No-Licence Boat Hire in Dubrovnik (Pasara Guide)

Croatian boating law has one clause every Dubrovnik visitor should know. You don’t need a boating licence to operate a boat under 5 metres long with an engine of 5 kilowatts (about 5 horsepower) or less. Anyone over 18, sober, can rent one and drive away from the marina.

For Rent Boat Dubrovnik that means our Pasara 5 HP — a tidy little open motorboat that seats four — is legally rentable to your average travelling couple. €150 for four hours, fuel and life jackets included. No certificates, no video tests.

What you can and can’t do

Within Croatian no-licence rules:

• ✅ You can drive in fair weather (under 15 knots wind, sea state below 1)
• ✅ You can swim, picnic, anchor in shallow coves
• ✅ You can take it to Lokrum (10 minutes), inside the bay
• ❌ You can’t go further than 1 nautical mile from the coast
• ❌ You can’t go to the Elaphiti islands (out of range)
• ❌ You can’t drive at night

The 30-minute briefing

We don’t just hand you the keys. Every Rent Boat Dubrovnik no-licence rental starts with a 30-minute on-water briefing covering:

1. How the throttle and shift work
2. Croatian sea markers and no-wake zones
3. Old Town wall coastline (you stay 200 m off)
4. How to drop and recover the anchor
5. How to call us by VHF radio if anything goes wrong
6. Where the swim coves are

By the time we step off the boat, you’ve already manoeuvred in and out of the slip three times.

What if something does go wrong?

Every boat has a VHF radio set to channel 16. We monitor channel 16 from Marina Frapa from 8am to 7pm during peak season. Our office is also on every guest’s phone — the Pasara has a waterproof phone holder mounted on the dashboard.

In four years of no-licence rentals from Rent Boat Dubrovnik, the worst incident we’ve had is a guest forgetting to drop the propeller into the water before leaving the slip (a 30-second fix once she remembered).

Want one?

The Pasara 5 HP is €150 for four hours. Booking is via WhatsApp — we usually have availability the same day or next.