Nautika Kufner Reviews 8

We booked a bareboat charter sailboat (Katharina – D&D Kufner 56, 2022) through Searadar, operated by Nautika Kufner in Biograd. The boat was advertised as “new” and well maintained. What we found upon arrival was far from that — and we never even left the marina.
• The sailboat was in horrible condition: dirty, leaking, and with oil/diesel in the engine bay.
• The aft cabin leaked rainwater, making it uninhabitable.
• The boat had clearly been used for a party the night before — trash, bottles, food leftovers everywhere.
• Two unauthorized men were found drinking onboard the next morning.
• The base manager from Nautika Kufner who received us was visibly intoxicated, holding a drink in hand, and behaved unprofessionally and aggressively. He led us through a locked service area instead of a proper check-in desk, which was closed.

Because of this, we refused to take the boat, and our entire sailing plan was destroyed. We were forced to rent apartments, move all our provisions ashore, and deal with emergency logistics for our crew.

We have documented everything with photos and video evidence, and the case is now reported to the Port Authority and Police. Legal action is being prepared.

This is not just poor service — it’s reckless, unsafe, and dishonest.
⛔ We strongly warn other sailors: Avoid Nautika Kufner. Your safety, time, and money are worth more than this.

We rented Kufner 56 in Biograd. When we came to get on board the boat was in terrible condition. There was oil and diesel under the engine and company guy was telling us it was water from the deck cleaning. Boat was dirty and visualy in very bad condition comparing to the pictures presented on the internet.
We did not accept that boat and they did not have any other to give us in exchange. Kufner yachts never gave us our money back.

I've been using Kufner yachts for many years with my sailing business (at times 4 yachts in 1 week). I've chartered over 200 yachts across the Med in last 20 years, and can say the service and yachts are awesome - they provided a size and layout in the 5 cabin yachts you won't get with other operator due to the yachts being customised for the market with exceptional sized twin cabins for larger people. Standing up fridges, and plenty of little extras that do not exist on standard Bavaria, Hanse, beneteau yachts.
YES, they ocassionally have technically issues like all yachts but they are including AC at a price point which is SAME as other yachts which do not have AC. We generally don't use it unless VERY hot and in a marina.
I need flexibility at times, and I need a team who knows how to work with me when there is a fault or minor issue and the team has always been fantastic.
I chartered over 15 yachts from them since 2016

We chose a Kufner boat for our charter from Trogir, Croatia. This was a serious mistake. We had some significant issues that Kufner did nothing to resolve at the end of the charter, even though our contract listed these items as available on the boat. They obviously did no boat check before we started our charter.
The two largest issues were the broken air-conditioning and only having one partially filled propane container. We had no air conditioning during the high temperature warnings. The temperature in the salon showed 30 degrees. Smaller cabins were hotter. We could not get a reprieve from the heat, nor could we sleep. Multiple people resorted to sleeping on deck. It was a few days before Martin, cleverly, found a way to fix it on a daily basis. The charter description included air conditioning which was not the case when we boarded.

The initial propane container was finished off halfway through the charter in the middle of cooking a meal. We had to throw away the food as the secondary container was empty. Martin was able to source additional propane from other captains, but it was hit or miss. The result was the need to stay in marinas where we could buy food or borrow gas creating large marina fees, as well as additional restaurant fees.

We also had the following issues:

- The outboard engine lock fell overboard on the second day. We were unable to use the dingy after that. This resulted in another need to be in a marina. There was no back up part on the boat.

- There was an electrician onboard when we arrived, still trying to fix a light issue after our check in time of 17:00. Even after a delay for us, the issue was not resolved, causing us to have to need a light on in the kitchen for the light in our bathroom to work. Due to the heat, the four of us in the two aft rooms slept with doors open and the light shining in our rooms.

-the main cabinet’s doors in the aft starboard cabin were not attached to bottom hinges.

- The front port room’s door knob was broken. It fell off when we tried to open it. A previous poor application of duct tape did not hold it in place. Martin reversed it so we could open the door, but it could not be opened from the inside of the room making the room unusable.

- TV didn’t work. It would not turn on. We planned to watch the Euro games.

Additional issues that were not as critical:

- Knives were not sharp. Had to use the serrated knife for cutting.

- Hot and cold water reversed on the sink faucet and was dangerously hot.

- Towels had holes in them and were not large enough to wrap around any of us.

Where to start with Kufner, such a strange company.
In my experience Kufner are the definition of adequate, if I could rate 2.5 stars I would. Fortunately for them there were a couple of great people on the team which means I've rounded them up to 3 stars and not down to 2.
To be brutally honest we chose Kufner because they were the cheapest 42ft-er in Split/ Trogir, or just about anywhere in Croatia. When you arrive on base you can sort of see why. We had a traditionally frosty Croatian welcome on check-in, almost all the staff I tried to speak to were rude and just didn't care. There are only two exceptions; Marijana who works in the office, she is polite, professional and friendly, and Beni the electrician who is also charming. I can't comment on anyone else as they ignored me.

We charted Posip, 42ft Bavaria from 2004. A rather tired boat with lots of cosmetic blemishes- this in itself wasn't a problem but there were other features which were actually broken which was a pain; the switch board, the fridges, the leisure battery was terrible and the heads were a bit dodgy. Also the system for furling the main was the worst and most out-dated I'ver ever seen and I'd really not want to have to get the main down in an emergency or in rough conditions.
Apart from that though the boat was perfect for the entirety of the two week charter. Nothing broke, engine ran sweet and the chart plotter was good. I'm not sure if this is normal for Kufner, they seemed surprised when I told them that we'd had no issues.

Kufner are a bit of a gamble, but our experience was ok. Can't comment on the other boats in their fleet but Posip was a good deal.

We hade severe problems with the yacht Kufner 54 Adriatic expert and the organization Nautika Kufner.

I advise everyone to stay away from Nautika Kufner and their rental yachts.

An unacceptable amount of defects on the boat and arrogant and unproffesional response from the organisation.

We paid for early checkin that was not delivered due toe problems with the reserved yacht. And worst of all, Nautka Kufners way of handling our complaint, arrogant to say the least.

Many failures like leaking windows, major small cracks in Navigation panels, speedometer no speed. GPS shows no maps. Kufner responsabel as: you accepted and inspected the boat.

We have the pleasure of booking charters with a range of amazing charter companies in Croatia - in this case, we cannot recommend this company. You will see, for a company that has been running for so long, they have very few reviews online, and those that are there, are nearly all negative or lack detail.

We found dealing with them very untrustworthy, we could not contact them on the telephone and they ended up not replying to our emails.

With so many great options out there, we strongly recommend you proceed with caution.