How to Charter a Yacht for More Than 12 Guests in Turkey

Yes, you can charter 1 yacht for more than 12 guests in Turkey, and it is one of the few places in the Mediterranean where that works without splitting the group. The reason is registration: many Turkish-flagged gulets and motor sailers are licensed to carry 14, 20, even 36 guests, while almost everywhere else the law caps a charter yacht at 12. Here is what that means for your group in practice:

• Internationally, a yacht carrying more than 12 guests is legally a passenger ship, so nearly every charter yacht in the world is certified for 12 guests maximum.
• Turkey’s own fleet is the exception. We book Turkish yachts licensed for 20 guests from around €35,000 per week, and the biggest take 36.
• The license works in Turkish waters. Cross toward the Greek islands and the same yacht is limited to 12 again.
• 13 is the awkward number. We solve it with a yacht licensed for 14 or more, a second yacht, or a shorter guest list.

Why Almost Every Charter Yacht Stops at 12 Guests

The 12-guest limit is not a broker habit or a comfort guideline. Under international maritime law, a vessel carrying more than 12 passengers is classified as a passenger ship, the same legal category as a ferry or a cruise ship. That classification brings commercial-ship requirements for construction, fire protection, lifesaving equipment, and crewing.

Meeting those standards is so expensive that almost no yacht owner does it. So the world’s charter fleet is certified for 12 guests and stops there, whether the yacht is 20 meters or 80. The limit counts guests, not people on board: crew are counted separately, which is why a yacht can sleep 12 guests and still run 8 crew.

There is a separate class of superyacht built and certified to carry 13 to 36 guests, but only a handful of charter yachts worldwide qualify. For most groups of 14 or 16, in most destinations, the practical answer from any honest broker is 2 yachts.

Why Turkey Is Different

Turkey licenses its own flagged charter fleet, and many Turkish-built gulets and motor sailers are registered for more than 12 guests. The capacity is written into the individual vessel’s license, so this is not a loophole we squeeze through. It is how the local fleet was built to operate, around big families and long shared dinners.

The honest catch: the license is valid in Turkish waters. We have inspected excellent gulets at the Turkish boat shows that carry 16 or more guests at home, but the moment they leave Turkish waters they revert to 12. If your group is set on combining Turkey with the Greek islands, that changes the plan, and we say so before you fall in love with a yacht.

Compare that with the rest of the Mediterranean. In Greece, our brokers solve a 13+ group with 2 yachts cruising together, or with a chase boat that legally sleeps the extra guests. Both work, and we arrange both. But in Turkey we can usually solve the same brief with 1 license, 1 crew, and 1 dinner table, which is why we send so many large groups here.

The Gulet Route: Licensed for 14 to 36 Guests

Gulets and motor sailers are where Turkey’s extra capacity actually lives, because they carry the cabin count and the deck space to use it. These are real yachts from our current Turkish fleet, with their licensed capacities:

• NEVRA QUEEN, 40 m, sleeps 20 guests in 10 cabins, from €35,000 per week.
• BOREAS, 43 m, licensed for up to 36 guests, from €38,500 per week.
• ADMIRAL, around 47 m, licensed for up to 36 guests, from €42,000 per week.
• DE LOVE, 47 m, built 2024, 14 guests in 7 cabins with a crew of 7, from €70,000 per week.
• KING OF THE SEA, 47 m, built 2024, up to 22 guests, from €70,000 per week.

At the top of the market, Turkey also hosts LAUREN L, a 90 m superyacht certified for 36 guests in 20 cabins with around 40 crew. She is one of the few yachts anywhere that carries a large group at full superyacht standard.

One caveat we never skip: the capacity belongs to the license, not the yacht type. 2 gulets of the same size can be licensed differently, so we confirm the current license for every yacht we shortlist, not the number in a brochure. You can compare our most-booked options on the best gulets for 12+ guests page.

Sleeping Guests vs Day Guests

The licensed number that matters for your week is the sleeping capacity: how many guests the yacht may carry overnight. Many large gulets can host more people than that for a daytime swim stop or a dockside dinner, which is useful when part of the group stays ashore or joins for 1 day of a celebration. The 2 numbers are different, they are set per vessel, and we confirm both before you build plans around them.

Turkish port authorities also tightened the counting in 2026: only designated cabins count toward guest capacity now, so a convertible saloon berth no longer adds a guest on paper. Some boats lost 1 or 2 guests of listed capacity overnight. It is another reason we verify the current license rather than trusting last year’s listing.

Crew is the part large groups tend to underestimate, in a good way. Service scales with the license: DE LOVE runs a crew of 7 for 14 guests, and LAUREN L carries around 40 crew for 36. A properly licensed large-group yacht does not feel stretched at full capacity, because it was staffed for it from the start.

When 1 Yacht Is Wrong: How the 2-Yacht Version Works

Sometimes the 2-yacht setup is still the better answer, even in Turkey. The 12+ fleet is mostly gulets and motor sailers, so a group of 22 that wants modern motor yachts is usually looking at a tandem charter: 2 full charters cruising the same route, with 2 contracts and 2 crews, anchoring together and sharing dinners ashore or across decks.

There is also the chase-boat variant, where a smaller second boat sleeps the overflow guests to keep the paperwork legal. Our brokers use it regularly in Greece, where it is often the only single-route option. In Turkey we rarely need it, because a correctly licensed gulet solves the problem more comfortably.

And then there is 13, the number we see most. Almost nothing is built for exactly 13 guests, so the workable versions are: book a yacht licensed for 14 or more, grow the trip into 2 yachts with room to spare, or trim the list to 12 and widen the yacht choice dramatically. We price the versions side by side so the group can decide with real numbers. Whether your group fits better on 1 hull or 2 comes down to cabins and atmosphere, and that decision is exactly what our large-group planning guidance walks through.

What It Costs and How to Book It

Space per euro is Turkey’s whole argument. A licensed 20-guest gulet like NEVRA QUEEN starts around €35,000 per week in charter fee, which is the same order of money that buys a 12-guest yacht in much of the Mediterranean. Newer high-spec builds like DE LOVE and KING OF THE SEA sit at €70,000 and up. Full ranges by yacht type are in our Turkey charter cost guide.

On top of the charter fee, budget for 20% VAT, and note that Turkish gulets often quote meals as a fixed board package rather than the APA system used elsewhere. We spell out which structure your yacht uses, and what it covers, before anything is signed.

Booking realities for large groups, from our side of the table: the genuinely good 14+ licensed fleet is small, so choice thins out early for July and August. We start from the license and the cabin plan, not the photos, and we hold options while the group confirms numbers. 1 yacht means 1 contract; a tandem means 2, which we coordinate so the boats are actually committed to the same route. If you are deciding between a gulet and a motor yacht for the group, our gulet vs motor yacht guide settles that choice first.

Planning a Charter for More Than 12 Guests?

Send us the guest count and the cabin mix: how many couples, singles, and children. We will come back with the Turkish yachts actually licensed for your group, with the 1-yacht and 2-yacht versions priced side by side, so you can compare real options instead of brochure numbers.

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