New Year at Sea

Zadar has a great glass disc set into the quay that gathers the light all day and gives it back after dark. Everybody walks to it. Almost nobody arrives by sea.

Four days either side of the year: one night at anchor in the archipelago, a flotilla formation along the waterfront at sunset on the thirty-first, and a sabrage toast in front of the Sea Organ as the light goes. Then two nights ashore in a five-star waterfront hotel — because nobody wants to climb into a cold berth at two in the morning on New Year’s Day.

The boats are the experience. The hotel is where you sleep. The marina and the lobby are the same walk.

New Year at Sea is priced in euros. Our other experiences are priced in US dollars.

Aboard — What We Sell

Catamaran Cabin

€3,400 per cabin, €1,700 per person · three nights aboard — one at anchor in the archipelago, two alongside in the marina on shore power, warm all night. Full board, the whole ceremony at sea, your place in the regatta, and New Year’s Day: recovery brunch, the awards and a full spa afternoon.

Motor Yacht Cabin

€4,600 per cabin, €2,300 per person · the same aboard a motor yacht, with a private chef, flybridge access and premium spa treatments on the first.

The Private Motor Yacht

€18,500 · the whole vessel for your family or your firm, with her own crew and chef, your own position in the formation, and the fleet’s photographer at your disposal. Limited to one.

Sunset Pass — 31 December

€190 per person aboard a monohull, €290 on a catamaran with a hot dish and premium wine, or €490 on a motor yacht with a seafood and caviar selection, open champagne bar and flybridge access. Boarding at 14:00, ashore by 18:00.

Bring Your Own Boat

Free entry to the Greeting to the Sun Fun Regatta for private owners, on registration with the organising association and attendance at the skipper’s briefing. Catering aboard from €40 per person.

New Year’s Day, Included

The first of January is the point of the whole thing, and it is included with every cabin: the recovery brunch at ten, the regatta awards, and the afternoon in the spa — thermal saunas, heated pools and treatments — while the rest of the coast is looking for its coat.

What Each Ticket Includes

Three ways to be there. The ceremony at sea is in all of them.

Where You Sleep

Your cabin is your room for all three nights. One at anchor in the archipelago on the thirtieth, then two alongside in the marina — on shore power, heated through the night, and ten metres from the pontoon where the bells are rung at midnight. No taxi, no queue, no walk in the cold.

A room ashore, if you would rather

We hold a block at a five-star waterfront hotel two minutes from the berth, at a negotiated Y/V rate. Ask us for the code; you book and settle with the hotel directly. Take it for one night or for all three — your cabin stays yours either way.

New Year’s Eve ashore

The hotel lounge is open to the public and drinks are on your own account. We hold a Y/V table for the fleet.

Transfers

Complimentary from Zagreb or Split airports for guests with a cabin aboard. Winter flights into Zadar are limited — fly to either, and we will drive you, by way of the lakes or the falls.

Plitvice & Šibenik, On The Way

Plitvice, On The Zagreb Road

Complimentary · the lakes sit directly on the route, so the transfer stops there for a long lunch. Choose at booking: a lunch stop, or an early start with time to walk the lakes first. Lunch and park entry are on your own account.

Šibenik, On The Split Road

Complimentary · the transfer stops in Šibenik for lunch — a stone city on a deep channel, with a UNESCO cathedral and two fortresses above it, and one of the few old towns on this coast that stays properly alive in winter. Lunch is on your own account.

On The Way Home

Complimentary · the same stop on 2 January, with an onward drop at Zagreb or Split airport. Tell us which flight you are on and we will time it.

Who Runs What

The Greeting to the Sun Fun Regatta is organised by the sailing association, which handles entry, the sailing instructions, the skipper’s briefing and the awards. Entry is free. It is a non-competitive rally rather than a race: a pursuit start so the fleet arrives together, no federation racing rules, no protests, engines available throughout, and awards given for flags, formation, turnout and photography as much as for the first boat home.

The vessels are operated and crewed by licensed Croatian charter operators, who carry their guests under their own licences and insurance. Yacht Vanguard charters the boats, arranges and hosts: the fleet, the catering, the ceremony, the photography and everything in between. Your room is your own contract with the hotel.

We would rather say that plainly than imply we are something we are not.

What It Replaces

A crewed yacht for two days over New Year, with a chef, catering, a formation berth in front of the Sea Organ, professional photography and a night at anchor — booked separately, comfortably past €2,000 a head, and you would still be organising all of it yourself in the last week of December.

Booking Without Risk

€500 deposit

Balance falls due on 1 December, not before.

Free cancellation to 15 November

Deposit returned in full, no reason required.

Weather guarantee

If conditions stop us sailing, the programme runs alongside in full. If we cannot deliver it at all, you are refunded.

Fully transferable

If you cannot come, send someone. Tell us the name by 20 December.

Cabin capacity across the fleet is fixed and places are taken in order. Early booking closes on 1 November and carries a ten per cent privilege on every package. Booking closes on 15 December, or when the fleet is full.

The First Fleet

This is the first one. Everyone aboard the inaugural year is recorded as First Fleet, and that carries:

• Your name engraved on the perpetual bell, kept and returned each December
• This year’s price held for the next three New Years
• First refusal on every New Year hereafter, before dates are published
• Founding standing in the Y/V Club and early access to the season calendar
• A €300 credit against any Y/V week in 2027

The Ceremony — 31 December

14:00 · Colours

Every boat receives a Y/V burgee and a bow number at boarding. Flags are hoisted bow to masthead to stern — the fleet is dressed overall for the parade.

15:00 · The Pursuit Start

The Greeting to the Sun Fun Regatta begins. The slowest boat starts first and the fastest last, so the fleet converges rather than strings out. Everyone reaches the waterfront together, in formation, in the last good light.

16:30 · The Silence

Engines off and every sound system cut. For one minute in front of the Sea Organ, the only music is the one the sea plays itself. The saxophone answers it from the lead boat.

16:35 · Splice The Mainbrace

The old naval order for an extra ration on a day worth marking — the one occasion a ship’s company drinks together on command. Given aloud, then the sabrage, then cold-spark fountains on the lead boat and the whole fleet’s lights brought up on one signal.

18:00 · Alongside

The fleet comes in to klapa singing on the quay, unamplified, and braziers burning on the pontoon. Fire ashore, never aboard.

Evening · The Letter

During the gala each guest writes a card to the person they will be next December. We seal them and post them in June, when everyone has forgotten they wrote one.

Midnight · Sixteen Bells

The fleet is alongside and the whole party steps out onto the pontoon. The oldest sailor present rings eight bells for the year ending; the youngest rings eight for the year beginning. One horn afterwards, on a signal, together.

The Morning After — 1 January

08:00 · Dressed Overall

Tradition puts the flags up again at eight on New Year’s morning. Anyone awake sees the entire fleet dressed in the first cold light of the year. It is the best photograph of the four days.

08:15 · First Light

The swim, straight from the boats, straight into the sauna afterwards. Entirely optional and better attended than anyone expects.

08:30 · Remembrance

For anyone who buried someone this year, a small, quiet gathering at the stern and flowers cast on the water. Offered rather than scheduled, and never part of the party.

10:00 · The Log, In Verse

By tradition the first log entry of the year is written in rhyme — the only levity permitted in an otherwise strictly factual document. Each boat writes its own overnight and reads it aloud over the recovery brunch.

11:30 · The Awards

Line Honours for the first boat home. Dressed Overall for the best-flagged vessel. The Turned-Out Crew. The Line, for the boat that held formation best. The Frame, for the best photograph, judged publicly. And the Spirit Prize, for the crew who committed hardest. Judged by an independent panel, never by us.

13:00 · The Bell

A ship’s bell, engraved, kept aboard the winner’s boat for the year and returned each December. The fleet rings out the year with bells, so the year is won with one.

If The Weather Turns

Winter on this coast can produce a bura with very little notice, and we will not sail a formation in one. If the forecast goes against us the fleet stays alongside: heated salons, the same catering, candlelight on the pontoon, and an early move into private rooms at the hotel with spa access, a cocktail masterclass and a tasting. Nothing is cancelled. The evening simply happens somewhere warmer.

Dress

At sea, quiet nautical winter — tailored coats, layers, and soles that will not mark a deck. Ashore on the thirty-first, black tie or festive elegant.

Buy A Sunset Pass

The afternoon of 31 December only — the formation, the toast at the Sea Organ, and the evening ashore. Bought outright, no deposit.

Monohull · €190 Catamaran · €290 Motor Yacht · €490

Reserve A Place

A deposit of €500 per person confirms the cabin. Balance on 1 December, free cancellation to 15 November, transferable to 20 December. Enquire first if you would like to talk it through — or reserve directly.

Pay The Deposit