Leaving your boat in Türkiye for the winter: 5 checks

A foreign flagged boat can winter at a marina or boatyard certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Before you leave the boat and the country, check these five points.

1. Is the facility certified?

The right to stay up to five years without a further permit applies at sea tourism facilities holding a tourism operation certificate or partial tourism operation certificate from the Ministry. For private yachts the Ministry can extend this by five more years.

2. The transit log stays valid over the winter

For foreign flagged boats wintering at a sea tourism facility, the transit log stays valid throughout the winter. Before you set off again in the new season, we check its status with you.

3. When you leave the country

If the owner, operator or captain is leaving Türkiye, the facility takes the boat under its responsibility and reports this to its customs office and the harbour master, to be entered on the transit log.

4. Keep the berthing contract alive

If, two years after the berthing contract has ended, the boat’s side has neither contacted the facility nor renewed the contract, the liquidation provisions of the Customs Law are applied to the boat.

5. Who may use the boat in winter?

The owner and people the owner has authorised in writing may use it for cruising, sport and leisure, with no commercial purpose, and guests may come aboard if no payment is taken. On the days you are under way, the Blue Card waste rules apply.

Sources: Sea Tourism Regulation (Deniz Turizmi Yönetmeliği), articles 42, 46 and 47; Official Gazette 24.07.2009, No 27298, as amended on 19.10.2022; Blue Card: Circular 2026/12 of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change. For information only. The binding text is the one published in the Official Gazette. Last checked: 26 October 2026.