The real total
A charter week, decoded
The rate in the listing is about two thirds of what leaves your account. Here is every line, in the order it appears on the contract.
A first time charterer reads a listing that says one hundred and twenty thousand euros a week and budgets one hundred and twenty thousand euros. The final number is usually closer to one hundred and eighty, and none of the difference is a surprise to anybody in the industry. It is simply that the listing quotes the base rate, and the base rate is the smallest of four numbers.
One: the base rate
What you pay for the boat and her crew for the week. It varies by season, by cruising ground and by how recently the boat was built or refitted. It includes the crew's wages, the boat's insurance and her normal maintenance. It includes nothing that gets consumed.
Two: the advance provisioning allowance
Usually thirty per cent of the base rate in the Mediterranean and thirty five in the Caribbean or anywhere remote. It is paid up front and it pays for fuel, food, drink, berths, harbour dues, laundry, communications and anything else the week consumes. It is an estimate. What is not spent comes back with the receipts, and if the week involves a lot of moving, a marina every night and a serious cellar, the captain will ask for a top up before Friday.
Three: tax
VAT is charged at the rate of the country where the charter starts, and the rates differ enough to move an itinerary. There are reliefs in several jurisdictions for time spent outside territorial waters, and they have been rewritten repeatedly, so the rate that applied to a friend's charter two seasons ago may not be the rate that applies to yours.
Four: the gratuity
Customarily ten to fifteen per cent of the base rate in the Mediterranean and fifteen to twenty in the Caribbean and the United States, paid to the captain at the end for distribution. It is discretionary in name and expected in practice, and it is a meaningful part of a crew's annual income.
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Charter Week Calculator
Base rate, allowance, tax and the tip, for the week you are actually planning.
What the week is actually like
Two documents shape it. The preference sheet, which the broker sends and which most guests fill in carelessly, and which the chef and the chief stewardess treat as the specification for the entire week. And the itinerary, agreed with the captain before you board rather than argued over during it.
The itinerary rule that experienced charterers use: pick three or four anchorages for seven nights and leave the rest to the weather. A week that visits a different harbour every night is a week spent looking at the back of a boat in front of you and paying for berths.
