The weekly rate is only the first line. Here is how base rate, VAT, the APA, gratuity and relocation add up on a crewed charter in Croatia, with one week worked through.
What does it cost to charter a yacht? The weekly rate is only the first line, because a charter does not have one price. It has a base rate, a tax, an allowance for onboard expenses and, at the end, a gratuity you decide on yourself. Most of the confusion comes from guides that quote only the first number.
Here is the whole picture for a crewed charter in Croatia, using S/Y Rara Avis as the worked example. The structure applies to most crewed yachts. The figures are ours.
For scale: charter listings for crewed sailing yachts of 35 to 40 metres with six cabins typically show weekly base rates of roughly €60,000 to €80,000, and a motor yacht of the same length is listed well above €100,000. At 37 metres, Rara Avis is in that group. Her weekly base rate is €80,000.
What the weekly base rate covers
The base rate is the charter fee for the yacht and her crew for seven nights. On Rara Avis that means the whole yacht, privately, for up to 12 guests in six cabins; a professional crew of seven (captain, chef, first mate, second mate, two hostesses and a waiter); the onboard equipment, including the water toys and the tender; and full service every day of the week.
Rara Avis is chartered privately and is never shared, so the rate is for the yacht, not per person. There is no premium for a larger group and no discount for a smaller one.
That fee is the one number that does not move during your week. Everything below is either a tax on it or a pot of money that is spent, accounted for and returned.
What moves the price from one yacht to another
Three things typically decide the cost to charter a yacht, and they work the same way almost everywhere.
Yacht size
A longer yacht has more cabins, a larger crew and higher operating expenses, and the weekly rate follows. Yacht size is the first thing a quote reflects. Crewed sailing yachts of around 40 metres and six cabins are listed at roughly €60,000 to €80,000 a week. At 45 to 50 metres the same kind of yacht typically passes €100,000, and motor yachts of 40 metres and six cabins are listed from around €120,000.
Yacht type
A motor yacht typically burns more fuel than a sailing yacht of the same length, and APAs are typically set higher for motor yachts than for sailing yachts. Rara Avis is a luxury sailing yacht and, at 37 metres, a motor sailer. At her size and weight, fuel is a real part of the running costs, much as it is on a motor yacht. So are six air-conditioned cabins, a crew of seven, a tender and a full set of water toys. Her APA reflects that.
Region and season
Prices for yacht charters differ by region, and many yachts price peak months above the rest.
Everything on this page uses Rara Avis as the example because the numbers have to come from somewhere. If you are comparing two yachts, compare them on the same three parts rather than on the headline rate.
One rate for the whole season
Many charter prices change with the calendar: a lower rate in May and September, a higher one for July and August. Rara Avis has a single weekly rate for the whole season, from May to October.
That changes how you choose a week. Peak season brings the warmest water and the busiest harbours. The shoulder months bring quieter anchorages and cooler sea. You pick on what you want from the week, not on what it costs.
VAT: Croatia's charter tax
Croatian VAT is 13% and it applies to charters that start in Croatia. Tax rules change, so we confirm the figure in your quote.
VAT is charged on the base rate only. On a week at €80,000 that is €10,400, which brings the rate plus VAT to €90,400.
VAT is not charged on the APA. The APA is an allowance for real costs, and each of those costs already carries its own VAT in the final statement.
The APA: how it works and why it exists
APA stands for Advance Provisioning Allowance. It is a sum you pay before the week, held by the yacht, from which the expenses of your charter are paid as they arise.
The reason is practical. A week at sea has dozens of small costs that depend entirely on what your group does: how far you cruise, where you berth, what you eat and drink. Nobody can price that in advance, and nobody wants to be handed a bill in every harbour. The APA lets the crew pay as you go and settle once.
How the APA works on Rara Avis
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Before the week
You pay the APA
35% of the base rate, which is €28,000.
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During the week
The captain pays from it
Fuel, food, marina and port fees, beverages, park tickets and excursions are paid from the APA, and the captain keeps a record of every expense.
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End of the week
Settled against actual costs
Whatever is left is returned to you.
The payment timeline is covered in how the booking and payment process works. Across the industry, APAs typically run at roughly 20 to 30 percent of the base fee for sailing yachts and 30 to 40 percent for motor yachts. As a motor sailer, Rara Avis sits at 35%. The percentage matters less than the principle: it is an advance against actual costs, and you should get a statement at the end.
What the APA covers
The running costs of your week on board are paid from the APA. What you choose to buy or pay for yourself ashore, such as a private dinner out or shopping, stays on your own account.
We arrange and pre-book the tickets and excursions for you. The route is yours to shape: four sample itineraries show how a week can look.
Relocation fee: when it applies and when it does not
Rara Avis runs one charter after another through the season, so your week does not start or end wherever you like by default. It starts where the week before yours ends, and it ends where the week after yours begins.
Take an example. The week before yours is booked as a one-way charter from Split to Dubrovnik, so the yacht is in Dubrovnik when yours starts. The week after yours is booked to leave from Split, so yours finishes there. That gives you a one-way week from Dubrovnik to Split, and neither port costs you anything extra.
The relocation fee of €1,000 is a one-off charge for the case where that does not suit you: the weeks on either side are booked, and you would rather start or finish somewhere else. Then the yacht is repositioned for you and the fee applies. There are three cases:
| The neighbouring week is free Nothing fixes that end of your charter, so you choose the port yourself, for example Dubrovnik to Dubrovnik or Dubrovnik to Split. | No fee |
|---|---|
| The neighbouring week is booked and its port suits you You start or finish where the yacht already is. | No fee |
| The neighbouring week is booked and its port does not suit you The yacht is repositioned for you. | €1,000 |
A one-way route such as Split to Dubrovnik does not carry a fee in itself. What decides it is only what is booked around your week. Send us your dates and we will tell you which start and end ports that week gives you before you decide anything.
Gratuity: customary, never obligatory
Gratuity for the crew is entirely at your discretion. It is not part of the price and nobody expects it as a condition of the charter.
If you want a guide, the figure most often quoted for Mediterranean charters is 10 to 15 percent of the charter fee, calculated on that fee alone, not on the APA or tax.
How it adds up: one week, worked through
Here is a seven-night week on Rara Avis, step by step.
| Base rate Yacht and crew, seven nights | €80,000 |
|---|---|
| Croatian VAT 13% of the base rate | €10,400 |
| APA 35% of the base rate, settled against actual costs | €28,000 |
| Total charter price | €118,400 |
Are there hidden costs?
On a crewed charter there should not be, and the way to check is to ask for the three parts in writing: the base rate, VAT, and the APA with its percentage. Everything else is either optional (gratuity), conditional (relocation) or your own spending ashore. A charter company that cannot give you those in a single quote is the one to question.
Everything on a Rara Avis week is agreed before you step aboard.
Tell us your dates and we will confirm availability.
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