How Much Should I Tip My Yacht Crew?

If you're looking for a straightforward answer, our advice is: For excellent service, budget around 10–15% of the contracted gross charter fee for the crew gratuity.

A yacht charter should feel effortless from the moment you step aboard. Your crew's job is to create an exceptional experience; your gratuity, if you choose to give one, is your way of saying thank you. It is always appreciated.

All HELM charters operate under MYBA (Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association) or CYBA (Charter Yacht Broker Association) contract terms, both of which include clear gratuity guidance.

MYBA recommends 5–15% of the base charter fee only (excluding VAT and APA) as the appropriate range for crew gratuity, reflecting the service level received.

CYBA terms are vaguer, but it is generally expected that you tip 10-20% of the charter fee in the Caribbean.

Your tip should be worked out from the charter fee alone, handed to the captain on the last evening of the charter, or settled through your broker before you fly home. HELM brokers have over a decade of crew experience behind them, receiving envelopes, splitting the contents and having awkward conversations that could have been avoided. This guide is built on their advice.

Your crew will take great pride in providing the highest standard of service and it is only common that by the end of your charter you will rightly think of them as your friends, so tipping them may feel awkward.

But tips may constitute a major part of their income and if you’ve enjoyed their efforts, they will appreciate you letting them know this way. Putting your gratuity in an envelope with a thank-you note is a beautiful gesture.

This is absolutely at your entire discretion; most guests are comfortable with a tip of 10 - 15% of the charter fee, but the decision, is of course, up to you!

MYBA published yacht charter tipping etiquette guidance in 2018 to clarify the position and prevent wildly different experiences. Tipping practice on charter was unsettled for years before MYBA formalised it. Boat International's account is that some charterers in the 2000s were tipping 25% and above, crews began to expect those numbers, and guests who left less met visible disappointment. MYBA's guidance gave both sides a shared reference point.

The official wording is below:

Gratuities are left solely at the Charterer’s discretion. Brokers generally suggest to Charterers that a gratuity calculated between 5% and 15% of the contracted gross Charter Fee only is appropriate if the crew has given excellent service. However, it is important to understand that a Charterer is under no obligation to leave a gratuity and at no time should a gratuity be solicited, either verbally or in written form when settling the final account.

Important to note that final line: the gratuity should never be solicited. Please inform your HELM broker if you are ever pressured into tipping.

The tip is calculated on the charter fee only. Not the APA, not VAT, not delivery or relocation fees, not the total that left your account.

The charter fee means two different things depending on which contract you signed.

Under MYBA terms, which govern most Mediterranean charters, the fee buys the yacht and the crew's salaries. Everything else, the chef's provisioning, the fuel, the berthing, the bar, runs through the APA on top, typically around 30% of the charter fee. Our guide explains the APA in more detail.

Under CYBA terms, which govern most crewed yachts up to roughly 80 to 100 feet in the Caribbean, the fee is all-inclusive. Crew, three meals a day, the standard ship's bar, fuel for around four hours of cruising a day, water toys, and permits sit inside that one number.

Both are tipped on the charter fee.

Let's say you charter a Sunreef 80 catamaran.

A week for 6 people on ABOVE & BEYOND, in Greece, is €77,000 per week (+ 6.5% VAT + 25% APA = €101,250). A 10% tip would be €7,700 (not €10,125).

A week for 6 people on OHANA, in the BVI, is $98,000 inclusive. A 10% tip would be $9,800.

Most charter guests are able to judge on their gut how much of a gratuity they feel is appropriate, but this is usually how different tipping amounts are percieved in the crew mess.

Top of the range. 15% in the Med, 20% in the Caribbean. Someone mentioned at dinner on Tuesday that they had a Sancerre in Positano three years ago and could not remember the producer. By Thursday, the chief stew had tracked it down and two bottles were on the table, unannounced. The stewardess learned your coffee orders and had them ready before you even thought to ask. Your husband was chatting to the deckhand about being a Ravens fans; two days later the crew arranged him a private watching party for the big game. Nobody was asked to do any of it. This is a crew treating your week as personal, beyond the professional.

The middle. 10 to 12.5% in the Med, 15 to 17% in the Caribbean. The chef handled your daughter's allergy without any fuss. The captain moved the itinerary when the wind turned and the replacement anchorage became the best day of the trip. Problems were dealt with so cleanly that you found out afterwards, or not at all. This is a well-run charter and it is what most good crews deliver.

The bottom of the range. The food was tasty but repetitive. Service was correct but flat. Nothing went wrong, but nothing was anticipated either. A tip at the base rate is honest feedback and the crew will read it clearly. If you are considering leaving nothing at all, speak to your broker first, ideally during the charter. There is usually context you cannot see from the guest side, or there may be a problem the yacht's management needs to know about.

To help with planning for the crewed yacht charter costs, many brokers sense-check the number at roughly $250 to $350 per crew member, per day. On a four-crew week that lands between $7,000 and $9,800, which is broadly where 10 to 15% on a $70,000 charter lands anyway. If your percentage and your per-crew figure are far apart, something in the assumptions is off.

Once you've handed the tip to the captain, they will distribute it.

Most charter yachts now split the tip equally across everyone aboard, on the reasoning that a deckhand getting the same share as the captain has every reason to find your son an hour of wakeboard patience on a Wednesday afternoon.

The captain retains discretion and can choose to split it unevenly. If one crew member was clearly the standout, say so when you hand the envelope over. It will be taken into account. It may or may not change the split.

What you should not do is tip crew members individually. It fragments a team that lives in very close quarters. The engineer who fixed the watermaker at 2am so there was a hot shower on Friday morning never came up on deck once, and is owed exactly as much as the stewardess who had the drinks ready before you sat down.

A small personal gift or a handwritten note to a specific crew member, on top of the group gratuity, is a different thing and is always welcome, and often carries more meaning and greater memories.

This is possibly the most awkward part; deciding between your group how you're splitting the tip. We suggest simplifying it; split the gratuity the same way you have split the charter fee.

If four couples split the boat four ways, the tip splits four ways. If cabins were priced differently, split the tip in the same proportion as the fee. If one person is hosting, the host sets the rules.

Then one person collects it and one envelope goes across. A captain receiving four separate envelopes from four couples has a distribution problem and an accounting problem!

Knowing how you'll split everything before you go relaxes everybody and removes any unnecessary friction or worry while on your vacation.

Sometimes, things break on yachts. Remember to separate crew performance from yacht performance. They are not the same thing.

A generator failure that costs two days of the itinerary is the owner's maintenance record, not the captain's fault.

If that captain's crew kept your family fed, entertained, and unbothered while the engineer worked through the night, they have earned the full gratuity. The failure belongs upstream.

Call your HELM broker and we'll work on a solution behind the scenes.

If you're having issue with the crew, we should be your first port of call. Most issues are solvable in the short term, and it's part of our job to make sure everything runs smoothly.

A stewardess on a 25-metre charter yacht earns somewhere in the region of €2,500 to €3,500 a month. On a €80,000 charter with four crew and an equal split, a single 12.5% gratuity is roughly €2,500 each. One good week can equal a month's salary.

For junior crew, gratuities are a meaningful share of their annual income, and they are the reason a deckhand will spend his one afternoon off getting your son up on a wakeboard.

None of which obliges you to tip. It just explains why the envelope matters more than it looks like it should.

Budget 10 to 15% of the charter fee in the Mediterranean and 15 to 20% in the Caribbean. Calculate it on the fee, not the total.

Hand one envelope to the captain on the last evening, settle it from the APA balance, or arrange the transfer through us. Say something specific if a crew member stood out, then let the captain handle the split.

If the week was extraordinary, you can go above the range. There is no ceiling, and the crew will remember it next season when you want the same yacht in the same week.

If something wasn't quite right, call your broker on Tuesday morning.

Is a yacht charter tip mandatory? No. Gratuity is discretionary under both MYBA and CYBA terms, and no crew member may solicit one. In practice it is expected for good service, and the overwhelming majority of charters end with one.

Do I tip on the APA? No. The gratuity is calculated on the charter fee. The APA is a running-cost allowance held by the captain and reconciled at the end of the charter, with any surplus returned to you.

Can I use my leftover APA as the tip? Yes, on a MYBA charter. Instruct the captain to retain the surplus and top up the difference if it does not cover the full amount. Your broker will coordinate it.

Should I tip the captain separately? No. One amount to the captain, who distributes it among the whole crew. Mention any standout crew member when you hand it over.

Can I tip by credit card? Very rarely, and it is best avoided. Cash, the APA balance, or a transfer arranged through your broker are the three most workable routes.

What currency should I tip in? Euros in the Mediterranean. US dollars in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and the US Virgin Islands. Avoid a currency the crew will struggle to bank locally.

When do I hand it over? The last evening of the charter, privately, to the captain. Not the final morning.

Does the charter fee include the tip? No. Under MYBA or CYBA terms, gratuity sits outside the contract. When you are comparing two quotes, add it to both before deciding which is better value.