A yacht the size of the ones on Below Deck charters for roughly $150,000 to $300,000 per week, and the biggest hulls in the franchise reach $400,000. That is the charter fee alone, before provisioning, taxes, and the tip. The crewed experience itself starts far lower: a fully crewed catamaran with a captain and chef books from around $30,000 a week, often with meals and the bar included in one price, and that is the tier most of our first-time clients book.
Both numbers are real, and the distance between them is the whole story. Here is the full bill, line by line, with the rates we work with every week.
Expert insight
The show films one shelf of the market, the 50 meter shelf. The boats are real and the rates are real, but a crewed week with a captain, a chef, and someone bringing you drinks on the aft deck does not require 50 meters. The entry price for that is roughly a tenth of what the show's yachts charge.
Klara Braga Jakobsen
Broker Assistant
Show Guests Pay About $65,000 for 3 Days
The current price for appearing as a charter guest is about $65,000 for a 3-day trip: roughly $50,000 for the charter itself plus a prepaid crew tip of $15,000. Those figures come from casting materials shared publicly by people the production approached, and they include round-trip flights for the group, 2 hotel nights, and everything consumed on board.
Split among 8 guests, that is just over $8,000 a person, or around $16,000 a couple, for 3 days on a 50 meter superyacht. It reads like a bargain because it is one. The production rents the yacht for the whole filming block, so guests pay roughly half of what the same trip costs commercially. Booked through a broker at market rates, 3 days on a boat that size runs past $200,000 once the extras are in.
The tips handed over on camera are real money, too. The largest in the franchise so far, $50,018, was given during Season 11.
Money is only part of what the show compresses. We covered what Below Deck gets right and wrong about a real charter separately. This page stays on the bill.
Yes, 3-Day Charters Are Real
The show books its guests for short hops because filming needs turnover, but 3-day charters exist off camera too, and brokers price them with a standard convention: the weekly rate divided by 6, times the number of nights. A 6-night charter costs the full weekly rate, and very short bookings often carry a premium of 10 to 20 percent on top.
Run that math on a Below Deck size boat and the show’s discount becomes obvious. A yacht charging $340,000 a week prices 3 nights at $170,000 before the premium, and past $200,000 once the APA and tip are added. Roughly triple what show guests pay.
When does a short charter make sense in real life? Mostly outside peak weeks. Many large yachts decline anything under a week in July and August, and in our experience it is easier to place a 3 or 4 night booking on a catamaran than on a big motor yacht. The move that works is targeting boats with open calendars: a yacht with a gap between bookings will consider a short charter it would refuse in peak season, and finding those gaps is broker work.
The Bill, in Plain English
A crewed yacht charter bill has 4 lines: the charter fee, the APA, VAT where it applies, and the crew tip.
The charter fee covers the yacht, the crew, and everything permanently on board, including the water toys. Everything consumed or bought during the trip is extra, which is what the next line is for.
The APA, short for Advance Provisioning Allowance, is a fund the captain draws on for fuel, food, drinks, and port fees. It is accounted for transparently, and any unspent balance is refunded after the trip. Sailing yachts and catamarans run 20 to 25 percent of the charter fee. Motor yachts run 25 to 40 percent, and on a large motor yacht we would budget 30 to 35. In our experience the APA usually lands close to the quoted figure, and often leaves a small refund, because it is set against your actual itinerary rather than guessed.
VAT is charged on the charter fee in most Mediterranean countries and is due where the charter starts: 20 percent in France, 22 in Italy, 13 in Croatia, and a 13 percent headline rate in Greece, where licensed yachts qualify for significant reductions. The Bahamas charges a consolidated 14 percent tax, and the BVI has no VAT at all. Our yacht charter VAT guide has every country side by side.
The tip gets its own section below, because it is the line the show has done the most to distort.
Put together on a typical mid-size booking, the stack looks like this: a EUR 125,000 motor yacht week in Greece comes to EUR 125,000 plus EUR 16,250 VAT plus EUR 37,500 APA at 30 percent, EUR 178,750 in total before the tip.
The Tip: 5 to 15 Percent in the Med, 15 to 20 in the Caribbean
The tip is discretionary everywhere, calculated on the base charter fee only, never on the APA or VAT, and handed to the captain in one envelope on the last night to be shared by the whole crew.
How much is normal depends on where you sail. Under MYBA terms in the Mediterranean, the guidance is 5 to 15 percent, with around 10 percent for excellent service. In the Caribbean and the US market, 15 to 20 percent is the working norm, because American tipping culture carries over to the water. We give both ranges rather than averaging them, because one number would misstate both markets.
It is never invoiced on a real charter. The prepaid tip show guests hand over is a production arrangement, not how the industry works. Budget for it honestly, then decide at the end of the week.
Broker insight
Every contract mentions the tip, and every contract says the same thing: it is discretionary. We tell clients to plan on 10 to 15 percent in the Med and 15 to 20 in the Caribbean, hand it to the captain on the last night, and never feel invoiced for it.
John Boullin
Charter Broker
The Version You Can Book: 3 Honest Tiers
From around $30,000 a week: a large crewed catamaran. A captain, a chef, and the full service arc the show is built around, and on the all-inclusive boats one price covers meals, the bar, and fuel, so the sticker is close to the final bill. Most all-inclusive catamarans land between $40,000 and $80,000. This is the honest entry to the crewed experience.
EUR 60,000 to 150,000 a week: a mid-size crewed motor yacht. The step between a catamaran and a superyacht, with APA, VAT, and tip on top. A typical Greece motor yacht booking carries a charter fee between EUR 100,000 and EUR 250,000.
EUR 175,000 to 400,000 a week: the Below Deck shelf. Crewed motor yachts of 45 to 60 meters. With APA, VAT, and tip, a real week here lands between roughly $300,000 and $600,000. Two of the franchise’s own boats are on our list: SIROCCO from the Med seasons charters at EUR 180,000 to 195,000 a week, and STARSHIP 185, which appeared as My Seanna, from around $275,000.
The 3 yachts below show the ladder from our own list, and the third makes a point worth knowing: the show’s boats are not the top of the market. CHRISTINA O charters at EUR 740,000 a week, nearly double the biggest Below Deck yacht.
Tell us the week you have in mind and the budget you are working with, and we will match you with crewed yachts that fit both, at any point on this ladder. Get your yacht shortlist.
People also ask
Do people really charter a yacht for just 3 days?
Yes. Brokers price part-weeks at the weekly rate divided by 6, times the number of nights, usually with a 10 to 20 percent premium for very short bookings. Many large yachts decline anything under a week in July and August, so short charters are easiest to place in shoulder season and on catamarans. A yacht with a gap between bookings will often take a 3 or 4 night charter it would refuse in peak weeks, and finding those gaps is exactly the kind of thing we do.
Is everything included in the yacht charter fee?
No. The charter fee covers the yacht, the crew, and everything permanently on board, including the water toys. Food, drinks, fuel, and port fees run through the APA, VAT applies in most Mediterranean countries, and the tip comes at the end.
The exception is the all-inclusive tier of crewed catamarans, where one price genuinely covers meals, the bar, and fuel. That predictability is a big part of why we point most first-time charterers there.
Can you charter the actual Below Deck yachts?
Several of them, yes. Most Below Deck boats charter commercially between filming seasons at their normal market rates, and we have verified 13 of the franchise’s hulls chartering across our network, several under new names. Our own list includes SIROCCO and STARSHIP 185, which appeared on the show as My Seanna. As for whether the week on board matches what you watched, we broke down what the show gets right and wrong separately.
Do you really tip 15 to 20 percent on a yacht charter?
In the Caribbean, yes: 15 to 20 percent of the base charter fee is the working norm. In the Mediterranean, the MYBA guidance is 5 to 15 percent, with about 10 percent for excellent service. Everywhere, the tip is discretionary, calculated on the charter fee only, and handed to the captain at the end of the week to be shared by the whole crew. It is a real cost to budget for, but it is never an invoice line.
What is the cheapest way to get the crewed Below Deck experience?
A crewed catamaran, booked all-inclusive. From around $30,000 a week you get a captain, a chef, and the service arc the show is built around: meals cooked on board, drinks appearing, toys launched off the back. The BVI is where we find the most choice at this level. What you give up against a 50 meter motor yacht is size and interior volume, not the crew.