Yacht charter France regulations: legal guide for owners

In short: you can charter out a yacht in France, but several sets of rules apply at once. A leased boat needs the lessor's written consent. A boat used commercially needs a "permis d'armement" and a qualified, properly engaged crew. Selling all-inclusive cruises can bring you under package travel law, and your insurance must cover the activity you actually run. Tax is a separate question, covered in our yacht VAT guide.

Updated: November 2026. Key provisions: Articles L. 5232-1, L. 5411-1, L. 5511-1, L. 5542-1 and L. 5551-1 of the French Transport Code (Code des transports); Articles L. 211-1, L. 211-2, L. 211-16, L. 211-18 and L. 211-23 of the French Tourism Code (Code du tourisme); Articles L. 113-2, L. 113-8 and L. 113-9 of the French Insurance Code (Code des assurances); Articles L. 8221-5 and L. 8221-6 of the French Labour Code (Code du travail).

Chartering looks like the natural way to cover the cost of a sailing yacht or catamaran. In practice, the questions to settle before the first booking are linked: how the boat is financed, who operates it, who skippers it, what exactly is sold to the customer and what the insurer has been told. A weak point in one of them is usually discovered at the worst moment: a customs or maritime inspection, an injury on board, a tax reassessment or a letter from the lessor terminating the financing.

This guide sets out those questions and the risks attached to each. It does not offer a ready-made structure: each project depends on the financing, the cruising programme, the operator and the boat itself. For an analysis of your own project, you can speak to a yacht lawyer in France.

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Leased yachts (LOA, crédit-bail): the lessor's written consent comes first

Under a lease, you are not the owner

Many pleasure boats are financed through a lease with an option to buy (location avec option d'achat, LOA) or a finance lease (crédit-bail). Throughout the contract, the boat belongs to the lessor, usually a bank's financing subsidiary. You hold a right of use defined by the contract. Chartering the boat to third parties is therefore, in substance, a sub-hire, and you cannot grant more rights than you have.

Get a signed amendment before the first booking

Read the financing contract clause by clause. Leasing contracts commonly restrict use to private pleasure, prohibit sub-letting without prior consent and impose insurance and cruising-area obligations. Commercial use then requires a written amendment signed by the lessor. Expect conditions: an adjusted rent, a commercial insurance policy, the identity of the operator, sometimes additional guarantees. A verbal "no problem" from a sales adviser protects you from nothing.

Termination and acceleration: the main financial risk

Unauthorised commercial use is a breach of contract. Depending on the contract, the lessor can terminate it, demand all the remaining rents at once together with a termination indemnity, and require the boat to be returned. On a recent catamaran or motor yacht, that can mean paying a large sum immediately while losing the use of the boat. Have the financing contract reviewed, and the consent negotiated, before you list the boat for charter.

Do you need an operating company?

Three reasons to consider one

Running a charter business in your own name is possible but rarely advisable. Three considerations usually lead to a dedicated operating company. First, liability: charter exposes the operator to personal injury and damage claims, and an individual operator puts their own assets at stake. Second, VAT: renting out a boat is an economic activity, which means VAT registration, periodic returns and records that justify the VAT charged and deducted. Third, clear accounts: the tax authority looks closely at any mix between private use and commercial activity.

Questions to settle before you incorporate

Deciding to use a company does not yet tell you how to structure it. Which legal form, given its consequences for the manager's social security, the taxation of profits and governance? Who holds the boat: the company, the private owner who makes it available, or the lessor under the LOA? Is a written agreement needed between the owner and the operating company, and on what terms, so that the tax authority does not treat it as an abnormal, non-arm's-length arrangement?

Who is the shipowner? Under French law, the "armateur" is the person who operates the ship in its own name, whether or not it owns it (Article L. 5411-1 of the Transport Code). For the rules on seafarers, the term also covers the person for whose account the ship is armed, and the owner or any operator to whom the owner has entrusted the operation of the ship (Article L. 5511-1, 1°). Obligations towards the crew attach to that person.

A framework, not a template

The right structure for a professional fleet operator has little in common with that of a private owner who wants to offset part of the cost through a few weeks of charter. The deciding factors are the expected volume of charter, the share of private use, the financing, where the boat operates and whether there is an employed crew. These choices mix company law, tax and maritime law, and they should be made together.

Tax on charter income

Charter raises its own tax questions: where VAT is due on a charter, how the share of use outside EU waters is treated, when VAT on the purchase can be recovered, whether the boat still pays the annual TAEMP, and whether a company can deduct the costs of a yacht. These rules are explained in our guide to yacht VAT and the TAEMP in France. In short, a charter of up to 90 days that starts in France bears French VAT, and VAT recovery on the purchase is available only for a genuine economic activity.

The skipper: a seafarer under French law

A professional skipper is a seafarer

Anyone working on board a ship in a professional capacity, employed or self-employed, is a seafarer (gens de mer) under Article L. 5511-1, 4° of the Transport Code. A skipper, whose work is directly linked to operating the ship, is also a "marin" (Article L. 5511-1, 3°). This status brings with it a full set of rules on medical fitness, training, working time on board, social protection and the employment contract. Any employment contract between a seafarer and a shipowner or other employer for service on board is a seafarer's employment agreement (contrat d'engagement maritime) (Article L. 5542-1). Depending on the set-up, the charter operator is the shipowner or the employer, with the corresponding obligations.

Certificates and social security

Carrying paying passengers requires professional maritime certificates of competency. In France, the "capitaine 200" family of certificates (including "capitaine 200 voile" and "capitaine 200 yacht", governed by orders of 20 August 2015) is the usual reference for smaller commercial yachts; the certificate required depends on the boat and the cruising area. A recreational boating licence is not a professional certificate.

Seafarers working on French-flagged ships in professional yachting (plaisance professionnelle) are affiliated to the seafarers' pension scheme (Article L. 5551-1 of the Transport Code). The seafarers' social security scheme is managed by ENIM (Etablissement national des invalides de la marine). An operator who uses a skipper without the right certificates or without social security affiliation is exposed to penalties and weakens its insurance cover.

Employed or self-employed skipper

Many operators prefer self-employed skippers who invoice per day. This is lawful in itself, but fragile. Under French labour law, a self-employed person registered as such is presumed not to be an employee, but that presumption falls where they work in a situation of permanent legal subordination to the client (Article L. 8221-6 of the Labour Code). Typical signs are instructions from the operator, a schedule set by the operator, work on the operator's boat and no other clients. Reclassification can lead to back payment of social contributions, the retroactive application of maritime labour law and, where the failure to declare is intentional, the offence of undeclared employment (travail dissimulé par dissimulation d'emploi salarié, Article L. 8221-5).

• Employed skipper: seafarer's employment agreement with the shipowner; affiliation by the employer; certificates checked by the shipowner; main constraint: the cost and formalities of maritime employment law.
• Self-employed skipper: service contract; contributions paid by the skipper; same certificates required, to be checked by the operator; real independence and other clients expected; main risk: reclassification as an employee.

The owner on board during a charter

Bareboat or crewed charter

In a bareboat charter, the charterer takes command of the boat and becomes responsible for it during the hire. In a crewed charter, the operator keeps control through the skipper it provides, and the line with passenger transport becomes thin. When the owner stays on board, the categories blur: is the owner a guest, a de facto skipper, or a service provider?

Reclassification as passenger transport

The authorities look at what actually happens, not at the label on the contract. An owner who helms the boat, plans the itinerary and looks after paying guests is providing a crewed charter or carrying passengers commercially, whatever the contract says. The professional requirements then apply in full: a qualified skipper, professional armament of the boat and the corresponding safety rules. Missing certificates expose the operator to penalties.

Insurance consequences

A policy written for bareboat charter does not necessarily cover a crewed charter, still less a mixed use where the owner stays on board with paying guests. If an injury occurs during an undeclared "accompanied" charter, a refusal of cover is a realistic outcome, leaving the operator alone in front of the claim. Define the exact formats you will sell before you take out the policy.

When a charter becomes a package holiday

The legal test

French tourism law defines four types of travel service: carriage of passengers; accommodation that is not an integral part of passenger transport; car rental; and other tourist services (Article L. 211-2, I of the Tourism Code). A package (forfait touristique) is a combination of at least two different types of travel service for the same trip, lasting more than 24 hours or including a night, where for example the services are combined by one professional or sold at an inclusive price (Article L. 211-2, II).

A skippered charter in which the guests sleep on board is not automatically a package, since accommodation that forms part of the transport is not a separate service. The analysis changes when the offer adds other services sold together, such as hotel nights ashore, flights, transfers, guided excursions or activities. The same article sets out when minor additional tourist services do not create a package.

Registration, financial guarantee and liability

A business that sells packages must be registered in the register of travel and holiday operators (Article L. 211-18, I), kept by a commission of Atout France, the French tourism development agency (Articles L. 141-2 and L. 141-3). To register, it must hold a financial guarantee covering the refund of sums received and, where transport is included, repatriation, and professional liability insurance (Article L. 211-18, II). The seller of a package is strictly liable for the performance of all the services in it, including those provided by others; it can escape liability only by proving that the damage is due to the traveller, to an unconnected third party, or to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances (Article L. 211-16). Selling packages without meeting these conditions is punishable by up to one year's imprisonment and a €15,000 fine (Article L. 211-23).

Drawing the line

Between bareboat charter, skippered charter and organised holiday, the line depends on what is actually offered, how it is presented and how it is priced. The same fleet can fall under different regimes depending on the formats sold, and a booking page that bundles services at one price can be enough to tip an offer into package travel. Review offers and booking pages before they go online.

Flag, commercial use and cruising areas

French flag: commercial armament

Under the French flag, a boat used professionally must hold a "permis d'armement", the document that constitutes its administrative armament and certifies that the crew and its conditions of employment comply with the law (Article L. 5232-1 of the Transport Code). A boat used privately carries a "carte de circulation" instead (Article L. 5234-1). French safety rules use the category of "navire de plaisance à utilisation commerciale" (NUC), a pleasure vessel used commercially, for example for construction declarations (Article D. 5113-1) and the number of passengers it may carry (order of 2 July 2014). Moving a private yacht into commercial use is therefore not a formality: it may require surveys, additional safety equipment or limits on operation.

The limits of a foreign flag

Registering the boat under a foreign flag to escape these constraints has serious limits. Regular commercial operation from French ports raises questions about the rules applicable to the seafarers on board and about the customs status of the boat. For instance, a non-EU yacht under temporary admission can be used commercially only for the time needed for the transport operations, and only by persons established outside the EU (Articles 212 and 217 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446). The choice of flag deserves its own analysis.

Design category and cruising areas

The cruising programme you sell must match the boat's design category and the navigation area for which it is equipped. A catamaran equipped for coastal cruising cannot be sold for offshore passages. Promising an itinerary the boat is not allowed to sail exposes the operator to penalties and to liability if there is an accident.

Insurance: from a private policy to a commercial one

A private yacht policy covers private use: leisure cruising, occasional unpaid loans to friends, wintering. Charter changes the nature of the risk: changing crews of uneven skill, more intensive use, paying passengers, sometimes a professional skipper. This calls for a commercial policy, with different cover, excesses and premiums.

French insurance law requires the insured to answer the insurer's questions accurately when the policy is taken out, and to declare, within 15 days, any new circumstance that increases the risk (Article L. 113-2 of the Insurance Code). An intentional misrepresentation makes the policy void (Article L. 113-8). A non-intentional one discovered after a claim reduces the indemnity in proportion to the premium that should have been paid (Article L. 113-9). In practice, a claim during an undeclared charter can leave the operator without cover, including for injury to passengers. Align the policy with the activity at the same time as the lessor's consent.

Buying a boat for charter

A charter project is often decided at the purchase: who buys (an individual or a company), the VAT and customs status of the boat, the seller's warranties on its condition and history, and whether its equipment allows commercial use. A boat whose VAT status is uncertain, or whose equipment rules out commercial armament, compromises the project before it starts. Brokers, charter platforms and management companies are involved at every stage, but their duty of advice does not shift the risk: the operator bears the tax reassessment or the administrative penalty. Think about the exit, a resale during or after the charter years, from the start.

Inspections and sanctions

Several authorities check charter activity: the maritime administration (affaires maritimes) for crew certificates, safety equipment and the status of the boat; customs for the boat's customs and tax status and its actual use; the tax authority for the reality of the business and the VAT charged and deducted; and the social security bodies for the employment of seafarers. Online listings and positioning data can be used to compare declared and actual activity.

The consequences of a weak structure add up rather than cancel out: VAT reassessment with interest and penalties, termination of the financing with acceleration, reclassification of the skipper with back contributions, maritime and customs penalties, refusal of insurance cover, and strict liability if the offer is a package. For an operator who has invested heavily in a boat, two of these at the same time can end the project. Prevention costs less than regularisation.

FAQ: chartering a yacht in France

Can I charter out a yacht I am financing with a lease (LOA)?

Not without the lessor's written consent. The lessor owns the boat until you exercise the purchase option, and leasing contracts commonly prohibit sub-hire or make it subject to prior written consent. Chartering without consent is a breach that can lead to termination and to all remaining rents becoming due at once. Start by reviewing the contract and negotiating an amendment.

What qualification does a charter skipper need in France?

Professional maritime certificates of competency, such as the "capitaine 200" certificates for smaller commercial yachts, together with the required safety training and medical fitness. A recreational boating licence is not enough to carry paying passengers. The professional skipper is a seafarer under Article L. 5511-1 of the Transport Code and comes under the seafarers' social security scheme run by ENIM.

Do I need a company to run a yacht charter business in France?

It is not a legal requirement, but it is usually worth considering. A company separates liability, clarifies the accounts and handles VAT registration properly. The legal form, who holds the boat and the agreement between owner and operator have different tax and social consequences in each case, so they should be decided before incorporation.

Is VAT charged on a skippered yacht charter in France?

Yes, a charter of up to 90 days where the boat is handed over in France bears French VAT, with an exemption for the proven share of use outside EU territorial waters. Details are in our yacht VAT and TAEMP guide.

Can the owner stay on board during a charter?

Nothing forbids it as such, but it can change the legal nature of the operation. If the owner skippers the boat and organises the cruise for paying guests, it becomes a crewed charter or commercial passenger transport, with professional certificates and commercial armament required. The actual arrangement must also be declared to the insurer.

When is a yacht charter a package holiday under French law?

When it combines at least two different types of travel service for the same trip, for example a cruise plus hotel nights, flights or transfers, sold together or at an inclusive price (Article L. 211-2 of the Tourism Code). The seller must then be registered with Atout France, hold a financial guarantee and professional liability insurance, and is strictly liable for all services sold.

What is a NUC, and when does a yacht need commercial status?

A NUC (navire de plaisance à utilisation commerciale) is a pleasure vessel used commercially, a category used by French safety rules. Any boat used professionally under the French flag needs a "permis d'armement" (Article L. 5232-1 of the Transport Code). Operating commercially with a boat that is only equipped and documented for private use exposes the operator to maritime penalties.

Does my yacht insurance cover charter?

Not if it is a private policy and the charter has not been declared. You must declare any new circumstance that increases the risk within 15 days (Article L. 113-2 of the Insurance Code). Otherwise the policy may be void or the indemnity reduced after a claim.

Setting up a charter activity is never just a matter of posting a listing. Financing, structure, VAT, skipper, the nature of the offer, flag and insurance each have their own traps, and it is the way they fit together that separates a durable project from one that fails at the first inspection. The most useful time to take advice is before signing the financing, before incorporating and before the first booking. You can discuss your project, in confidence, with a yacht lawyer in France.

Article written by Guillaume Leclerc, lawyer at the Paris Bar, 34 avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris. Working languages: French and English.