[Back to Intel](/intel/) Gear & Prep · 29 min read # What an Adventure Charter Actually Costs: The APA, Dive Crew, Toys, Permits and Fuel How an adventure charter is billed: base fee, APA, tax, park fees and gratuity, with worked examples for a BVI dive week, a Mentawai surf trip and Antarctica. 29 September 2026 Three quotes arrive for three trips: a crewed catamaran dive week in the British Virgin Islands, a surf charter in the Mentawai Islands, and three weeks on an ice-class expedition yacht out of Ushuaia. One is a single all-inclusive figure. One is a price per person. One is a weekly rate with a 35 per cent advance provisioning allowance, a tax line reading “none” and a note that fuel is extra. They cannot be compared until each is broken into the same five lines, and the number printed largest on all three, the base fee, is the one the adventure changes least. That is the problem this guide is for. It does not answer “how much does a yacht charter cost”, which every brokerage site answers by yacht length. It explains the structure of an adventure-charter bill: what sits inside the base fee, what sits in the APA, what is a tax, what is a park fee or a permit, what a specialist crew member costs to carry, and why each of those lines is larger on a dive week, a surf trip or a polar expedition than on a Riviera week aboard the same yacht. Every figure is dated and attributed. Where the honest answer is “the broker quotes it case by case”, it says so, because that is itself useful to know before the quote arrives. ## Three billing models, not one The activity usually decides which model a quote sits on, and a reader who does not know which model applies cannot compare two quotes. **Plus-expenses.** The MYBA-style contract used for superyachts and [expedition vessels](/adventures/expedition/) almost everywhere: a base fee for the yacht and crew, plus an advance provisioning allowance (APA) paid up front and spent by the captain on running costs. Tax and gratuity sit outside both. This is the model of the Antarctic example below. **All-inclusive.** The CYBA-style terms used for crewed catamarans in the Caribbean, where a BVI dive week mostly lives. One figure bundles licensed crew, food, a standard bar, fuel, water, permits and the onboard sports equipment, with a small advance allowance of around 5 per cent for extras (charteryachtguide.com, 2026). Vital Charters’ September 2026 count of 817 all-inclusive rate listings found 799, or 97.8 per cent, with no mandatory APA at all; the remaining 18 asked 5 to 10 per cent for premium extras. **Per-person, sold by the berth.** Indonesian surf charters, Galápagos and Maldives liveaboard-style vessels. The boat, crew, guides, fuel and meals are inside one per-person price, and a group books the whole boat by taking every berth. There is no APA because there is nothing to reconcile. The same vessel can appear on two models at once. A 30 to 50 metre Indonesian phinisi may be sold per berth on a surf operator’s schedule and on plus-expenses terms with an APA through an international brokerage. The first question to a broker is therefore not “how much” but “on which terms”. ## The five lines of an adventure-charter bill ### 1\. The base fee Under Clause 8 of the MYBA Charter Agreement, the charter fee covers “charter of the Vessel with all its equipment in working order”, tools, stores and cleaning materials, basic consumables for engine room, deck, galley and cabins, laundry of ship’s linen, and “the crew’s wages, uniforms and food”, with vessel and crew insurance under Clause 16 (wording as quoted by Vital Charters, 2026). This is the figure a listing shows and the figure the [yacht search](/yachts/) on this site shows: a weekly base rate, filterable by price, with APA, tax, fees and gratuity all on top. It is the least adventure-sensitive line on the bill. A 50 metre expedition yacht’s weekly rate is the same whether it spends the week in Sardinia or Svalbard. What the activity changes is everything below it. The one adventure-specific exception is duration. Expedition and polar charters carry longer minimums: Pelorus Yachting’s Antarctica page (September 2026) gives a 10-day minimum and recommends 14 to 21 days, and the [expedition versus standard charter guide](/intel/tech-expedition-vs-regular/) already puts a typical expedition at two to three weeks. Three weeks of base fee is the first reason the Antarctic bill is large, before a single expedition line is added. ### 2\. The APA The advance provisioning allowance is a cash float paid before boarding, held and spent by the captain, accounted for with receipts at the end and refunded if there is a balance. Clause 8 lists what the charterer pays through it “at cost”: “all fuel for the Vessel, its tenders and all watersports equipment”, “food and all beverages for the Charter Party”, “berthing dues and other harbour charges including pilots’ fees, local taxes, divers’ fees, customs formalities”, personal laundry, communications, waste disposal, shore water and electricity (Vital Charters, 2026). Read that list once more. Divers’ fees and pilots’ fees are named in the standard contract. The adventure lines are not an exotic add-on; they were always in the wording. What the percentage actually is, as of September 2026: Vital Charters analysed 222 Caribbean and Bahamas plus-expenses listings and found 35 per cent stated on 132 of them (59 per cent), 30 per cent on 53, 25 per cent on 23, 40 per cent on 12 and 20 per cent on 2. Motor yachts stated 35 per cent on 127 of 148 listings; sailing catamarans 30 per cent on 34 of 44; power catamarans 25 to 35, most often 30; sailing monohulls 25 to 30. The same analysis is explicit that neither MYBA nor IYBA publishes a percentage. The figures are fleet practice, not association rules. Two things are never inside the APA: the charter tax and the crew gratuity. Readers conflate all three, and the reconciliation at the end of the trip is where the confusion surfaces. The adventure-specific point is that the APA is a deposit against running costs, not a price. A 35 per cent float on a Riviera week is a comfortable margin. The same 35 per cent on a three-week Antarctic charter with 250 engine hours may not cover fuel alone. No published figure exists for a standard “expedition APA” percentage, so do not expect one on the listing; expect the captain to ask for more than the listed percentage on any long-range or polar itinerary, and expect to top the float up mid-charter if the route changes. At settlement the captain “shall present a detailed account of expenditure, with supporting receipts” before disembarkation and refund any overpayment, increasingly by bank transfer (Vital Charters, 2026). On all-inclusive Caribbean charters the equivalent instrument is a security deposit of $5,000 to 25,000 held on a card and often waived (Vital Charters, August 2026). ### 3\. Tax on the charter fee Applied to the base fee, and in some jurisdictions to APA items, by the place of embarkation. It moves the total by up to a fifth, and it is the line where the adventure grounds win: several of them charge nothing on the fee. The full table is below. ### 4\. Fixed fees, permits and park charges The line generic cost posts skip, and the one that varies most by destination. It is also the line that is collected in the most different ways: a Mentawai surf levy is collected by the operator before departure and is not in the charter price; a Galápagos park fee is paid per person on arrival; a BVI cruising permit is charged per person per day; a Great Barrier Reef environmental charge is collected by the permit holder and remitted quarterly; an IAATO fee is the operator’s annual cost and never appears on the guest’s bill at all. Each is set out in the APA section below, because on a plus-expenses charter most of them flow through the float. ### 5\. Gratuity Calculated on the base fee only, never on the APA or the tax, handed to the captain, and on most yachts split equally across the whole crew. It is never inside the APA. The specialist-crew section below covers the MYBA wording and the one question that matters on an adventure charter: who is in the tip pool and who is not. ## What drives the APA on an adventure itinerary ### Fuel: hours, not litres per hour The single most useful and least-known point in charter costing is that expedition yachts burn less fuel per hour than planing motor yachts and still produce the biggest fuel bills in the industry. The reason is hours, not consumption. Platform Consumption Source 45-50 ft sailing catamaran, motoring About 15 l/h per engine at cruise; a 50 ft cat on one engine 6 l/h at 5.5 kn Katamarans.com; owner-reported (YBW forum) 64 ft sportfisher, twin MTU 12V 2000 M96X 387 l/h per engine at rated power, about 774 l/h for the pair at full throttle MTU Marine Solution Guide, Edition 1/24 30 m planing motor yacht at 20 kn 400-500 l/h West Nautical; SeaRadar 50 m displacement motor yacht at 11 kn About 100 l/h Yachts for Kings, 2026; West Nautical 47.8 m ice-class expedition yacht (Hanse Explorer) at 10 kn 200 l/h; 151,000 l tanks; 9,000 nm range YachtCharterFleet listing spec Now the arithmetic. The [Antarctic expedition log](/intel/log-antarctic-expedition/) gives the Ushuaia to Peninsula round trip as roughly 2,500 nautical miles, with no fuel south of the Beagle Channel. At 10 knots that is 250 engine hours. At 200 litres an hour that is 50,000 litres for transit alone, before a week of Peninsula cruising and before generators run 24 hours a day for three weeks in a place where the heating never goes off. A 30 metre planing yacht burning 450 litres an hour needs only 25 hours of running to burn 11,000 litres in a Mediterranean week. Same order of litres per hour; five to ten times the hours. What the litre costs, dated 11 September 2026: Ship & Bunker’s published price for marine gas oil, the duty-free distillate a yacht bunkers, was US$1,584 per metric tonne at Gibraltar, $1,587 at Piraeus, $1,472.50 at Rotterdam, $1,479.50 at Houston and $1,608.50 at Fujairah. At MGO’s density of roughly 1,170 litres per tonne, Gibraltar’s figure is about US$1.35 per litre before delivery margin. Retail road diesel the same week (GlobalPetrolPrices, 7 September 2026) was $2.215 per litre in Spain, $2.155 in France, $2.101 in Italy and $1.361 in Argentina, which is the ceiling a yacht meets at a marina pump. A working band: US$1.35 to 1.60 per litre duty-free bunkering (Gibraltar, Malta, Palma; St Maarten and Antigua in the Caribbean) and US$1.80 to 2.30 per litre duty-paid marina fuel in the Mediterranean. No Ushuaia supplier price sheet was found; gas oil there is delivered to the pier by truck, and Argentina’s retail diesel price is the only dated proxy. Put together, the Antarctic fuel line is 50,000 to 90,000 litres at US$1.35 to 1.60, or roughly US$70,000 to 145,000 for a three-week charter on a Hanse Explorer-class yacht. That is an estimate built from published consumption, a bunker index price and the site’s own distance figure, and it should be read as one. On a yacht that has been listed at $245,000 a week, it is on the order of half a week’s base fee, sitting inside the APA. The sportfishing consequence runs the other way. A 64-foot convertible with the MTU 12V 2000 option burns about 774 litres an hour for the pair at rated power (MTU, Edition 1/24), several hundred at cruise and, owner-reported, under a hundred while trolling. A day that runs to a canyon edge 100 miles out and trolls for eight hours burns fuel in the low thousands of litres, which at the September 2026 band is thousands of dollars a day. That is why [sportfishing](/adventures/fishing/) charters in the Bahamas and Cape Verde are quoted with a separate fuel line even when the rest is all-inclusive. The catamaran consequence is the opposite of both. A BVI week is short hops under sail or on one engine; the whole week might burn a few hundred litres. That is why the BVI market can afford to be all-inclusive. Two smaller fuel lines are easy to miss. Clause 8 puts fuel for “tenders and all watersports equipment” inside the APA, so two personal watercraft, a JetSurf and a 10 metre tender run every day add a real line to a watersports-heavy week; the [water toys guide](/intel/tech-yacht-water-toys-guide/) already tells readers to ask whether PWC and JetSurf fuel is included. And a yacht that bunkers HVO in northern Europe pays more per litre for it, as the [sustainable expedition yachts guide](/intel/tech-sustainable-expedition-yachts/) notes, before finding that it is unavailable in Patagonia anyway. ### Dive fills, nitrox and gas On a yacht with its own compressor, fills rarely appear as an APA line: the marginal cost is fuel and filter media, and on most yachts with a membrane system nitrox is not itemised at all. The cost appears when the yacht has no compressor. Shore fills run $4 to 15 for air and $8 to 25 for nitrox per 80 cubic foot cylinder (OkToDive, Calcix, 2026), and the volume on a real dive week is the point: 8 divers making 3 dives a day for 6 days is 144 fills. Liveaboard practice shows what an onboard dive centre costs to run when it is itemised: Aggressor charges $100 for unlimited nitrox on a 7-night charter, $125 for 8 nights and $150 for 10 (32 per cent mix, certification required), and many premium liveaboards include it. The line that turns “a catamaran week” into “a dive week” in the Caribbean is this one, from UC Yacht Charters (2026) on all-inclusive crewed catamarans: “Snorkel gear is always included. Scuba diving (tanks, regulator, dive guide, certification courses) is almost never included in the base rate and is treated as an additional excursion.” Without a compressor and a divemaster in the crew, the diving is a rendezvous with a shore operator at a per-person, per-dive price, which the [dive certification guide](/intel/prep-dive-certification/) describes and which works well in the BVI and the Grenadines precisely because the operators are plentiful. In the Tobago Cays it is mandatory: the park’s regulations require all scuba diving to be accompanied by a registered local dive operator. Trimix and helium on the handful of yachts with mixed-gas systems is a genuine APA line. The [submersibles and dive systems guide](/intel/tech-submersibles-dive-systems/) describes the hardware. ### Park fees, guides and permits All figures as of September 2026 unless dated otherwise. **British Virgin Islands.** No tax on the charter fee. Instead, a cruising permit of $16 per person per day for foreign-based charter boats and $4 for BVI-based ones, in force from 1 June 2025 under the Cruising and Home Port Permit Act (HM Customs schedule, October 2025), plus an environmental fee of $10 per person, a VISAR contribution of $2 per person and a National Parks Trust mooring permit of $25 a week for four guests to $55 for ten (Vital Charters, 7 September 2026; UC Yacht Charters, 2026). Vital Charters’ benchmark for six guests over seven nights is about $750 in guest fees. NPT overnight moorings at protected sites run $35 to 50 a night and are inside most all-inclusive rates. One consequence worth asking about: Cruising Compass reported in May 2026 that USVI-based charter boats now pay $1,200 per boat per visit, which is why some USVI-based dive catamarans no longer run BVI itineraries. The broker confirms the current schedule for the specific boat. **Grenadines.** A cruising licence of about EC$125 and a cruise tax of about EC$35 per person per month (Vital Charters, September 2026). The Tobago Cays Marine Park’s own fee notice, effective 1 January 2023, sets park entry at EC$15 per person for yachts, charter boats and dive boats, and EC$60 per 24 hours for a park mooring or for anchoring, with the same EC$60 at Clifton Harbour and Salt Whistle Bay. At the EC$2.70 peg that is about US$5.55 per person and US$22 a night. Small numbers; the rule that matters is the registered-operator requirement for diving. **Bahamas.** Cruising permit from $500 for vessels under 50 feet to $3,000 at 100 feet and over; $30 per person aged 6 and over beyond three passengers; Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park moorings $30 to 190 a night (Vital Charters, September 2026). The tax is the bigger line: see the table below. **Galápagos.** The park-fee and mandatory-guide case, and the reason it gets its own paragraph rather than a worked example. National Park entry is $200 per foreign adult and $100 per foreign child from 1 August 2024, the first increase in more than two decades, paid in cash on arrival; the Transit Control Card is $20 per person. The certified naturalist guide is a park rule at regulated visitor sites, not an option, at $200 to 400 or more a day (Breezada, 12 August 2026), one guide per 16 guests on licensed vessels. Agent fees run “commonly US$500-1,500+” by vessel length and port calls (Breezada). The [Galápagos expedition guide](/intel/intel-galapagos-expedition/) covers the Autógrafo and the 12 to 18 month practical lead time. The harder point is structural. The Galápagos National Park Directorate’s permit catalogue lists entry authorisation for private vessels, foreign and national, on one track, and tourism operation on another: operating quotas, tourism operating licences and vessel charter contracts, the mechanism by which a quota holder charters in a vessel. A visiting foreign yacht enters as a private vessel; commercial operation belongs to the quota and licence holder. The catalogue gives titles only, no fees, so no charter-authorisation figure is quoted here. A [Galápagos charter](/destinations/galapagos/) is arranged through a specialist agent, and the route to a real number is [a conversation](/contact/), not a table. **Great Barrier Reef.** The Environmental Management Charge, verified on the Reef Authority’s own page on 12 September 2026: AUD 8.50 per visitor per day for trips of three hours or more, AUD 4.25 for part days, charged for the first three days of an extended charter with later days exempt; AUD 2 per person on the first day only for non-tourist charter such as filming or research. Already gazetted: AUD 9.00 and 4.50 from 1 April 2027. No GST on the charge. Any yacht run commercially in the Marine Park needs a tourism or charter permit and collects the charge per guest; for 12 guests on a 7-day charter the line is about AUD 300 for the party. The [Great Barrier Reef guide](/intel/intel-great-barrier-reef/) says environmental management fees apply; that is the number. The permit, not the charge, is the real constraint: routine permits cover vessels up to 35 metres, and anything larger or more regular needs a tailored one. **Maldives.** Cruise permit for foreign tourist vessels USD 1,000 under the September 2023 Foreign Tourist Vessel Regulation (Travel Trade Maldives, 18 September 2023). Vessels under 20 metres are free for 90 days, then USD 50 a day; over 20 metres USD 100 a day, waived for vessels holding a charter licence. Green Tax USD 12 per person per night, doubled from 6 on 1 January 2025, and TGST 17 per cent from 1 July 2025. The [Maldives diving guide](/intel/intel-maldives-diving/) covers the atolls and the Hanifaru Bay coordination. **Mentawai.** The surf levy is IDR 2,000,000 per surfer, valid for 15 consecutive days, under Mentawai Islands Regency Perda No. 1 Tahun 2024. It applies to charter-boat and land-based surfers alike, non-surfers are exempt, and it is usually collected by the operator before departure from Padang and not included in the charter price (Pulau Asli Tour, 2026; Wavehunters booking notes). At September 2026 rates that is roughly USD 120 to 130 a head; convert on the day. **Antarctica.** No entry fee. The cost is compliance. Under IAATO’s 2024-25 fee structure, a Provisional Small Yacht member carrying up to 12 passengers pays $2,500 in annual dues plus $4.00 per passenger per day in coastal waters south of 60°S and at South Georgia (full operators pay $8.00). For 12 guests and 12 days south of 60°S that is $576, and it is the operator’s cost, not a guest line. The Antarctic “permit cost” is not the fee; it is the expedition leader, the environmental impact assessment, the contingency and evacuation plan and the months of paperwork. National authorisation is mandatory and, in IAATO’s words, “an Argentine or Chilean exit permit or zarpe by itself is not a suitable authorization”. The UK FCDO asks for at least 4 months on a new application and 2 on a repeat, no fee stated (gov.uk, checked September 2026); the US Antarctic Conservation Act process runs about 45 to 60 days including a 30-day Federal Register comment period (NSF), and a private ice-pilot firm quotes “minimum three months” for the US route because State, EPA and NSF are all involved. ### Submersibles and helicopters A submersible changes the crew count, and the crew count changes the base fee. The [submersibles guide](/intel/tech-submersibles-dive-systems/) has the detail: a pilot, a sub technician and a surface guard-boat team for every dive, an annual class survey and insurer-approved pilots, which is a large part of why submersible-capable yachts run 20-plus crew. U-Boat Worx’s June 2025 wet-lease programme bundles the sub, certified pilots, crew, maintenance and permitting for a season, priced on request. More crew means more berths, more food and more wages inside the base fee. A helicopter is stricter still. Only a certified helideck with fuel and hangar, “usually only found on yachts above 262 ft” (Boat International), can be used for commercial charter flying; touch-and-go decks cannot operate in poor weather or darkness. Operations need a Helicopter Landing Officer and helideck assistants trained to the UK MCA syllabus, plus the pilots and usually an engineer. The hours themselves cost what a light single costs to wet-charter: $2,500 to 4,000 per flight hour for the H125 and H130 class (Jettly, Hangar 7, 2025-26). On a charter the guest typically pays Jet A-1 and any pilot day rates through the APA while the yacht carries the fixed cost in the base fee, but the split varies and must be asked. The crew-to-guest ratio is the visible cost of the toys: Legend, 77.4 metres with a commercial helideck and a submarine, carries 22 guests and 28 crew and has been listed at €625,000 a week; Octopus, 126.2 metres, carries 12 guests and 45 crew and has been listed at $2,200,000 (Boat International, 4 September 2024). ### Delivery, duration and season A delivery fee applies when a yacht must move empty to meet the charter or return afterwards, covering fuel, crew time and port costs for the leg. In the Caribbean plus-expenses fleet the median lowest quoted delivery fee is $1,750 (Vital Charters, 2026). Remote grounds work differently: yachts are positioned for a season, Antarctica from November to March, the Galápagos by permit cycle, and the positioning is priced into the seasonal rate. The guest sees no delivery line, and no discount either. A one-off request to bring a yacht somewhere it is not already going is quoted as days at a reduced rate plus fuel, and there is no standard formula. Season premiums cut the other way in the Caribbean, where the [Caribbean guide](/intel/intel-caribbean/) records a 15 to 25 per cent surcharge at Christmas and New Year, and the [adventure charter calendar](/intel/intel-adventure-charter-calendar/) marks the May and November value windows either side of it. Some Antarctic listings are the reverse tell: a flat rate in all four seasonal bands, because the season is fixed by the ice, not by demand, and the calendar’s polar months show how narrow that window is. ## Tax by cruising ground Rates on the charter fee as published by IYC (updated 7 May 2026) and Ocean Independence (November 2025) unless noted. The broker confirms the current rate on the day; these move. Cruising ground Rate on charter fee Notes France and Monaco 20% Proportional reduction for documented time outside EU waters Italy 22% Old lump-sum reduction abolished; reductions on documented time outside EU waters Spain 21% Spanish charter licence required; no reduction for international waters Greece 5.2-13% effective Reduced from 24% by licence, duration and itinerary; 24% if conditions not met Croatia 13% Charters starting in Croatian waters; pro rata available Montenegro 0% Croatian VAT applies to any Croatian legs Turkey 20% Some arrangements subject to different local treatment Bahamas 14% Consolidated charter tax from 1 July 2025 (S.I. No. 57 of 2025), replacing 4% port fee plus 10% VAT BVI None Per-person, per-day cruising permit instead USVI None NPS mooring fees around St John only St Martin None Visitor tax on charters abolished 2020 Grenadines None Marine park and cruising licence fees only Maldives 17% TGST From 1 July 2025; plus Green Tax USD 12 per person per night USA No federal VAT State and county sales or use tax varies The adventure-specific reading: the cheapest tax regimes are the adventure grounds. Montenegro, the BVI, the Grenadines, the USVI and St Martin charge nothing on the fee; the Mediterranean charges 13 to 22 per cent; the Bahamas 14; the Maldives 17. A kite week in the Grenadines and a dive week in the Balearics on the same catamaran differ by a fifth before a litre of fuel is burned. ## Specialist crew, and who is in the tip pool A permanent dive instructor is inside the base fee, because crew wages are Clause 8. Published 2026 salary bands give a sense of what that line carries: $3,500 to 5,500 a month on 30 to 50 metre yachts, $5,500 to 8,000 on 50 to 80 metres, $8,000 to 12,000 and up above 80 metres, with charter tips adding $2,000 to 6,000 per charter (Yachtly Crew, 2026). A freelance instructor, divemaster, surf guide or naturalist engaged for one charter is an extra: a day rate plus flights and a berth. No reliable freelance day-rate benchmark exists, so treat any single number with suspicion and ask for the quote. The [family charter guide](/intel/prep-family-adventure-charter/) covers how to ask the broker for an instructor or a nanny, both of which are lines on this bill rather than assumptions. On a [Galápagos](/destinations/galapagos/) per-person vessel the naturalist is inside the price. On a private yacht it is an agent-arranged line at the $200 to 400 a day above, and there is no version of the trip without it. In [Antarctica](/destinations/antarctica/) the team is an expedition leader, two to four guides and, where the captain lacks polar hours, an ice pilot. EYOS describes onboard teams that “typically include naturalists, historians, photographers, and glaciologists”. Ice pilot firms quote per trip, case by case, varying with “the trip’s duration and difficulty, the vessel’s characteristics, and downtime” (Skua Pilots; Antarctic Ice Pilot). There is no published day rate. What can be said is that three to five contracted specialists for 12 guests over three weeks each need a fee agreed in advance, flights to Ushuaia and a cabin. The cabin point is real: a 12-guest yacht may sleep only 10 paying guests once the expedition team is aboard. On a Mentawai per-person charter the guides are the operator’s staff and inside the price (Surf Camp Sumatra; Pulau Asli, 2026). ### Gratuity, and the MYBA wording MYBA’s guidelines for charter yacht captains and crew, revised April 2018 and still the current document on the association’s site as of 12 September 2026, read under Crew Gratuities: “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.” The same paragraph says a charterer is under no obligation to leave one and that “at no time should a gratuity be solicited, either verbally or in written form when settling the final account”. The 5 to 15 per cent is what brokers suggest, not an association rule, and Caribbean practice runs higher at 15 to 20 per cent (Vital Charters, August 2026; UC Yacht Charters gives 15 to 20 as standard on all-inclusive catamarans). The mechanics: on the base fee only, not the APA or tax; to the captain in cash or by transfer; on most yachts split equally across the whole crew including the engineers. The adventure-specific problem is that specialist staff are often not crew. An IAATO expedition leader, a Galápagos naturalist, an ice pilot, a surf guide or a wet-leased submersible pilot may be contracted for the trip rather than employed on the yacht, and may or may not be in the captain’s pool. On a Mentawai charter a separate tip for the guides is customary. On a Galápagos vessel the guide is tipped separately from the crew on most operators’ guidance. No published figure exists for specialist-staff gratuity, and none is offered here. The question to ask before boarding, not on the last night, is: who is in the tip pool, and who is not? ## Worked example A: a BVI crewed catamaran dive week Model: all-inclusive, 8 guests, 7 nights, a 55 to 65 foot crewed catamaran with a compressor and a divemaster in the crew. Figures September 2026. Line Range Basis Base fee, all-inclusive $25,000-55,000 50-65 ft crewed cats “$25,000-$55,000 per week all-inclusive for up to 8 guests” (charteryachtguide.com); 50-60 ft $25,000-45,000, 60-80 ft $45,000-95,000 (Yacht Warriors, 2026) Included Fuel, food, standard bar, NPT moorings, water toys, snorkel kit UC Yacht Charters, 2026 APA Usually none; 5-10% for premium extras on about 2% of listings Vital Charters, September 2026 Tax on fee None BVI Guest fees: cruising permit ($16 pp/day foreign-based, $4 BVI-based), environmental $10 pp, VISAR $2 pp, NPT permit $25-55 per week About $750 for six guests over seven nights Vital Charters benchmark, 7 September 2026; confirm the schedule for the boat Diving The variable line: onboard with compressor and divemaster, sometimes a set number of dives included then per dive; or rendezvous with a shore operator per person per dive; nitrox on top ”Almost never included in the base rate” (UC Yacht Charters); no verified BVI rendezvous price, ask the operator Gratuity 15-20% of base, $3,750-11,000 Caribbean practice Indicative total About $30,000-70,000 plus diving Derived Three things to take from it. The base fee is 75 to 85 per cent of the bill, which is why all-inclusive works here and why the price on a listing is close to the price of the week. The dive line is the one that turns a catamaran week into a dive week, and it is the line most often missing from the quote; a boat with its own compressor and divemaster, and a boat that meets a shore operator at Norman Island, are billed differently and dive differently. And a foreign-based boat pays a materially higher cruising permit than a BVI-based one, which is worth a question before comparing two otherwise similar catamarans. The [BVI adventure guide](/intel/intel-bvi-adventure/) covers the NPT mooring fields and no-overnight sites; the Caribbean guide covers the Christmas premium, overtime clearance charges and pre-clearance subscriptions. From there, the [BVI destination page](/destinations/bvi/), the [diving page](/adventures/diving/) and the yacht search, remembering that the rates shown are base fees. ## Worked example B: a Mentawai surf charter Model: per-person, all-inclusive, sold by the berth. The boat, crew, surf guides, fuel, meals and Padang harbour transfers are inside one per-person price, and the group books the whole boat by taking every berth. Figures from 2026 season operator schedules unless noted. Line Range Basis Per person, 10-12 nights $2,800-4,800 typical; $3,000-7,000 and up across the fleet Maha Bintang $2,800 pp (11 nights, 7 guests); Bintang from $3,062 pp (min 10, max 14); Star Koat 2 about $3,200 pp (12 guests); Siloina phinisi $4,200-4,800 pp (12 nights); Surf Camp Sumatra $3,100-3,300 pp (12 nights) Whole-boat equivalent About $30,000-58,000 for 10-12 surfers, 10-12 nights Derived from the per-person bands Included Boat, crew, surf guides, fuel, all meals, tenders to the breaks, Padang transfers Operator pages Surf levy IDR 2,000,000 per surfer, 15 days, not included, collected before departure Perda No. 1 Tahun 2024 (Pulau Asli, 2026; Wavehunters) Not included Flights to Padang, airport transfers about IDR 400,000 return, alcohol on many boats, board hire IDR 200,000-350,000 a day, travel insurance with medevac (mandatory with most operators), crew and guide tips Pulau Asli, 2026 APA None; the model has no running account Tax None shown to the guest; Indonesian taxes sit inside the operator’s price Gratuity Customary, separate for crew and guides; no published percentage Three things to take from it. There is no APA because there is nothing to reconcile: fuel is the operator’s risk, which is why boats hold position rather than chase a swell 200 miles away, and why “how far will the boat run to find waves?” is the right question to ask. The [Indonesia surf charter guide](/intel/surf-charter-indonesia/) covers the fleet tiers and the [surf expedition log](/intel/log-indonesia-surf-expedition/) shows what a season on the water looks like. Second, the levy is the fee readers most often get wrong, and it is per surfer, not per berth. Third, larger Indonesian phinisi and expedition yachts on the international brokerage market are sold on plus-expenses terms with an APA instead, so ask which model a quote is on before comparing it with a per-person schedule. From there, the [surfing page](/adventures/surfing/) and the [Southeast Asia destination page](/destinations/southeast-asia/). ## Worked example C: an Antarctic expedition Model: plus-expenses with a large APA, three weeks, 12 guests, an ice-class expedition yacht out of Ushuaia. Figures September 2026; the fuel line is a derived estimate and is labelled as one. Line Range Basis Base fee per week $245,000 (47.8 m Hanse Explorer, 12 guests, ”+ expenses”, flat in all four seasonal bands) to €510,000-625,000 (58 m Pink Shadow; 77 m Legend) to $2,200,000 (126 m Octopus); Pelorus quotes La Datcha from $630,000, Captain Arctic from €590,000, Sherakhan from €595,000 YachtCharterFleet, September 2026; Boat International, 4 September 2024; Pelorus, September 2026. All “has been listed at” Duration 10 days minimum, 14-21 recommended Pelorus, 2026 Three-week base About $735,000 (Hanse-class) to about €1.8m (Legend-class) Derived APA Listing norm 35%; expect the captain to ask for more on a polar itinerary Vital Charters, September 2026; no published expedition percentage Fuel, inside the APA 2,500 nm at 10 kn is 250 h; at 200 l/h that is 50,000 l for transit; with Peninsula cruising and 24-hour generators 50,000-90,000 l, roughly US$70,000-145,000 at US$1.35-1.60 per litre Site’s own 2,500 nm; Hanse Explorer listing spec; Ship & Bunker MGO Gibraltar 11 September 2026. Estimate IAATO $2,500 annual dues plus $4 per passenger per day south of 60°S; about $576 for 12 guests over 12 days; operator’s cost IAATO fee structure 2024-25 National permit UK 4 months new, 2 repeat, no fee stated; US 45-60 days plus EPA, “minimum three months” in practice; EIA and contingency plan required gov.uk; NSF; antarcticicepilot.com Expedition staff Expedition leader, 2-4 guides, ice pilot where needed; per-trip fees, flights to Ushuaia, a cabin each EYOS; Skua Pilots; no published rates Ushuaia logistics Buenos Aires-Ushuaia flights or private aviation; agent; provisioning; gas oil by truck; Beagle Channel pilotage and a Prefectura zarpe; pilotage and agency charges apply, no tariff published Antares Shipping; Noonsite Helicopter hours, if carried $2,500-4,000 per flight hour equivalent; fuel and pilot via APA, fixed cost in base fee; ask the split Jettly, Hangar 7 Tax None on the Antarctic charter fee; Argentine port and agency charges in Ushuaia, confirm with the agent Gratuity 5-15% of base, $37,000-110,000 on a Hanse-class three-week base; ask whether contracted expedition staff are in the pool MYBA 2018 guidelines Indicative total About $1.1-1.4m (Hanse-class) to €2.5-3m and up (Legend-class), before helicopter hours Derived Three things to take from it. The base fee is still the biggest line, but the APA is no longer a rounding error: on a yacht listed at $245,000 a week the fuel alone can approach half a week’s base fee, and the captain will size the float accordingly. The IAATO fee is small and the compliance is not, which is why a yacht that has done it before is worth more than one that has not. And the specialist team eats guest cabins, so a 12-guest listing may be a 10-guest trip. The [expedition page](/adventures/expedition/) and the [Antarctica destination page](/destinations/antarctica/) cover the vessels and the season; the whole thing is booked a year or more out. ## What to ask before you sign 1. Which billing model is this quote on: plus-expenses, all-inclusive or per person? If per person, how many berths must be taken to hold the whole boat? 2. What APA percentage is the captain asking for on this itinerary, and why? On a long-range or polar route, what happens if the float runs short mid-charter? 3. Which tax applies at the place of embarkation, and is it on the fee alone or on APA items too? 4. Which park fees, permits and levies apply, who collects each one, and which of them are already inside the rate? 5. What exactly is the dive line: onboard compressor and divemaster with dives included, a set number then per dive, or a rendezvous operator at a per-person price? Is nitrox itemised? 6. Which specialist staff are crew and which are contracted for the trip, how many guest cabins do they take, and who is in the tip pool? 7. Are helicopter or submersible hours inside the base fee, or do fuel and pilot day rates flow through the APA? 8. Is there a delivery or repositioning fee, and is the season premium already in the rate? Every one of those has a short, factual answer. A broker who gives it is the right broker. * * * _Figures in this guide are dated where they appear, mostly September 2026, and are ranges by design; taxes, fees and fuel prices change and the broker confirms the current numbers on the day. The rates shown on the WildChart [yacht search](/yachts/) are weekly base fees, with APA, tax, fees and gratuity on top. For a real quote on a dive week, a surf trip or an expedition, [get in touch](/contact/)._ ### Related Adventures [Expedition & Polar](/adventures/expedition/) [Diving & Snorkelling](/adventures/diving/) [Surfing](/adventures/surfing/) ### Related Destinations [Antarctica](/destinations/antarctica/) [British Virgin Islands](/destinations/bvi/) [Southeast Asia](/destinations/southeast-asia/) [Galapagos](/destinations/galapagos/) ### Continue Reading [Destination Intel #### The Adventure Charter Calendar: Where to Go Month by Month for Diving, Surf, Wind, Whales and Ice A month-by-month adventure charter calendar: which destinations and activities are in season each month, and the monsoon, swell, wind and ice behind it. ](/intel/intel-adventure-charter-calendar/)[Gear & Prep #### Cold-Water Charter Prep: Drysuits, Layering and Staying Warm from Lofoten to Antarctica Drysuit vs wetsuit, the three-layer system and the physiology of cold water: real numbers for staying warm and safe from Lofoten to Antarctica. ](/intel/prep-cold-water-expedition/)[Gear & Prep #### How Fit Do You Need to Be for an Adventure Yacht Charter? The honest answer to the fitness question most people are afraid to ask. What adventure yacht activities actually demand physically - and how to prepare if you want to get more from them. ](/intel/prep-fitness-for-adventure-charter/) ## Plan Your Adventure Tell us what you are looking for and we will match you with the right yacht, crew, and destination. [Start Planning](/contact/)