What a Charter Broker Is
A charter broker is the person who finds a yacht for a guest and puts the charter together — the brief, the shortlist, the price, the contract, the week itself. The broker works for the guest in practice, but under the standard contract the commission is payable by the yacht's owner, and it is earned the moment the contract is signed. A second broker usually sits on the other side representing the yacht. The money is held by neither of them: it goes to a third party the contract calls the Stakeholder.
What a charter broker does
A charter broker finds a yacht for a guest and puts the charter together. The guest says what they want — a week in the Cyclades in July, 8 guests sleeping, a chef who can cook around a nut allergy — and the broker works the available fleet, shortlists three or four yachts, and reports back on each one.
The rest of the work is less visible and takes far longer. The broker negotiates the price and the dates, confirms the yacht is genuinely free, drafts the contract, collects the payments, briefs the captain on who is coming aboard, and stays reachable for the week itself. When the air conditioning fails on the second night, the broker takes the call.
That is the job as the guest experiences it. Who the broker is paid by is a separate question, and the contract answers it plainly.
Who pays the broker
The yacht’s owner does.
Most crewed charters in the Mediterranean are written on the MYBA Charter Agreement, published by MYBA — The Worldwide Yacht Brokers Association, founded in 1984. Clause 24 of that agreement states that the commission “shall be deemed to be earned by the Broker and the Stakeholder upon the signature of this Agreement by the OWNER and CHARTERER and payment of deposit funds by CHARTERER and shall be payable by the OWNER on the full Charter Fee plus the Delivery/Re-delivery Fee, if applicable, but excluding running expenses”.
Three facts sit inside that sentence, and each one changes how a guest should read a broker’s advice.
The commission is earned at signature, not at departure. The broker’s fee is settled the day the contract is signed and the deposit clears. What happens afterwards does not change it. Clause 24 goes further: the commission is payable “whether or not he defaults for any reason including force majeure”, and where the charterer cancels, the commission is deducted as an expense from the deposit.
It is calculated on the charter fee, not on the spending. Running expenses are excluded, which means the money a guest spends on board during the week — fuel, food, wine, harbour dues — carries no commission. That expense account is a separate sum, and it has its own rules.
The rate is not in the contract. The agreement says who pays and on what, and stops there. Rates are set between the yacht’s own agency and the brokers it deals with, and they vary. Asking what the rate is on a particular yacht is a reasonable question and a broker who works on the MYBA form can answer it.
The names on the contract
The trade talks about central agents and retail brokers. The contract does not. It names four roles, and knowing which is which tells a guest who they are actually dealing with.
| What it is | Who it acts for | |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | The yacht’s owning company | Itself |
| Charterer | The person or company hiring the yacht | Itself |
| Broker | The intermediary named on page one | Introduces and services the charter |
| Stakeholder | Holds the money in a designated account until it is due | Both parties, as a neutral |
Central agent is trade usage for the agency appointed by an owner to market one yacht — to hold its calendar, quote its rates and clear its bookings. That agency is very often also the Stakeholder. It is a real and useful role, but it is a commercial arrangement between the owner and the agency, not a party the guest contracts with.
The practical consequence: two brokers commonly work one charter, and only one of them started from the guest’s brief. The broker who first showed the yacht may be the agency representing it, in which case the same firm sits on both sides of the introduction. That is normal, and it is worth knowing before reading a shortlist of one.
Where the money sits
Not with the broker. Clause 20 requires that all funds received by the Broker be transferred immediately on receipt to the Stakeholder, who holds them in a designated account in the currency of the agreement.
The releases are then fixed by the contract. Half the charter fee — 50% — is paid to the owner by the Stakeholder on the date the charter starts, or the first working day after, and after the full commission has been deducted. The balance is paid to the owner on the first working day following completion of the charter. The advance provisioning allowance is paid to the captain, or to the owner for onward transmission to the captain, before embarkation.
The security deposit works the same way. Under Clause 17 the Stakeholder holds it on the owner’s behalf, and refunds it without interest on the first working day after the charter ends, or after all outstanding questions are settled, whichever is later.
What the broker is not answerable for
Clause 24 is blunt about this, and it is the clause guests read last and should read first. The Broker and Stakeholder “shall have no responsibility for any loss, damage or injury to the person or property of the OWNER or CHARTERER or any of their Guests, servants or agents”, and no liability for errors of judgement or description “of whatsoever nature and howsoever arising”. The owner and the charterer jointly indemnify them.
So the broker is the one who fixes things, and the owner is the one who is liable for them. Those are different people, and a guest who has only ever spoken to the broker may not have noticed.
Clause 23 sets where an argument would be settled: unless page one says otherwise, disputes go to arbitration in London, under the laws of England. A Greek-flagged yacht chartered out of Athens is still contracted this way.
Charter the same yacht twice
The contract follows the relationship for 2 years, and this is the clause that explains why a broker asks to handle the next booking.
Under Clause 24, if the charterer re-charters the yacht from the owner within 2 years of completing the first charter — on the same terms or not — the original broker is entitled to commission on that second charter too. If the charterer books it through a different broker instead, the owner pays a commission once only on the first such charter, split one third to the original broker and two thirds to the new one.
A related provision covers sales. Where the charterer buys the yacht within 2 years of the charter starting, the broker is entitled to a sales commission from the owner.
What to ask a broker
Four questions, and none of them is awkward.
- Are you also the agency representing this yacht? If so, the same firm is on both sides. That is permitted and common, and it is still worth knowing.
- How many yachts did you look at, and what came off the list? A shortlist is only as good as the set it was drawn from.
- What is the commission rate on this yacht, and is it the same across the shortlist? A rate that differs between two yachts is not proof of anything. It is a fact worth having.
- Who is the Stakeholder, and what account do the funds sit in? The answer should be a named company and a designated client account, not a personal assurance.
The fourth question is the one that matters most, and it is the easiest to answer honestly.