a court might later consider.
What has to be on board
Article 30 lists the documents that must be aboard a yacht entered in the Register and aboard a foreign yacht navigating in Montenegrin waters:
- the certificate of registration;
- proof that the person commanding the yacht and the crew are competent to operate it under the rules of the flag state, not conflicting with the STCW Convention or with Montenegrin rules;
- proof of third-party liability insurance;
- proof of ownership, or a power of attorney for use of the yacht;
- an extract from the evidence book under Article 38.
A foreign yacht must additionally carry the vignette and the certified crew and passenger list.
Item 4 deserves a note. If the yacht is held through a company, or used by someone other than the registered owner, the authority for that use is a document — and it is expected aboard, not in a lawyer's file.
Pilotage in the Bay of Kotor
Article 29 makes pilotage mandatory for a yacht of 1,000 gross tons entered in the Register and for a foreign yacht entering Montenegrin waters; for those yachts it is mandatory in the waters of the Bay of Kotor.
There is one exception, and it is personal to the master rather than to the vessel: pilotage is not mandatory for a yacht commanded by a person who has entered the same port more than five times, with the prior consent of the Harbour Master's Office or its branch.
Leaving, and the 24-hour rule
Article 31: before departing Montenegrin waters, the master of a yacht entered in the Register — and of a foreign yacht staying in Montenegrin waters — must complete border control and certify the crew and passenger list at the Harbour Master's Office or its branch. Having done so, the master must leave Montenegrin waters within 24 hours.
Clearing out is therefore not a step you take a comfortable day in advance. It starts a clock.
Crew who do not hold a visa
A practical provision that rarely appears in commercial summaries. Under Article 22, a crew member of a foreign yacht who does not hold a visa for stay in Montenegro may be issued a permit for movement and stay in the country, for the period the yacht is in Montenegrin waters. It is issued by the competent authority on the request of the master.
That is a route, not an exemption: it is tied to the yacht's presence and it must be applied for.
The charges, described honestly
Two charges sit on this activity, and we will describe their structure rather than quote figures.
Article 28 sets a fee for the use of navigable routes, which is revenue of the state budget; the amounts are set out in a table in the Act itself.
Article 37 adds, for an operator chartering a yacht that flies a foreign flag, an annual charge in addition to the Article 28 fee, banded by length: 7–12 m, 12–17 m, 17–24 m, and over 24 m.
⚠️ The euro amounts in the Act date from its 2007 text. Confirm the figures in force for the current year before budgeting them — the bands are the structure, not a price list.
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
Almost everyone else around a charter arrangement is paid by it. The management company's fee depends on the yacht staying in its fleet. The broker's commission depends on bookings. The yard's contract is written by the yard. None of that is scandalous, but it is worth knowing before you treat any of them as your adviser.
We take no commission from operators, brokers, marinas, yards or intermediaries — in no form, on no file. Our only income is the fee you pay us, and it does not rise if you sign. Telling you that a charter proposal moves less liability than it appears to costs us nothing.
One boundary that is not negotiable: we are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers. We do not give personal investment advice on financial instruments and we do not tell you whether a charter programme will earn what is projected. What we protect is your legal position — title, registration, contract, status, and the deadlines that decide all four.
How we open this file
Our first output is not a meeting, it is a written legal position. Send us the management or charter agreement, the yacht's registration and insurance documents, and — if there is one — the bareboat charter. In return you get a scoped piece of work: which duties actually move to the operator, which stay with you, what must be aboard on the first day of the season, and where a gap can be closed before it is found at a border check rather than after.
We do not give free consultations. In a file like this the first hour is examination, not sales, and whoever gives that away is either not examining or being paid by someone else. If the question is the berth rather than the yacht, that analysis is on our page about what you actually buy at a Montenegrin marina; if the plan involves setting up the operating company here, the corporate side is on our company formation page.
