In a first of its kind partnership, Porto Montenegro and Gulf Craft have teamed up to offer complimentary home port berthing for owners who choose to base their Gulf Craft superyachts in Porto Montenegro.

For buyers of new Gulf Craft yachts, purchased in 2022 or 2023, annual or seasonal berthing is being offered by Porto Montenegro free of charge. Furthermore, owners who purchased a Gulf Craft in 2021 are being offered a 40 per cent discount for the same services.

“For two brands that are recognised as world leaders in their sectors, this partnership is an absolutely natural outcome of our years of friendship and great mutual respect,” comments Tony Browne, Porto Montenegro marina director. “We are thrilled to offer complimentary home port berthing to Gulf Craft owners and look forward to welcoming them into our marina community.”

Gulf Craft owners who take Porto Montenegro up on this offer, as well as berthing, will have access to silver membership at Porto Montenegro for two people. Members have use of the yacht club pool, the sailing squadron and the sports club, as well as reciprocal membership privileges in more than 15 yacht clubs around the world.

“Porto Montenegro is a very special place, with the magnificent natural beauty of its surroundings, outstanding quality of the marina and warmth of its people,” says Mohammed Hussein Alshaali, chairman of Gulf Craft. “I cannot think of a better place as home-port for our yacht owners and we are honoured to form this partnership with Porto Montenegro.”

Berthing at Porto Montenegro offers owners, captains and crew a full home-port solution. The marina’s 450 berths are complemented by an extensive range of yacht services and amenities, including valet services and overview supervision for large vessels and a comprehensive onshore entertainment programme.

Earlier in the year, the SuperyachtNews team spoke with Tony Browne to get a better understanding of Porto Montenegro’s history and development plan. In recent years, much has been made of the need to develop a premium service network beyond the tried and tested hubs of the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and so on. However, attempts to capitalise on the opportunities provided by the superyacht industry have been met with mixed results. Porto Montenegro, however, stands as a positive example of how to build a superyacht location, which has been bolstered by the addition of the Adriatic 42 refit facility to the area.

“I have been here almost 15 years to the day and one of the first things I did when I arrived looked at the old arsenal shipyard base that Porto Montenegro now occupies and then look at Adriatic Shipyards in Bijela,” explained Browne. “The original vision for Porto Montenegro was to have shipyard facilities, but not on site. Bijela Shipyard was a facility that hadn’t recovered from the economic sanctions imposed during the Balkan conflict in the 90s and it had sufficient shipyard capabilities for a mixed-use site with both a marina and a shipyard, but we decided it was important to create a superyacht luxury destination first (Porto Montenegro), with a complimentary shipyard facility off-site (Adriatic 42).

“The new project speaks directly to the industry itself and the trends that are taking place. The Adriatic is opening up, 15 years ago Montenegro was considered off the beaten track by the superyacht community and now it has become a regular cruising ground for most superyachts. As the yachts have become bigger and communications technology has improved, owners and charter guests have been able to spend more time on board and become more adventurous. Furthermore, with order books full, marina capacity in short supply within the traditional hubs (especially for the largest superyachts), Montenegro is perfectly placed to capitalise on this. Having a shipyard facility that can cater to the market’s largest superyachts is vital to this strategy.”

The addition of the partnership with Gulf Craft serves as further proof that Porto Montenegro is being responsive to the needs of the superyacht market by developing systems and offerings that go beyond the norm. However, given that Porto Montenegro has only extended the offer to Gulf Craft’s ordered in 2022 and 2023, it has provided itself with an exit strategy while finding an innovative way to fill what one assumes is spare capacity in the short term.

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