What the MYBA Charter Agreement Is

What the form is

Most crewed charters in the Mediterranean are not written from scratch. They run on a standard form published by MYBA, the worldwide yachting association, and the industry has used versions of it for decades.

A standard form does something useful for both sides. The owner is not negotiating the same twelve points with every charterer, and the charterer is signing a document that thousands of charters have already tested — which means the awkward parts have been argued about by other people first, and the answers are known.

Page one is where the deal actually lives: the yacht, the dates, the cruising area, the charter fee, the delivery and redelivery ports, the number of guests and the figure written in as the advance provisioning allowance. The clauses behind it are the machinery.

The clause that divides the money

Clause 8 does the heaviest work in the whole document, because it decides which side pays for what.

The charter fee covers the yacht with its equipment in working order, tools, stores, cleaning materials, basic consumable stores, laundry of the ship’s linen, the crew’s wages, uniforms and food, and the insurance of the vessel and crew.

Everything the guests themselves consume sits outside that. Fuel, food and drink for the charter party, berthing and harbour charges, water and electricity taken ashore, personal laundry, communications: all payable at cost, and usually funded through the advance provisioning allowance. The mechanics of that float are set out in what an APA is.

Read those two paragraphs against each other and the shape of the deal appears in a sentence. The yacht and the people who run it are bought. What the guests use is not.

Where the money sits before the charter

Charter funds do not go straight to the owner. Under the standard arrangement the money is held by a stakeholder — normally the central agent’s brokerage — until the charter starts, and it is released against the terms of the agreement rather than on request.

That arrangement is the reason the contract, the account and the broker’s role all have to be understood together rather than separately. What a charter broker is covers the rest of it.

What the 2025 revision added

MYBA released a revised agreement in April 2025, the first substantial change since the 2017 version, adding six clauses numbered 26 to 31. They exist because the compliance environment moved and the older form said nothing about it.

Know your client. Owner and charterer are both required to provide identity documentation before funds move. Where a third party is paying on the charterer’s behalf, that payer is drawn into the checks too — the change most likely to surprise a family office or a corporate payer that expected to sit outside the transaction.

Sanctions. A defined sanctions clause, framed as a continuing warranty by both sides, with an express route to termination if it is breached.

Confidentiality. The terms of the agreement, the documents executed under it, ownership information and the identity of the charterer and the charter party are all covered — and the obligation survives fulfilment, cancellation or rescission with no time limit on it. For a charterer who cares about privacy, this is the clause worth reading twice.

Data protection, and conduct on board, which now permits immediate termination for physical or sexual assault, or the possession of illegal drugs or weapons.

What the form does not settle

Three things sit outside it, and each has caused a bad week for somebody.

The itinerary. The agreement names a cruising area, not a route. Where the yacht actually goes is the captain’s decision, taken on the weather and the sea. A charterer who has been promised a specific harbour on a specific night has been promised something the contract does not contain — see the meltemi.

National law. Greece regulates who may charter in its waters, what licence the yacht needs and what tax is due, and none of that is displaced by the form. Foreign-flagged yachts in Greek waters sets out that framework.

The yacht itself. No clause turns a tired yacht into a fresh one. The contract governs the deal, not the standard of the boat.

What to read before signing

1. Page one, line by line. The dates, the cruising area, the guest numbers, the delivery and redelivery ports, and the APA figure. Most disputes start with something written here and read quickly.
2. Which version of the form it is. The 2025 revision and the 2017 version are not the same document.
3. What identity documents will be required, and from whom — particularly where somebody other than the guest is paying.
4. The cancellation and non-delivery provisions, before any of them are needed.
5. What is being promised outside the contract. A specific berth, a specific chef, a specific night ashore: if it matters, it belongs on page one.