Dubai: winter in the Gulf,
the gateway to the Indian Ocean.

For a superyacht based between Cannes and Monaco, Dubai is not an exotic port of call: it is the other season. The Gulf is cruised in winter, from roughly November to April, exactly when the French Riviera empties its quays and fills its yards; in summer, the heat makes it a low season in which the vessel is kept rather than shown. Where Italy extends our home area, the Gulf completes it by the calendar. Two possible winters for the same vessel: dry dock in La Ciotat or Genoa, or a berth at Dubai Harbour with the owner on board. The same vessel can alternate from one year to the next; we prepare both.

The city reads as three stretches of water. Dubai Harbour, the large superyacht marina and, since 2022, the quay of the Dubai International Boat Show; Mina Rashid, the historic port turned yacht marina; Dubai Maritime City, the technical and repair hub. Within easy reach by road, Abu Dhabi and Yas Marina. All of it at GMT+4, two to three hours ahead of the Mediterranean: when Le Cannet opens, Dubai already has a morning behind it. And the airport, DXB, links Europe, Asia and the Indian Ocean non-stop: owner and crew rotations are planned there as they are from Nice.

Cursorio has a branch office there. In practice, for you: being on board in the Gulf without waiting for a flight from Nice, following works at Dubai Maritime City, receiving the agent and the inspector, preparing the departure for the Indian Ocean. The mandate itself remains governed in the same file, with the same DPA, the same monthly recap and the same access to Cursorio Manager. That is the purpose of this page: what the Gulf changes, and what it does not.

A foreign yacht does not enter the waters of the Emirates the way she enters the roadstead of Villefranche. Four markers structure the season; we build them into the passage plan, not into the first day alongside:

• —Entering Emirati waters — a foreign yacht goes through customs, immigration and harbour master formalities; they are handled through a local agent, appointed and briefed before arrival, with the crew list, the vessel's certificates and the documents of everyone on board ready. The first day in Dubai should not be spent looking for an agent.
• —Port State Control — the Gulf has its own regional inspection regime for foreign vessels. A commercial yacht presents herself there as she would to the Guardia Costiera: certificates, records, crew briefed, the core of our ISM/ISPS audit, which does not stop at Suez. On fuel, the Mediterranean has imposed 0.10% sulphur since May 2025 where the Gulf comes under the global cap; bunkering is thought through route by route. Read: Sulphur: emission zones close in on yachting.
• —Crew and time zone — the rules of your flag and of the MLC 2006 continue to apply on board; ashore, visas and immigration formalities are added for rotations, which we plan around DXB's direct flights together with rest hours and payroll, as in the Mediterranean. At GMT+4, the bridge calls its DPA two to three hours before European offices open: the 24/7 DPA duty line does not depend on the time zone, and the Dubai branch office gives a presence on the ground without a flight from Nice. It is one of the concrete arguments for an outsourced DPA.
• —Insurance and routes — before any departure for the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean, we check that the H&M and P&I policies cover the navigation area, obtain the necessary endorsement when the route crosses an area listed by insurers, and have the security of the passage assessed by the DPA/CSO. See Flag and insurance.

The Gulf is cruised in season; it is left behind to really go to sea. To the south-east, the Indian Ocean: the Maldives and the Seychelles, the two cruising grounds reached from the Gulf, by a passage rather than a night at sea, with an air hub at each end for guest rotations, and agents, cruising formalities and provisioning to organise several weeks ahead.

To the west, the Red Sea. The Saudi projects, Red Sea Global and AMAALA, Sindalah at NEOM, are under development and are drawing a coastline that did not exist on the yachting map five years ago. We read it without haste: what is open there, what is announced and what is practicable for a 60-metre yacht do not yet coincide. These routes have one thing in common: they cross waters where the role of DPA and that of CSO merge. Passage plan, monitoring of security advisories, SSAS procedure tested before departure, reachability at any hour: we make it a chapter of the passage plan, not a last-day topic. Read: DPA onboard: setup, contact, and SSAS piracy alerts and our watch on the Gulf of Aden.

To the north, finally, the return: a vessel that has wintered in the Gulf comes back to the Mediterranean in spring for the May season. The window is short, and the French Riviera awaits her with its anchoring ordinances and its contested berths. We hold both calendars at the same time.

The mandate is carried by Capt. Jean Pousthomis, Master Mariner, founder and DPA of Cursorio. He conducts the entry audit, the reviews and the decisions that commit the vessel, in Dubai as in Le Cannet. The Dubai branch office gives him eyes and hands on the ground between two visits; it does not replace him.

Around him, a network we have chosen and brief ourselves: port agent, yard, class surveyor, maritime lawyer. You know at all times who boarded, for what, and what they found: it is in the file. An NDA opens every mission, and no information is pooled between mandates. Who we are.