Your First Yacht Charter: Everything You Should Know
Motor or sail
Chartering a yacht for the first time involves a set of decisions that most people have never had to make before and a vocabulary they have never encountered. This piece is an attempt to cut through that.
Motor yachts offer more interior volume, deck space, stability, and faster passage times. The trade-off is cost: motor yachts burn significantly more fuel, and the weekly charter rate is usually 20 to 30 per cent higher. Sailing yachts offer a different experience entirely — the heel of the boat under sail, the absence of engine noise, a closer relationship with the sea.
Size and destination
A 24-metre yacht is not a compromise; for a couple or a family of four, it is often the ideal size. The Cyclades reward a smaller vessel: Koufonisia, Polyaigos, the channel between Paros and Antiparos — these are places where a 24-metre yacht tucks in comfortably while larger boats sit offshore and tender in.
The Mediterranean season runs from May to October. The Sardinia-to-Corsica route remains one of the finest weeks afloat anywhere in the world. Greece has grown rapidly — the Cyclades and the Dodecanese now account for a significant share of the charter fleet.
The crew and the preference sheet
The crew is the single most important factor. A captain who knows the cruising ground intimately, who can read the weather and adjust the itinerary accordingly, who knows which restaurant to book and which bay to anchor in for sunset — this is worth more than any amount of polished teak.
Take the preference sheet seriously. A good charter chef is a remarkable thing — cooking three meals a day plus canapés for eight guests in a galley the size of a London bathroom — and the more information you provide, the better the result.
Understanding the costs
A week on a 26-metre motor yacht in the western Mediterranean will cost between €50,000 and €80,000 for the base charter, plus APA, crew gratuity, and VAT. All in, budget around 1.5 to 1.7 times the headline fee. Per person per night, it compares favourably with a suite at a top hotel — and the experience is incomparably more private.
We have walked the decks of hundreds of yachts, and we know which boats are maintained to the standard their photographs suggest and which are not. A charter is a significant investment, and the margin between a good week and a great one is often a matter of details that only experience can anticipate.
