Your yacht charter guide

Once you have made the decision to charter a yacht, the most important part is, to find your ideal charter broker. As with everything in life, it is all about the personal relationships. You will find that your charter broker is one of the key players in making or breaking your yacht charter holidays.

It is important you find a charter broker you enjoy talking to and can communicate in a friendly and open way. The better your charter broker gets to know you, the more specific and detailed your holidays will be prepared.

Long standing relationships between charter brokers and their clients mean perfectly prepared stays on board and the crew knowing about your wishes, likes and dislikes, before you even come on board.

Your charter broker will take care of all the negotiations and preparations – including but not limited to the contracts, payments, restaurant reservations, transfers, on land excursions and so on.

At SNS Yacht Charter our highest priority is to take care of your yacht charter holidays – many years of experience allow us to prepare everything into detail and make sure that all of your requirements are covered.

Included in the Charter Rate is the crew, their food and uniforms, the equipment on board, consumables and cleaning materials for the yacht, the yacht insurance, linen and towels and crew wages.

When you sign your contract and pay the deposit of your charter you will come across the concept of APA ( Advanced Provisioning Allowance). This is an advanced payment which is handed to the Captain in order to prepare the yacht prior to your embarkation.

As the Charterer you will pay for the following costs which include but are not limited to shoreside transport; fuel for the main engines and generators; fuel for tenders and water sports equipment; food and all beverages for you and all guests on board; berthing dues and other harbour charges, local taxes, customs formalities, charges for water and electricity taken from shore; ships' agents' fees where applicable; personal laundry; guest communications and internet use; and hire or purchase costs of any special equipment placed on board at your personal request.

The Captain will maintain an overview of all your expenses and you can look into this at all times. You can either talk to the Captain directly about your APA expenditure or ask your charter broker to do so. Should the APA run low during the charter, the Captain will advise your charter broker in order to arrange more funds to be sent.

Prior to disembarkation at the end of the Charter Period, the Captain will present you a detailed account of expenditure, with as many supporting receipts as possible, and prior to disembarkation, unless otherwise arranged through your charter broker, you should settle the balance of the expenses or the Captain.In the event there is a balance due to you, the Captain will reimburse you directly or arrange a bank transfer to your account.

The most common payment procedure is the following:

50% upon signature of the contract and 50% balance plus VAT and APA, one month prior to embarkation. Should you book the charter within less than one month prior to your embarkation, you will usually be asked pay the full 100% upon signature.

The charter contract which will be prepared by your charter broker, is a compilation of details such as dates, owners details, yacht registration details, ports of embarkation and disembarkation, rates, etc. The most common used Charter Agreement is the MYBA charter contract. This contract has been developed by experienced maritime lawyers, allowing peace of mind for both the yachts owners and charter guests, covering several topics and events.

Your payments will be kept on a Stakeholder account, which means that the funds are safe and will not be distributed until the start of the charter.

This is a very frequent question asked and a lot of it really depends on the volume of laundry and on the size of the yacht. Generally, a small amount of personal laundry can be taken care of as a complimentary service, however, if it is a particularly delicate piece or the amount of washing needed is too much for the crew to take care of apart from their daily duties, the stewardess will outsource the dry cleaning for you and it will be charged to the APA.

This usually depends on the size and registration of the charter yacht. However, you will find that most charter yachts, unless they have a special license, are limited to 12 guests, independent of their size. You will see that we state the maximum amount of allowed guests on each yacht, divided into day and night. In a lot of cases, the yacht can carry up to 12 guests during the day, but might only be able to accommodate less overnight.

The quick answer is yes, it is. Now the big question always is, how much is expected and customary. This is entirely up to you, as it all depends on how happy you were with the service, the cleanliness of the yacht, the food and so on. We do generally suggest that common crew tips in Europe are around 10% of the Charter Rate excl. VAT, but it is at your discretion what you decide to do at the end. When chartering in the Caribbean and US, you are looking at around 15%. In any case, if you are unsure, give your charter broker a call and have an open conversation about it.