Crewed yacht charter: price, APA, VAT and tips
What a crewed yacht week adds to the fee: APA, VAT and tips, plus named 2026 rates in Thailand and Greece. Averages flagged where missing.
Photo: Chris Mitchell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized.
APA percentages are guides or one yacht’s contract, not a single legal rate. The Thailand figure is one operator’s rate in baht.
A crewed charter is a yacht with a professional crew in the fee: a captain, and usually a cook or host. The weekly fee is not the whole bill. On a plus-expenses contract you add an advance provisioning allowance (APA), tax, and a tip. This page separates what a contract says from what we could not verify.
Last checked: 1 Nov 2026. Named rates are one yacht's card, not an average. Baht and US dollars are shown as published; we do not convert them to euros.
What you pay on top of the fee
The MYBA specimen agreement leaves the APA amount blank. Page one has a line for "Advance Provisioning Allowance (A.P.A.) (see Clause 8)" and does not print a percentage. Clause 8 says the charter fee includes the yacht, its equipment, the crew's wages and food, and the vessel's insurance. The charterer pays, at cost, for fuel, the guests' food and drink, harbour charges, shore power and water, agents, laundry and communications. The captain reports spending; if the APA runs low the charterer tops it up; at the end, receipts are presented and the balance is paid or returned (MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association, checked 1 Nov 2026). The specimen we opened has no edition year on it.
Percentages come from elsewhere, and they disagree, so we do not collapse them into one number:
| Where the percentage is stated | APA | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Helm, sailing yachts and catamarans | 25–35% of the fee | Charter-industry guide, not a statute (Helm, checked 27 Oct 2026) |
| Helm, motor yachts | 35–40% of the fee | Same guide (Helm, checked 27 Oct 2026) |
| Gulet WG GV 003, Greece | 35–40% | That yacht's 2026 card, for food, drinks, fuel and harbours (Wondergulets (Elit Gulet Ltd), checked 1 Nov 2026) |
| Gulet Virtuoso, Greece | 35% | Broker's 2026 card (Your Boat Holiday, checked 1 Nov 2026) |
| Four Phuket yachts (Westport 130 Sea Bear, Sunreef 60 Eco, Princess S72, Princess S65) | 25–30% | Operator's own article; the baht-priced yachts in the table below have no APA (Horizon Cruises Phuket, checked 1 Nov 2026) |
A customary crew gratuity is 10–20% of the charter fee on the terms we cite for crewed yachts (Worth Avenue Yachts, checked 27 Oct 2026). It is not in the MYBA clause we read. Operator cards in Turkey and Croatia print their own ranges (10%, 8–12%, or 10–15%): gulet charter prices.
Worked example, our arithmetic, using the broker's own add-ons for Virtuoso in July and August. Fee €45,500. APA at 35% is €15,925. VAT at the 12% printed on that card, applied to the fee only, is €5,460. Those three lines are €66,885. A 10% tip on the fee would be €4,550 more, and a 20% tip €9,100 (Your Boat Holiday, checked 1 Nov 2026) (Worth Avenue Yachts, checked 27 Oct 2026). The card does not say whether VAT is charged on the APA. The 12% also conflicts with the 13% below.
VAT and local tax
- Greece. Standard VAT is 24%. The reduced rate is 13% for Annex III; the finance ministry lists transport among its examples (Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance, checked 1 Nov 2026). An AADE circular says a professional pleasure craft made available with crew is passenger transport at 13%, and without crew at 24% (AADE (Greek Independent Authority for Public Revenue), checked 1 Nov 2026). The circular is about own use. A broker card for one Greek gulet prints 12% instead (Your Boat Holiday, checked 1 Nov 2026). From 1 January 2026 a further 30% cut applies on listed small islands and does not apply to means of transport (Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance, checked 1 Nov 2026). Whether a crewed week on those islands takes the cut: not verified yet.
- Croatia. The tax administration lists 0%, 5%, 13% and 25% and does not say which one a yacht charter uses (Croatian Tax Administration (Porezna uprava), checked 1 Nov 2026). The rate on a Croatian crewed week: not verified yet. One owner says VAT is inside the gulet fee and does not name the rate: Croatia gulet card.
- Turkey. VIGO's 2026 cards say VAT is not included and do not name a rate (VIGO Yachting (Vigo Tours), checked 1 Nov 2026). The Turkish rate on a gulet week: not verified yet.
- Thailand. Horizon Cruises Phuket says 7% VAT is inside every rate in its catalogue (Horizon Cruises Phuket, checked 1 Nov 2026). That is the operator's statement, not a statute we opened.
- Bahamas. Inland Revenue guidance effective 1 July 2022 charges VAT at 10% on the charter fee for foreign entities chartering in Bahamian waters. Provisions the captain buys directly, with no service charge, are not subject to VAT. If a third party charges a service to provision the boat, VAT applies to those APA expenses (Bahamas Department of Inland Revenue, checked 1 Nov 2026). A 2025 newspaper account of a later 14% port fee was not checked against a statute, so we do not use it.
- British Virgin Islands. We did not find a VAT rate on the charter fee in the instrument below. The cruising permit is a separate head fee.
Thailand: named weekly rates
Horizon Cruises Phuket, an operator, published this 7-day / 6-night table for the 2026/27 season (article updated 30 October 2026). Every yacht is skippered. The price is for the whole boat, in baht, with the captain and crew, fuel for the agreed route (unless a yacht's own page lists a fuel fee), passenger insurance, water, soft drinks, snorkel gear, towels, and 7% VAT. National park fees are extra. Meals are not on the same basis for every yacht: St Anna and Siam Princess 70 include a chef or full board; Beluga quotes the chef and meals separately (the chef is listed at ฿10,000, and the article does not say whether that is per day); the Astrea 42 charges ฿500 per guest per day for the menu when the group is six or more, or a chef at ฿4,000 per day (Horizon Cruises Phuket, checked 1 Nov 2026).
| Yacht | Type | Sleeps | Low season | High season | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fountaine Pajot Astrea 42 | Sailing catamaran, 42 ft | 8 in 4 | ฿380,000 | ฿415,000 | ฿450,000 |
| Lagoon 450 St Anna | Sailing catamaran, 45 ft | 8 in 4 | ฿414,900 | ฿467,900 | ฿527,900 |
| Siam Princess 70 | Motor yacht, 70 ft | 12 in 4 | ฿525,000 | ฿595,000 | ฿665,000 |
| Jawsss | Motor yacht, 61 ft | 6 in 3 | ฿640,500 | ฿661,500 | ฿714,000 (third column is the Similan route, not a New Year peak) |
| Leopard 51 Aurora | Power catamaran, 51 ft | 8 in 4 | ฿667,900 | ฿696,900 | ฿730,900 |
| Princess V58 Clyde Legacy | Motor yacht, 58 ft | 4 in 3 | ฿675,000 | ฿780,000 | ฿850,000 |
| Riva 70 Aria Blue | Motor yacht, 70 ft | 6 in 3 | ฿1,050,000 | ฿1,120,000 | ฿1,190,000 |
| Beluga 88 | Motor yacht, 88 ft | 8 in 4 | ฿1,498,000 | ฿1,872,500 | ฿2,097,200 |
Seasons are not one calendar for the whole table. The article says low season is May to October and high season November to April on the page as a whole, then says Aurora and St Anna use June–October as low and November–May as high, and the Astrea uses 2 March–30 November as low. Jawsss's third column is a Similan route, not a New Year peak (Horizon Cruises Phuket, checked 1 Nov 2026).
Seven days of the Astrea menu is ฿3,500 per guest, and seven days of that chef is ฿28,000 (our arithmetic: 7 × the daily figure). A weekly average for all crewed yachts in Thailand: not verified yet. This is one operator's catalogue.
Greece, Croatia and the Caribbean
Greece and Croatia, crewed catamaran or motor yacht weekly averages: not verified yet. We do not turn a broker's range into a rate. What we can cite for Greece is the gulet cards (Aegean Schatz, WG GV 003, Virtuoso), which are crewed, on gulet charter prices. Croatia's one owner card is also crewed: Croatia.
British Virgin Islands. A weekly crewed-catamaran fee from an operator rate sheet: not verified yet. The official cruising permit, in force from 1 June 2025, is US$4 per person per day for a home-based charter boat and US$16 per person per day for a foreign-based charter boat (Virgin Islands (Statutory Instrument 2024 No. 83), checked 1 Nov 2026). For 8 guests over 7 days that is US$224 (home-based) or US$896 (foreign-based), our arithmetic, and it is only the permit. Commercial-vessel licence fees are a separate schedule we did not price here.
Bahamas. A weekly crewed fee: not verified yet. The tax piece we could read is the 10% VAT guidance above (Bahamas Department of Inland Revenue, checked 1 Nov 2026).
Bareboat catamarans, which mix crewed and bareboat listings in the average: catamaran charter cost.
Weekly cost calculator
The calculator starts from catamaran asking prices and bareboat extras. For a crewed week, type the fee from your quote, set the APA to the percentage in your contract (Helm's bands are 25–35% for sail and catamaran and 35–40% for motor yachts (Helm, checked 27 Oct 2026)), and set the tip. When the APA is above zero the calculator drops the separate fuel, marina and food lines, because those are what the APA is for.
Who a crewed week suits
Choose crewed if nobody in the group holds a licence the charter company will accept, or if you want a cook. The Phuket cards above sleep 4 to 12 guests. The Greek gulets we priced sleep about 10 to 14. You are paying for the boat and the crew, not per cabin, so a half-empty week costs the same fee. Choose bareboat if you want to sail and to keep the APA and the tip off the bill: crewed versus bareboat.
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Gulet rate cards, which are crewed: gulet charter prices. Destinations: Greece, Croatia, Thailand, BVI, Bahamas.
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Frequently asked questions
What is APA on a yacht charter?
The advance provisioning allowance is a float the charterer pays on top of the fee. The MYBA specimen leaves the amount blank and describes what it is spent on: fuel, food, drink, harbour fees and similar costs, reconciled against receipts. Helm puts the usual band at 25–35% for sailing yachts and catamarans and 35–40% for motor yachts. Individual yachts print their own percentage.
How much does a crewed yacht charter cost per week?
There is no verified average. One Phuket operator's lowest published 7-day crewed rate for 2026/27 is ฿380,000 for an Astrea 42, with 7% VAT inside the rate and meals extra on that boat. Greek gulet cards we read run from €23,000 to €45,500 before APA and VAT. BVI and Bahamas weekly crewed fees: not verified yet.
Is the tip included in a crewed charter?
No. A customary gratuity is 10–20% of the charter fee, paid to the crew, on the terms we cite. It is separate from the APA. Some gulet operators print a narrower range, such as 10% or 10–15%.