Skipper-only
Tell us where you're sailing, when you're going and what boat you're taking. Browse verified skippers, or post your trip and receive offers.
Two ways to find a skipper
Both routes end in the same place — a confirmed skipper and an organised trip. Pick whichever suits how fixed your plans already are.
01 — Search yourself
Search by sailing area, dates, languages and yacht experience. Read profiles, reviews and hosted trips before you contact anyone.
02 — Let skippers come to you
Tell us your route, yacht and dates. Suitable skippers in that area can review the request and send you an offer with a clear fee.
Quick search
Four fields is usually enough to see who sails your area on your dates. You can refine everything afterwards.
Before you start
Five short steps. Everything a skipper needs to judge whether the trip is right for them — and to send you an offer that means something.
01
Sailing area, departure marina and where you plan to finish.
02
Start and end dates, plus how flexible they really are.
03
Type, length and model if you already know it.
04
Number of guests, sailing experience on board and languages.
05
Route ideas, what you want from the week, special requirements.
Takes about three minutes. Nothing is charged for posting a request.
Skipper request
Skippers who sail your area and are free on your dates can review the request and reply with a fee and a message.
Your contact details are never shown publicly. Skippers see the trip, not your identity, until you choose to reply.
What happens next
No auction, no bidding war and no pressure. Skippers who can genuinely do the trip reply, and you take your time.
01
Provide the practical details — area, dates, yacht and crew. Posting is free and nothing is committed.
02
Available skippers for your area and dates can respond with a fee, what it covers and a short message.
03
Review experience, sailing areas, reviews and the offer itself. Ask questions before you decide anything.
04
Choose a skipper and the trip moves into Malaka — documents, payments, messages and route in one place.
What an offer looks like
A skipper offer is a proper commercial document — not a message asking you to call. Here is a sample.
Trip
Split → Hvar → Vis → Split
6–13 June · 7 days · Bavaria Cruiser 46 · 8 guests
Skipper fee
€1,450Trip expenses billed separately and listed below
Includes
Available for these dates. I know this route well and would suggest keeping Vis flexible depending on the forecast.
Malaka asks skippers to state the commercial terms up front. If something is missing from an offer, ask before accepting it.
Verification
A name and a photograph tell you nothing. A Malaka skipper profile is built so you can judge whether this person suits your boat, your crew and your water.
Identity is verified and the professional sailing licence is reviewed before a skipper can receive requests.
Years active, sea miles, yacht types handled and the areas they sail season after season.
Which languages they run a boat in, and which sailing areas they genuinely know rather than have visited.
Reviews from trips actually sailed through Malaka, plus any experiences the skipper hosts themselves.
Featured skippers
Marko Kovačević
Croatia · Central Dalmatia
Croatian · English · German
Monohull · Catamaran
Elena Papadopoulou
Greece · Ionian
Greek · English · Italian
Monohull · Catamaran
Luca Moretti
Italy · Sicily
Italian · English
Monohull
Clara Ferrer
Spain · Balearics
Spanish · Catalan · English
Monohull · Catamaran
Sailing areas
Where the skippers are
Select a cruising ground to see who is currently taking skipper-only requests there.
Central Dalmatia · Kornati · Kvarner
Counts are prototype values. In the live product this panel reflects real availability for your dates.
Yacht experience
Geography is only half of it. A skipper who is excellent on a 45ft monohull is not automatically the right person for a 50ft catamaran in a crowded August bay.
Traditional sailing yacht handling — heeling, reefing, Med mooring stern-to under the bora or the meltemi.
Different handling under engine and sail, wider berths, twin helms and a very different docking technique.
Over roughly 55ft, additional qualifications, insurance conditions or a second crew member may apply.
Still deciding, or waiting on a charter confirmation? Post the request anyway and add the boat details later.
Crew fit
The best skipper for a family with two small children is rarely the best skipper for four friends who want to race the afternoon breeze. This is why the request asks about people, not just boats.
Patient briefing, gentler passages, more time in sheltered water and someone who explains rather than instructs.
You want to sail the boat yourselves. The skipper is there for judgement, local knowledge and responsibility.
Swim stops, short hops, early anchorages and a skipper comfortable with children moving around the deck.
Safety briefings have to land with everyone on board — language is a practical requirement, not a preference.
Towns, restaurants and late evenings ashore. Some skippers love this rhythm; others plan around dawn starts.
Longer legs, more miles, night passages and trimming that actually matters. Say so and you will be matched properly.
Sample request
Practical, specific and anonymous. Your name and contact details stay private until you decide to reply to an offer.
Split → Hvar → Vis → Split
“Boat is already booked through a charter base in Split. We'd like a relaxed week with good swimming stops and one longer sail. Two of us have done a few weeks before, the rest are new.”
Pricing
Skipper pricing varies by destination, yacht, dates, trip complexity and duration. The ranges below are indicative prototype values — the real number always comes from the offer.
€1,300–€2,000 / week
€250–€400 / day
Transparency
Most disputes in this market come from one place: an unclear line between what the skipper charges and what the trip costs. Here is the usual split.
Payment
Posting a trip is free. No card, no deposit, no obligation.
You choose a skipper and a booking is created with the agreed terms.
A deposit is paid through the platform to confirm the booking.
The remaining balance follows the schedule set out in the offer.
Operational details move into the Trip Workspace for both sides.
After booking
Malaka is not a lead marketplace that disappears once contact is made. The confirmed booking opens a shared Trip Workspace for you and your skipper.
Bavaria Cruiser 46 · 8 guests · Skipper Marko
Calendar
Documents
Payments
Messages
Booked elsewhere
Even if the boat was chartered somewhere else — or it's your own — the trip can still be managed inside the platform once the skipper booking is confirmed.
Messaging
You can message a skipper before accepting anything. Most good bookings start with three or four honest questions.
Reviews
We already had the boat. Malaka made it much easier to compare who actually knew the area.
We found someone who had real catamaran experience and spoke both English and Italian.
The offer was clear about fee, travel costs and what was included. No renegotiation at the dock.
First time
You don't need a finished itinerary. You need eight practical facts — with those, a skipper can tell you honestly whether the trip works and what it costs.
Questions
Yes. That is exactly what this part of Malaka is for. You keep your yacht arrangement as it is and book only the professional skipper who will run it.
No. The yacht can be your own, chartered from any base, or booked through another platform. Once the skipper booking is confirmed the trip is still managed inside Malaka.
You post the trip; verified skippers who sail that area and are free on your dates can respond. Each offer states the fee, what it includes, expenses, availability and how long the offer stands. You are never obliged to accept one.
Yes. You can hold conversations with as many skippers as you like and compare offers side by side. Only accepting an offer creates a booking.
Identity is verified and the professional sailing licence is reviewed, along with VHF or SRC certification where relevant. Profiles show what has been checked; the underlying documents are never published.
Sailing area, dates, departure marina, yacht type and size, number of guests and their sailing experience, and a sentence or two about what you want from the week. Anything you don't know yet can be added later.
That is normal and completely fine. Give the departure marina and a rough idea of what you'd like to see. Route planning is part of what a good skipper brings — and local knowledge usually beats a route planned from home.
Usually the customer, and it should be stated in the offer rather than raised later. Skippers based near your departure marina often have little or no travel cost, which is one reason local matching matters.
Normally not. Skipper meals are typically covered by the crew, either from the boat's provisioning or as a daily allowance. The offer should say which arrangement applies.
Usually yes, most often in the forepeak or the saloon. If every cabin is taken by your group, agree the sleeping arrangement before accepting the offer — and remember it reduces your usable berths by one.
A booking is created on the agreed terms, a deposit is paid through the platform, and the trip opens as a shared Trip Workspace with your skipper — documents, payments, messages, calendar and meeting details in one place.
Yes, under the cancellation terms stated in the offer you accepted. Those terms are shown before you confirm, so read them alongside the fee rather than after.
Yes — that is the most common case here. Add the charter details to the request so the skipper knows the base, the model and the check-in time.
Yes. Set the yacht type to catamaran in your request and offers will come from skippers with catamaran experience specifically — handling, docking and systems differ enough that it is treated as a separate qualification on Malaka.
Ready when you are
Add your dates, yacht and crew details, then find a skipper who fits the trip.
For professionals
Join Malaka to receive skipper-only requests and publish hosted sailing experiences of your own.
Croatia · Central Dalmatia