Crewed or bareboat, week or weekend, and the costs that do not appear in the headline rate.
The headline charter rate is rarely what a week on the water costs, and the difference surprises people often enough that it is worth setting out plainly.
Crewed or bareboat
Bareboat means you skipper it yourself, and it requires a licence the charter company will check. It is cheaper and, for experienced sailors, better. Crewed means a captain and usually a cook or steward. For most clients chartering once a year, crewed is the correct answer: the crew know the anchorages, the weather and which harbourmaster to call.
What is on top of the rate
Expect fuel, harbour and marina fees, provisioning, and crew gratuity to sit outside the base rate. On a motor yacht fuel is the significant one and depends entirely on how fast you want to travel. A boat run at twelve knots instead of twenty can halve the week's fuel bill, and you will see more.
When to go
July and August are the most expensive, the most crowded and, in much of the western Mediterranean, the hottest. June and September offer the same water at a lower rate with space in the anchorages. Early October is a gamble that often pays.
Planning the route backwards
The most common mistake is planning a route by distance rather than by wind. Prevailing summer conditions make some legs comfortable in one direction and unpleasant in the other. A good captain will redesign your week in ten minutes if you let them, and the redesigned version is almost always better.
The day before
Provisioning, guest preferences, dietary requirements and any celebration you want arranged should be settled before you board, not on the first morning. A day of the charter spent shopping is a day of the charter lost.
