Yacht Management
The yacht as a company
Above forty metres a yacht has a payroll, a compliance regime, an audit and a board meeting. Somebody has to run it, and it is not the owner.
Running the asset
Yacht Management
Above about 40 metres a yacht is a small company with a hull. Yacht Management looks at the firms that run it: what a management contract covers, the refit year nobody budgets for, and what a charter programme does to a private boat.
Yacht Management
Yacht Management
The refit year
Every five years the boat comes out of the water and is opened up. The invoice is the largest of the ownership, and it is entirely predictable.
Yacht Management
Charter as an offset, and what it does to your boat
Eight to twelve weeks a year can cover half the running costs. It also changes what the boat is, and the owners who are happiest are clear about that trade from the start.
The short version
What a management company actually does
A managed yacht has a company ashore that holds the safety management system, the flag and class paperwork, the crew contracts and payroll, the accounts, the insurance, the refit tender and the 24-hour telephone that rings when the boat is aground at three in the morning. Above 500 GT the safety management part is required by the ISM Code; below it, the rest is what a sensible owner buys anyway.
The fee is a few thousand euros a month for the compliance core and rises with the scope: full financial management, crew, technical supervision of yard periods, charter marketing. The value is not the paperwork; it is having somebody who has seen forty yard periods sitting across the table from the yard.
The refit year is where owners meet the reality of the asset. Every five years class wants the boat out of the water and opened up, and the invoice for a 60 metre motor yacht is rarely under two million once the paint, the teak and the discovered problems are in. An owner who plans for it is an owner; one who does not is a seller.
Worth knowing
Management fee, core compliance, 50 to 60 m
roughly €4,000 to €9,000 a month, before crew, accounts or technical supervision
ISM Code and safety management
mandatory for commercial yachts over 500 GT and any yacht over 500 GT on most flags
Five-year class survey and yard period, 60 m
commonly €1.5 to €4 million and 3 to 6 months out of service
Charter weeks needed to cover half the running cost, 50 m
about 8 to 12 weeks a year at Mediterranean rates after commissions
The deck vote
A private boat should charter
Use it now
Charter Yield
What a charter programme really nets, and how much of the year it covers.
Questions people ask
Not by law on most flags, and many good captains run a 40 metre boat with a good accountant. What a manager gives you below 500 GT is continuity when the captain leaves, an independent eye on the yard, and someone to blame who is not family.
The boat has to meet the Large Yacht Code, carry the crew the code requires, keep a safety management system and be surveyed accordingly. In exchange she can charter legally, recover VAT on some costs, and may pay less duty on fuel. The boat also becomes a business, and businesses get audited.
Plan for 20 to 30 per cent above the yard's quotation and two to four weeks beyond the date. The reasons are always the same: things found once the boat is open, changes the owner asks for once the boat is open, and the paint schedule meeting the weather.
For a 50 to 90 metre motor yacht in Europe: the yards around La Ciotat, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma, Genoa, Viareggio, the Dutch builders for their own boats, and the German and Northern yards for major structural work. In the United States, Fort Lauderdale and Savannah. Choose by the trades on site rather than by the brand on the gate.
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