In short
A handover is evidence gathering: what you miss before sailing is yours on the way back.
The checklist follows the order the base walks the boat: documents, hull and deck, engine, rigging and sails, electrics and water, galley and heads, safety.
Twelve items are blockers: until they are settled nobody leaves the marina.
A photograph with a date, a time and a position ends an argument faster than words.
The inventory works against you — anything not struck off counts as handed over.
The hand-back is the same walk in reverse: same items, same angles, before and after.
Why deposits go on small things
A deposit is the security a charter company holds for the trip and releases after inspecting the boat. Serious accidents are rare; deposits go on small things — a gelcoat chip at the stern quarter, a lost winch handle, torn canvas, a blocked heads, a half-empty tank. Any of them would have been trivial found at handover. Found on return, it is yours.
Hence the logic: you describe the boat as she is, in front of the base's representative, and get a signature under that description.
The second purpose is safety. Finding a closed seacock three miles out means an overheated engine, a cooked impeller and a tow. Alongside, that check takes two minutes.
The seven sections of a handover checklist
Documents — six items
Crew list with every passport. The paper without which port authorities will not clear you out, in Turkey, Greece or Croatia alike. Names are checked letter by letter, children included, and a misspelling is reprinted now.
Insurance and deposit. The policy stays aboard, and the deposit and excess must match the contract: a mismatch surfaces on return, too late to argue.
Transit log or charter contract. In Turkey the transit log, in Greece and Croatia the contract with the boat's charter licence. The original lives in the folder and is asked for in port.
Skipper's licence. Yours, valid, aboard; the base keeps a copy, so ask them to take it now.
VHF: station licence and radio check. In Croatia the inspection asks for the station licence. Do the radio check on the marina's working channel, not on 16: that tests the aerial too.
Inventory list. Count it with the base and strike off whatever is missing, under their signature.
Hull and deck — nine items
Gelcoat is the biggest source of deductions, so walk her twice: from the pontoon and from the water. Every scratch and chip larger than a coin goes into a photo and into the record. Then fenders (count them, inflated, lanyards sound), cleats and warps (at least four, no chafe), guardrails and stanchions (rock each one, bottlescrews pinned), hatches and portlights (both catches, water marks on bunks into a photo), sprayhood and bimini (zips, stitching, clear windows). Platform and ladder must carry an adult.
The tender and outboard are your transport at anchor: the engine must start while you watch. Veer ten metres of chain to see the windlass run free and the marks show, and write down the total length — you cannot plan an anchorage without it.
Engine — eight items
Oil on the dipstick between the marks, alternator belt with no more than ten millimetres of deflection, coolant between the marks in the header tank — cold engine only, cap left alone. Photograph the fuel gauge and the hour meter: the base reads consumption from them on return. Ask where the spare impeller is kept.
Three items here are blockers. The raw water seacock must be open, lever in line with the pipe; find it alongside, not at sea. Oil below the lower mark means you do not leave until you know where it is going. The exhaust must spit water within seconds of starting: no water, shut down at once, or the impeller burns out in minutes and the exhaust hose follows.
Rigging and sails — seven items
The mainsail goes up alongside so you can see stitching, battens and slides. The headsail is unrolled and rolled away in full: a furler that snatches at the pontoon will jam solid in a squall. Then halyards and clutches (a clutch must hold under load), sheets with no chafe and stopper knots, winches that click both ways and at least two handles — list those separately, they go missing most often. Reefing lines should be rove and untwisted before you sail.
The critical item is the standing rigging. Run a hand up the lower ends of shrouds and stays: a broken strand, a crack or a missing split pin means you call the base instead of sailing. A strand never breaks alone, and the rig comes down on the first hard beat.
Electrics and water — six items
Test the batteries off shore power: domestic and start, at least 12.4 V on the panel; under 12 V in the morning means the bank is finished. Check the shore lead with the adapter for that marina's socket. Switch on the chartplotter, echo sounder and log — without a sounder you cannot anchor. Walk the navigation and anchor lights in daylight. Tanks full, the pump builds pressure and stops; a pump that never stops is a leak. Try the bilge pump both ways, electric on auto and manual in the cockpit.
Galley and heads — five items
One critical item: gas. Find the cylinder valve and the solenoid, open the locker and smell it. A smell of gas means light nothing, close the valve, ventilate, and do not sail until the base has checked it. Gas is heavier than air and collects in the bilge, where nothing blows it out. Then the cooker on its gimbals, the fridge (switch it on first: not cold in an hour is the base's fault), crockery against the inventory, and the heads with both seacocks. A blocked heads is a common deposit loss, and one rule cures it: paper in the bin.
Safety — seven items
Lifejackets for the whole crew in the right sizes, children included, with whistle and light. Safety lines, one per watchkeeper, with hard points in the cockpit. The horseshoe and danbuoy come off the rail one-handed and the light works. At least two extinguishers, needle in the green and date in force, one by the galley, with a fire blanket. Flares by the date on the case: an expired set draws a penalty from the port inspection and will not fire when needed. Open the first aid kit and look inside. Liferaft and EPIRB go by the label date and the test button, if carried.
Photos with a date and a position
A photograph without a date proves nothing. Handover photos are taken so the time and position stay in the file: then any argument about when a chip appeared closes in a minute. The minimum set copies how bases photograph their own boats: bow from both sides, both topsides end to end, both stern quarters with the rudder, platform and ladder, deck, cockpit, open engine bay, fuel gauge and hour meter. Beyond that: saloon and heads for water stains, the sails, the tender with its outboard number, each document on its own.
Include a scale — a hand or keys beside the scratch — and keep captions short and in English: "gelcoat chip 12 cm, stbd stern".
The inventory list and the handover record
The inventory and the record are two papers and you want both. The inventory lists property: fenders, warps, winch handles, crockery, tender, oars. The record states condition: where the chip is, where the chafe is, what does not work. Build it from the same photographs, caption each with size and place, and sign two copies. An electronic report signed with a finger does the job and does not get lost. Fill in the base's form too, but keep your own.
Check-out: handing the boat back
The hand-back follows the same items and angles. Shoot the same views and keep both sets side by side: showing a "before" and an "after" is shorter than any dispute. Top the fuel back to its old level and photograph the gauge, empty the bilge, flush the heads, count fenders and handles. Volunteered damage is discussed more calmly than discovered damage.
Common questions
What should I check first at a charter handover?
Documents at the table, then the twelve critical items: crew list, insurance, transit log or contract, skipper's licence, oil, seacock, exhaust water, standing rigging, gas, lifejackets, extinguishers, flares. Until those are settled the boat goes nowhere.
How long does a yacht check-in take?
Allow about forty minutes of unhurried work for 48 items with photographs, plus the briefing. If the base is rushing you, that is the reason not to hurry.
What is deposit insurance and what does it not cover?
A separate policy covering the excess if the boat is damaged. Read the exclusions first: propeller and rudder, tender and outboard, missing inventory and gross negligence such as grounding are usually carved out. It never replaces a proper handover.
Do I need my own handover record if the base provides a form?
Your own list always, your own record preferably. Their form describes what interests the base; yours describes what you found. Their signature on it, or an email with the photographs the same day, do the same job.
What most often loses the deposit?
Roughly in order: gelcoat and hull, a blocked heads, missing inventory, torn canvas, fuel, tender damage. The first three are settled at handover in ten minutes.
What next
In the app the "Boat handover" section walks these same 48 items: a hint on what to look at, a line on what to do if it is not right, fields for numbers (fenders, chain, fuel, engine hours, flare dates) and a camera with the required angles. Handover and return are separate sessions of one charter, so the return report builds the comparison for you.
Read next: "Handover: where to start", "The checklist by sections", "Handover photos", "The damage report and signatures" and "Returning the boat: before and after". If this is your first charter, begin with "Your first charter: what to bring and what to check before you sail", and before the first night at anchor read "Working out an anchorage: how much chain to veer and what radius". The "Learning" section covers the gear itself: seacocks, impeller and exhaust, winches, chain and anchor.