Yacht Charter — Crewed Super and Megayachts

A yacht charter through SOLO.CONCIERGE is built around the right vessel, a fitting crew, and considered routing. The crew has already taken the week's provisions, the chef has confirmed the menu, and the captain is finishing the briefing; the family boards by ten and within an hour the yacht heads for Île Sainte-Marguerite — lunch at anchor, an afternoon swim, an evening moored at Saint-Tropez, dinner at Sénéquier. Your advisor takes on the selection, the documents, and the coordination with the crew on the water, and you get a ready week with no loose details on your side.

How the Charter Price Is Built

The cost comes in three parts, and comparing offers between yachts makes no sense without understanding the structure:

• Base rate: the weekly rate, set by the boat's size, build year, yard reputation, operator brand, and season — high season and peak weeks cost more than the base summer.
• APA (Advanced Provisioning Allowance): a deposit from which the crew buys everything consumable — fuel, food, drink, docking fees, water and electricity at the quay, laundry, flowers, special requests. Standard APA is 25–35% of the base, higher for megayachts on long passages; the captain reports actual spend with receipts, and the balance returns to the client.
• VAT: charged by the rules of the country where the yacht actually spends the charter days — the rates differ across France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, and Greece. We always build the tax into the preliminary quote so there are no surprises, and a delivery fee is added if the boat must be repositioned from its base.

What a Crewed Charter Includes

A crewed charter is the standard for the luxury segment: the boat comes with a fully staffed and prepared crew. The captain is responsible for navigation, safety, jurisdictions, and relations with the marinas and port authorities, helped by a first officer and an engineer; the chef, usually with a restaurant and often Michelin background, builds the menu from the preference sheet; the chief stewardess and stewards run the salon and cabin service, the bar, and wine service; and the deckhands handle the deck, the tender, watersports, and mooring. Crew size scales with the boat — 5–7 on a 30-metre yacht, 15 or more on a 60m+ megayacht. Bareboat charter is almost unseen in the luxury segment: it requires the renter to hold a valid captain's licence and does not work as a format at superyacht cruising sizes.

What's Charged Separately

From the APA or on top of it, depending on the contract, come fuel, food and beverage with premium wines and champagne to the guests' taste, docking fees, watersports fuel (jet-ski, seabob, wakeboard, water skis), and route-specific port charges and taxes. Fuel remains the main line, especially on passages between countries and on large-displacement motor yachts — the captain gives a forecast at the start of the week. At Port Canto, Port Hercule in Monaco, Porto Cervo, and Ibiza Marina, high-season docking fees can be significant and are accounted for in advance, and a delivery fee is billed separately if the boat does not arrive from its own base.

Complementary Services

A week on the water rarely exists in a vacuum, and other services usually gather around the charter. A Michelin chef can be invited aboard for a night — a dinner at anchor or a birthday. We arrange close protection on board and ashore and coordinate the yacht's security with the marina. A helicopter transfer from Nice, Cannes, or Monaco delivers guests straight to the megayacht's helipad or the nearest pad with a short tender link, and a tender for separate excursions lets the group split — some to the boutiques of Saint-Tropez, some to Pampelonne beach. To this are added tables at La Vague d'Or, La Table du Kilimandjaro, Le Louis XV, and Mirazur, and boxes and invitations to the summer events — the Cannes Film Festival, amfAR Gala, Monaco Yacht Show, and Monaco Grand Prix.

Who a Charter Suits

A charter fits a one- or two-week family holiday where privacy and your own rhythm matter — no shared beach, your own routing. Birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings are held aboard with a chef, decorator, and guest artists; corporate trips use the yacht as a venue for dinners and meetings; and on event weeks — the Cannes Film Festival, Monaco Grand Prix, Cannes Lions, Monaco Yacht Show — a boat in the marina works at once as accommodation, a reception venue, and an entry point to the event zone.

Why Choose SOLO.CONCIERGE

Luxury yacht charter is a market where a mistake in the boat or crew is expensive and can't be fixed mid-week. We work only with vetted brokers and the central agencies that represent the yachts, which guarantees a transparent price without a chain of resellers and accurate information on the boat's condition — your advisor knows which boat changed its chef, which captain had guest complaints last season, and which yachts had a refit this year, the things that aren't visible in open charter databases. While you're aboard, the concierge keeps contact with the captain, books tables in the ports of call, arranges transfers, meets guests joining mid-week, and handles visas and customs when the country changes — one person and one channel, with full control of the week on the water.