Sailing in Croatia

[Dave35]

Have heard a few good tales about sailing in this part of the world ...has anyone had experience sailing in Croatia? ..what are the bets routes how long would you need to explore all the nooks and crannies , what are the expenses like , useful destinations, ..Would it be posiblle to spend an entire year sailing here, are there places to stay during winter ..

Apoligies about all the questions, but i know nothing about this area.

Dave

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[Copious]

Dave,

Had a fantastic week chartering out of Split, two years ago. Almost brand new boats from a small firm, although didn't have too much kit on board (can't remember the name, sorry). Infinite number of small islands, bays and small harbours to explore and plenty of shelter when the breeze gets feisty. reasonable costs of food harbour dues etc.Thoroughly recommended from my view of a short tour.

Copious

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[charles_reed]

All the reports I've had are that it's a fabulous sailing area, if a bit spoilt by an excess of Germans driving up prices.

I'll be in a better position to pass judgement this time next year.

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[MedMan]

I wrote the following notes for the CA after our visit to Croatia in 2001

General
We arrived in Croatia on 20th April 2001 having travelled north from our winter base in Malta. We had originally intended to return south for the winter but we loved it so much that we decided to stay. Croatia is a fabulous cruising destination: the scenery is stunning, anchorages are plentiful, and there is always a harbour or marina within reach. If you are hesitant about heading this way, read on and hopefully you will be persuaded to come. You will not regret it.

Formalities
Formalities are minimal. You must enter the country at a designated port where you will be visited by the Police (Immigration) and Customs and be asked to complete a form and present your papers at the Harbour Master’s Office. We cleared in at Gruž where the whole process took 45 minutes. A nice police lady looked at our passports (2 minutes), a customs officer asked if we had anything to declare (1 minute) and filling in the form took 15 minutes. The remainder of the time was spent walking to the nearest cash machine and back to obtain local currency for our Cruising Permit: for our 10.7 metre boat this cost 1,295 Kuna (£110). For the best year’s cruising of our life we consider it money very well spent. One unexpected benefit of the Cruising Permit is the complete lack of form filling at any other harbour. All one does is to hand in the Permit upon arrival and collect it when you pay to leave. What a time saver that would have been in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy!
Before we left we had been concerned about a statement in the Adriatic Pilot that talks about the need for a ‘Certificate of Seaworthiness’. The Croatian Tourist Office site (http://www.htz.hr/nautic_regulations.htm) also gives prices for what it calls ‘Compensation for attesting the seaworthiness of foreign yachts, sport sailing boats and sport boats’. Worry not about these. If you have normal registration documents and your boat doesn’t appear to be sinking, you will just be asked to fill out the form and hand over your cash.
Some printed information suggests that you need Visas if you are going to Croatia for more than three months. This does not appear to be the case. When you complete the application form for your Cruising Permit you also complete a Crew List. So long as your Cruising Permit is valid and your Crew List is up to date, that is all that appears to be required. However, if you have a change of crew (or additions) you must complete a revised Crew List every time.

Charts
The Croatian Hydrographic Office produces two Small Craft Chart Folios at a scale of 1:100,000 which, between them, cover the entire Croatian coastline and all the off lying islands. Known as ‘Male Karte’ they are updated every year and represent superb value at 200 Kuna (£17) each. The Northern Folio (north of Dugi Otok) contains 12 charts each 50cm x 35cm and the Southern Folio contains 17. A few of the charts even have large-scale harbour plans printed on the reverse side. Our recommendation would be to equip yourself with a suitable small-scale passage-making chart to get yourself here and buy one or both Male Karte folios when you arrive.

Pilots
We used the Adriatic Pilot by T and D Thompson published by Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson. It is difficult to find your way around and, by modern standards, the photographs and chartlets are poor. Never-the-less, it gives good quality information and represents a massive undertaking by the authors to whom I am most grateful. We also bought a copy of the locally-produced English version of the ‘official’ yachtsman’s pilot. It looked as if it would be good as it was dated 2001 and appeared to contain some very useful chartlets. However, despite its publication date, much of the information is hopelessly out of date, some of it pre (1991) war. I do not recommend it.

Currency and Cash
On the strength of a statement in the Adriatic Pilot we obtained Master Cards before we left as we normally use Visa. We need not have bothered. Visa, Master Card and Amex Credit Cards along with Cirrus/Maestro and Visa Debit Cards are now widely accepted in shops and Cash Machines. Cash Machines are plentiful in the larger mainland towns but can be hard to find on the islands. However, many Post Offices (it may be all, but I cannot attest to that) have a ‘human cash machine’. You queue at the counter and hand over your card, which the teller swipes through a machine. With Cirrus/Maestro cards you then tap your PIN number into the machine just as you would with an ATM and, hey presto, you are handed the cash. With Visa Debit cards the PIN number does not work so you have to produce ID. They ask for a passport but they accept our encapsulated photocopy of the back page that we keep for such purposes. Having checked my bank statements very carefully I can confirm that the service costs no more than cash from an ATM.

Charges
Much humbug is uttered about charges in Croatia. Despite the annual Cruising Permit, the charges in ‘Regulated Anchorages’ and an average of £17 per night in marinas, we have had our cheapest year in the Mediterranean. (see note at the end of report for details) The simple reason for this is the huge number of unregulated, beautiful, deserted anchorages where one can lie for as long as one wishes for absolutely nothing. On top of that, most town quays and many marinas will allow from 2 to 4 hours mooring free of charge so that you can shop. However, if you do this, you will usually have to pay a small fee for water. Annual berthing contracts are particularly reasonable and some marinas will issue contracts at the annual rate for periods in excess of 6 months – very useful for over-wintering. Diesel is a fixed price throughout Croatia and is cheap – 5.2 Kuna (44p) per litre.

Mooring
All marinas have laid moorings, generally tailed back to the quay. Many harbours now have the same but in a few you will have to lie bows (or stern) to your anchor, stern (or bows) to the quay. In many anchorages, particularly south of Split and in the peak season you will need to moor in a similar way. This is partly because that is what all the locals do so it is difficult to do otherwise, partly because many of the anchorages are tight and partly because many are deep. A typical night at anchor on, say, Otok Hvar might entail dropping your bower anchor in 12 metres and motoring back on 40 metres of chain until you can send a member of the crew in a dinghy to tie back to the shore. For this reason you will need:
a) A substantial length of chain on your bower anchor. We have 60m and have frequently used 40m to 50m.
b) Some long ropes for tying back to the shore. We usually use a 40m length, which is about right.
c) One or two lengths of old chain for looping around rocks when tying back. We have 2 x 10m lengths.
In the so-called ‘Regulated Anchorages’ in the Zadar Region a charge is made irrespective of whether you moor to one of the buoys or anchor. Much criticism has been made of this system, but we found nothing to which one could object. The buoys are generally well maintained, (but do check!) the charges are reasonable and rubbish is collected.

Weather and Forecasts
Much of the Adriatic is further north than the north coast of Spain and close enough to the UK to be affected by many of the depressions that pass over our friends at home. You will need an umbrella and you will need antifreeze in your engine if you leave it ashore in the winter. That said, we found the climate very pleasant with a lot of sunshine and no excessive heat. (We did come back to the UK from mid July to mid August)
Good Weather forecasts are published in English, daily at all marinas. They include a three-day outlook and we have found them to be very reliable. An abbreviated form of the same forecast (without the outlook) is broadcast twice a day on Navtex. It takes practice to interpret as it is very much abbreviated and the English can be ambiguous, but once the technique is mastered these forecasts too are reliable. I would, therefore, suggest that, if you do not have one, a Navtex should be high on your list of priorities for Father Christmas! There are automated forecasts broadcast on VHF but the range is very limited. We did not find these useful.

Miscellaneous Notes
Just one or two other points in no particular order: Many people speak some English, especially in the more touristy areas. Those who do not may speak German or Italian but, if they speak none of these, they are likely to be patient and friendly in finding a way to communicate. Croatian people are northern European in their approach to life rather than Latin. Brits are well received. Supermarkets are small and the variety of food is very limited. Bread, however, is excellent. There are no laundrettes to be found but some marinas have laundries where you can leave your washing and pick it up later. Costs vary from 50 to 100 Kuna (£4.25 to £8.50) per load. We found wasps to be a serious problem in some places in the summer but we encountered no jellyfish.


<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>

 

[dart]

Re: yachtretreat.com

What's happened to yachtretreat.com? No updates for 2004?? Are you back on Retreat or are you babysitting ;-)

<hr width=100% size=1>Marine weather maps by mobile: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.zipget.com>ZipGet</A>

 

[MedMan]

Re: yachtretreat.com

Updates get written in January - there's too much else to do when the sun is shining!

Nice that you noticed!

Happy sailing!

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[dart]

Re: yachtretreat.com

Oh, I thought the updates were in "real time" and posted to friends family and web. We sort of followed in your footsteps, first by book and then by web. We also almost caught you in Ayvalik but you had left 2 weeks earlier. We found your experience pretty useful. A lot of your advice is excellent. I think like most Med cruisers you tend to put an over positive spin on med cruising, there is good stuff about the med but a lot of bad stuff too. I think my biggest surprise is the short season. I was expecting all year round cruising, but most liveaboards lay up for at least 6 months. If you subtract July/August which are awful (hot/packed) you get 4 months cruising max which is no better than the UK.

<hr width=100% size=1>Marine weather maps by mobile: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.zipget.com>ZipGet.com</A>

 

[davidbains]

Just back from 3 weeks in Croatia.
It's a great cruising destination with a thousand islands. Not as hot as Greece
or Turkey and the locals are welcoming.
Lucian Comoy's website at comoy.com is most informative with many links.


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[John_Lana]

If you are in the area, do not miss out on Montenegro - we had a fantastic few days there last year. You can sail between the mountians right up the head of the enormous fjord. Fantasic scenery and for some reason, almost no visiting yachts. We had a great welcome and found the folks ashore very friendly.

John

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.john-lana.com>http://www.john-lana.com</A> Mainly about boats, but also a bit about my other toy, my Caterham 7

 

[MedMan]

... ... for some reason, almost no visiting yachts

Did you have to pay for a Cruising Permit and, if so, how much? The main reason we did not go was the high cost of the cruising permit for a relatively small number of places to stay. We did not mind paying for the Croatian permit as there are enough anchorages to keep you going for years, but the Montenegran permit seemed excessive for what could only have been a few days stay. If they have seen the light and reduced the amount to a sensible level that will be great news for everyone.

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[John_Lana]

I do not recall exactly what we had to pay, but I do not remeber it being excessive, even though we were on a larger than average yacht. We cleared in and out in Kotor, at the head of the fjord. It was obviously a rare occurance for them to have a yacht to clear in Kotor, as they were at a bit of a loss as to what to do. It all got sorted out with good humour, and we certainly enjoyed Kotor itself, a UNESCO site, as well as the surrounding countryside.

John

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.john-lana.com>http://www.john-lana.com</A> Mainly about boats, but also a bit about my other toy, my Caterham 7