Yacht Charter Contract Explained: Clause by Clause (2026)
Yacht charter contract explained clause by clause: what the CYBA and MYBA forms actually say about cancellation, hurricanes, deposits and whose law applies.
Last Updated: September 5, 2026 | Originally Published: June 8, 2026
A yacht charter contract is the binding agreement between you and the yacht’s owner that fixes the price, the dates, who is aboard, and what happens if the week goes wrong. The version you sign will run to six or eight pages, about half of which you can skim. The other half decides what your money does if a storm forms, if your plans change, if a guest breaks something, or if you and the owner end up disagreeing about any of it, and it repays twenty minutes of your attention for exactly that reason.
This walkthrough goes clause by clause through the agreements the broker associations actually publish, quoting them rather than summarising what people say about them. Where the contracts leave something blank, it says so, because the blanks turn out to be the interesting part. And it closes with what our own analysis says about how little of this ever reaches the quote in your inbox.
Four Yacht Charter Contracts, and Only One You Can Read First
Four broker associations maintain charter agreement forms, and exactly one of them publishes its crewed form where a guest can read it before signing. The Charter Yacht Brokers Association International, established in 1982 and now based in Fort Lauderdale, publishes its Inclusive Charter Agreement as a free PDF: 23 numbered clauses across seven pages, marked “Agreement Revised 2020, Version 03.” A CYBA contract is what sits behind most all-inclusive crewed charters in the Caribbean, and you can read every word of it today without asking anyone’s permission.
The other three are harder to see. MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association, founded in 1984, lists no charter agreement at all in its own documents library. Its file server still returns a blank 2009 specimen at a direct address, watermarked SPECIMEN and running to 25 clauses over six pages, but no page on the site links to it. The American Yacht Charter Association, founded in 1986, sells access to its forms through a subscription system instead of publishing them, and its structure pairs two agreements rather than one. The effect for a guest is unchanged: you’re still handed a captain, and the captain is still in command. And the International Yacht Brokers Association added bareboat and time charter forms of its own in 2022, held in a members-only document library.
The MYBA charter agreement clauses on that unlinked specimen run to 25 numbered clauses over six pages, the same shape as CYBA’s document under a different flag. Clause 17 sets a security deposit with the amount left blank on page one, and Clause 23 sends any dispute to arbitration in London under English law. Both of those matter later on this page.
What each contract puts inside the fee is a separate question, and a big one. We take that apart in detail in our guide to what a yacht charter fee covers, which compares the inclusive and plus-expenses families line by line, and our explainer on how to budget for APA. This page is about everything else in the document.
What the Quote Does Not Tell You
Not one of the 635 yachts with a current Caribbean or Bahamas rate states, on its rate sheet, when the balance is due. None states a deposit split. None mentions escrow. Five state a cancellation policy of any kind, and two say what happens to your money if a named storm arrives. The phrase “force majeure” appears on none of them.
View data table
| Term stated on the rate sheet | Yachts | Share of 635 |
|---|---|---|
| Which association’s contract | 116 | 18.3% |
| Advice to buy travel insurance | 26 | 4.1% |
| A security or damage deposit | 9 | 1.4% |
| A cancellation policy | 5 | 0.8% |
| What a named storm does to your money | 2 | 0.3% |
| When the balance is due | 0 | 0.0% |
| The deposit split | 0 | 0.0% |
| Where your deposit is held | 0 | 0.0% |
| The phrase “force majeure” | 0 | 0.0% |
That’s not a criticism of the yachts. A rate sheet is a price list, and it does its job. The point is narrower and more useful: the terms that govern the money you’ve already sent live in a different document, and reading the price list carefully will never surface them. Even the contract family is usually unstated. Only 116 of the 635 name an association form at all, and the naming is lopsided: 96 of the 294 plus-expenses yachts name one, against 19 of the 337 all-inclusive yachts.
The same two sheets account for both of the storm rows on that chart, and they are the most revealing documents in the set because of what they instruct the broker to do. One reads: “HURRICANE SEASON : Please press client to purchase trip insurance, and add a hurricane clause to your contract.” The other says the same thing in different words, and both go on to offer the only storm remedy anywhere in the 635: the yacht “will allow client to rebook unused dates within 6 months of cancellation, excluding holidays.” Both treat storm protection as something you’d add to the agreement rather than something already in it.
Who Is Aboard: The Guest Count Is a Blank
The CYBA Inclusive Charter Agreement sets no maximum number of guests. “NUMBER OF GUESTS” is a blank field on page one, and no clause in the seven pages caps it. The AYCA form works the same way, printing “Maximum Number of Guests Sleeping ( ) and Cruising ( ) on board” as an empty line on its front page, then binding the charterer at Clause 5.A not to “permit more than the Maximum Number of Guests Sleeping or Cruising on board.” Both contracts enforce a number that somebody else has to write in, and it’s usually your broker.
The twelve you’ve probably heard about comes from maritime law, not from the contract. The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea defines a passenger ship as “a ship which carries more than twelve passengers,” and separately defines a passenger as every person other than the master, the crew, anyone working on board on the ship’s business, and a child under one year of age (IMO, SOLAS I/2). Crossing twelve puts a vessel into a completely different regulatory class, which is why a crewed charter yacht will not carry more than twelve guests. Our breakdown of the 12-person yacht rule covers the practical side.
Two adjacent CYBA clauses are worth knowing. Clause 2.D says that if the guest count changes before your final payment, the parties sign an addendum and the fee moves up or down to the rate for that number. Clause 2.E says you can’t bring a pet aboard “unless by prior arrangement of the OWNER and the Crew.” And Clause 3.B puts passports squarely on you: the charterer and all guests “are responsible for ensuring they have a valid passport.”
The Payment Schedule Is Blank in Every Yacht Charter Contract
No yacht charter contract published by a broker association states a deposit percentage or a balance due date. The CYBA form’s entire payment schedule is three labelled lines with nothing after them: first payment, second payment, final payment, each followed by an empty due date. The familiar “50 percent now, 50 percent thirty days out” is a market convention that brokers and owners fill into those blanks, not a contract term, and you should treat any claim that a form requires it with suspicion.
What the CYBA form does specify is where the money sits, and that’s the part worth knowing. Clause 4 sends your payments to “the BROKER’S Escrow or Client Account for onward transmission of cleared funds less commission fees to a Trust Account or the STAKEHOLDER’s Escrow or Client Account.” The owner doesn’t receive it on signature. Most of your money stays with the stakeholder until the week is under way, and under the AYCA form part of it is still held after you have disembarked.
That structure is the real protection, though the association rule behind it is softer than the contract. CYBA’s Standing Rules only ask members to “endeavor to make use of the Charter Yacht Brokers Association Escrow Account or any other recognized trust account, whenever possible,” which is a best-efforts promise, not a guarantee. Its membership application is firmer, asking applicants for “Confirmation of escrow and business bank accounts,” and IYBA’s bylaws tell members to “segregate from his own funds all monies being held for other persons.” What makes it bite on your charter is Clause 4 itself, which names the account, and it is one of the practical reasons working through a broker matters.
Delivery, Redelivery and What Late Costs
CYBA Clause 8 requires the owner to hand the yacht over “in full commission and in proper working order,” with all licences for the cruising area, “in staunch, clean and good condition throughout and ready for service.” Every yacht charter contract fixes a place and a clock time for that handover, and both are blanks on page one that somebody fills in. The same clause carries a sentence worth reading twice before booking a passage week: “The OWNER does not warrant the Yacht’s comfort in bad weather conditions.”
If the yacht is late, Clause 10.A gives the owner a grace period of 24 hours or one seventh of the charter, whichever is shorter, after which you’re owed a pro rata refund or an equivalent extension. If the delay runs past that window for a reason other than weather, Clause 10.B lets you treat the agreement as cancelled by the owner, which triggers a full reimbursement.
Going the other way, Clause 18 asks you to return the yacht “free of any debts,” in the same condition, “except for fair wear and tear arising from ordinary use,” and to “make good to an as-new standard any damage caused by the CHARTERER or the Guests.” Hold the yacht past the redelivery time and you pay demurrage, calculated “pro rata for additional charter time, plus any other losses the OWNER sustains.” Weather is excused. A leisurely last morning isn’t.
Yacht Charter Cancellation: Retain First, Then Re-Let
Cancel a CYBA-form charter and the owner may keep everything you have paid, subject to the one obligation that usually gets most of it back: Clause 6.A requires a reasonable effort to re-let the week. There is no sliding scale of forfeiture anywhere in the agreement, and if someone quotes you one, ask which document it came from. Clause 6.A works in two steps instead. First, “the OWNER may retain any amounts paid by the CHARTERER as of the date of cancellation and any amounts due but unpaid as of the date of cancellation will remain payable.” Then the mitigation obligation: the owner and broker “shall use reasonable efforts to book a new charter for all or part of the Charter Period.”
If that works, money comes back. The refund is “the net proceeds of the new charter after deducting 20% of the Charter Fee,” a deduction the clause itself describes as covering the broker’s commission, the stakeholder’s fee and administrative costs. Anything the owner had already spent provisioning for you comes off on top of that. If it doesn’t work, Clause 6.A is blunt: “If, despite reasonable efforts, the OWNER is unable to book a new charter, the CHARTERER will receive no refund.”
The AYCA agreement reaches the same place by a different route, keeping payments made but binding the owner to “a duty to mitigate its loss” and to credit back the net of any re-charter. Its notable feature runs the other way: if the owner cancels on you for any reason other than weather, the AYCA form pays you liquidated damages on a real ladder, 25 percent of the fee at 30 days or more, 35 percent inside 30 days, and 50 percent inside 14 days, on top of returning everything you paid.
Force Majeure and Hurricanes: A Credit or 65 Percent
A hurricane that cancels a CYBA-form charter gives you a choice within 15 days of being notified: a credit for the full fee against a rebooking inside twelve months, or a refund of everything you paid less a 35 percent charge (CYBA Clauses 9 and 10.C). Unusually for a contract of this kind, the force majeure clause names the weather explicitly. Clause 9 defines force majeure to include “war, terrorist acts, civil unrest, strikes, government action (including travel restrictions and quarantines), accidents, tropical storms, hurricanes, lightning strike, and other natural disasters,” and rules out shipyard delays, crew changes and mechanical breakdown, which are handled elsewhere. See our answer to: Do yacht crew only get paid in tips? One oddity sits inside the same clause: “Although lightning strike is force majeure, the CHARTERER will be entitled to a full refund in this circumstance.” It’s the only listed event that returns every dollar.
What happens next is set out in Clause 10.C, and it is the answer most hurricane-season questions are really asking. The owner has to give notice within 15 days of the event, or within 24 hours if it happens inside the fortnight before your charter. You then have 15 days to choose between two options. The first is a credit for the whole charter fee against a rebooking of the same yacht within twelve months, with no rebooking fee, your funds staying in the stakeholder account, and new dates supplied within 60 days. The second is a refund of everything you paid, less a 35 percent cancellation charge.
So the storm answer under this contract is a credit or roughly two thirds back in cash, at your election, not the owner’s. Clause 10.D extends the same choice to a government travel ban that stops you reaching the port. If you’re weighing a summer or autumn booking, our guide to chartering during hurricane season covers how the season actually behaves.
Damage, the Deposit and Who Carries the Risk
The CYBA Inclusive Charter Agreement contains no security deposit clause at all. The words do not appear in the document. The MYBA and AYCA forms both have one, at Clause 17 in each case, and in both the amount is a blank on the front page rather than a figure in the text. AYCA’s version returns the deposit “within twenty-four (24) Working Hours after the end of the Charter Period or the settlement of all outstanding questions, whichever occurs later.”
No association publishes a deposit band, and the rate sheets do not supply one either. Of 635 current rate sheets, exactly one names a charterer’s damage deposit in dollars: an 88-foot all-inclusive catamaran whose sheet reads “Security Deposit 3000USD will apply.” Two of the nine sheets that mention a deposit at all are pet deposits, and four say only that one “may be requested for corporate charters.” That silence isn’t evidence that no deposit is charged. It is evidence that the deposit is a contract term rather than a quoted one, so it belongs on your list when you are planning a Caribbean yacht charter, and the honest answer will vary with the boat rather than follow a rule.
Liability is the clause that actually affects you. CYBA Clause 15 puts the yacht’s insurance on the owner and says you are not liable for loss or damage that insurance covers. The AYCA form goes further and caps what any one accident can cost you at the owner’s deductible. Both stop protecting you if you do something the policy doesn’t allow, which in practice means staying inside what the captain agrees to. Both also record that each party carries their own negligence, and both name the dinghy, the snorkelling gear and the water toys as risks the guests accept.
The One Clause You Have to Initial
CYBA Clause 22 is the only clause in the agreement with its own signature line, and it is about your travel insurance rather than the yacht’s. It reads: “The CHARTERER acknowledges that trip insurance plus Cancel For Any Reason policy upgrade is recommended to minimize the CHARTERER’S financial risks pertaining to this Agreement. If the CHARTERER elects not to purchase trip insurance, the CHARTERER assumes all expenses and losses related to non-refundable payments of this Agreement.” Underneath it sits a line asking you to initial that you understood.
That clause is doing something specific. Read it next to Clause 6.A, which lets the owner keep your money if the week can’t be re-let. Clause 22 is the contract naming the uncovered risk out loud and inviting you to insure it yourself. The AYCA form makes the same point negatively at Clause 16.F, recording that “neither cancellation and curtailment insurance, nor CHARTERER’s liability insurance, as such, is included in this Agreement.” The MYBA form carries an equivalent warning.
Our own analysis says the message is getting through unevenly. Twenty-six of 635 rate sheets recommend trip or travel insurance, and three of those turn the recommendation into a condition: “Should the client decline to purchase trip insurance, no reschedule or refund will be offered if the charter is canceled by the client.”
Governing Law and Where a Dispute Goes
A CYBA-form Caribbean charter arbitrates in Florida under Florida and United States law, while the MYBA form used on many larger yachts arbitrates in London under English law. This is the clause almost nobody reads and the one most worth reading, because the forms send you to different continents. CYBA is unambiguous at Clause 20: “The place of arbitration is Florida and this Agreement shall be governed by the Laws of the State of Florida and the Laws of the United States under the rules of the Miami Maritime Arbitration Council, unless otherwise mutually agreed.” The AYCA form lands in the same region, applying US maritime law with Florida law filling any gaps, and seating arbitration in Fort Lauderdale under the same rules.
The MYBA form does not. Its Clause 23 provides that a dispute “shall be decided by arbitration in London and in accordance with the laws of England.” A maritime attorney writing in IYBA’s member magazine COMPASS in 2016 set out what that means for the people we work with: “For an American client chartering in the Caribbean, this means that if a dispute arises, the client must travel to London at least once, if not multiple times, to engage in arbitration. Because the contract is subject to English law, this also means that the client must hire an English lawyer.”
The same article flags the trap in fixing it. Writing “arbitration will take place in Florida” into the special conditions box moves the venue and leaves the governing law and the arbitration rules untouched, so “the client still must hire an English lawyer, who now must fly to Florida to engage in arbitration.” Changing the forum properly means changing the place, the rules and the governing law together, which is an addendum rather than a scribbled line. It’s also worth saying that IYBA prints a disclaimer distancing itself from opinions in its own magazine, so this is one lawyer’s argument in an association publication rather than an association position.
Before any of that, CYBA Clause 17 asks for something much simpler. Tell the captain first. If the matter is not resolved within 12 hours, notify the owner through your broker within 48 hours. Miss the later deadlines and the claim’s gone: a written request for mediation within 21 days of the charter ending, and a referral to arbitration within 90 days, or the clause deems your claims waived.
The Captain’s Authority, and the Clause That Ends a Charter
Two clauses give the captain powers that override the itinerary you agreed. CYBA Clause 12 states that the captain “remains in full command, with responsibility for the safety of the Yacht and all persons aboard, and shall have the absolute authority to terminate or cancel this Agreement at any time he or she deems necessary in an event of Force Majeure or safety concern.” It goes on to give the captain the final call on anchoring, sailing and the use of water toys. Your plan for the week is a plan, and the weather and the captain both get a vote.
Clause 16 is the one that ends charters. The agreement operates a zero-tolerance policy on illegal drugs and controlled substances, and the parenthesis matters in the Caribbean: it expressly includes medical marijuana and CBD products “if they are illegal in the countries and cruising areas named on the first page of this agreement.” A prescription written at home doesn’t travel. If anything covered by that clause is found aboard, the agreement terminates immediately, everyone disembarks at the next port with no refund of any part of the fee, and the owner carries no responsibility for hotels, meals, flights or ground transport.
The Four Forms Side by Side
The differences that matter to a guest are narrower than the page counts suggest. Here is where the four yacht charter contracts land on the questions this article has worked through.
| Question | CYBA Inclusive, 2020-03 | MYBA, 2009 specimen | AYCA, revised 2015 | IYBA, since 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can you read it before signing? | Yes, free PDF | Not published; an unlinked specimen sits on the server | No, sold by subscription | No, members only |
| Deposit and balance dates | Blank lines | Blank lines | Blank lines | Not public |
| Maximum guests | Blank, no cap in the text | Blank | Blank, enforced at Clause 5.A | Not public |
| If you cancel | Owner retains, must try to re-let, refund is proceeds less 20 percent | Retain and mitigate | Retain, with a duty to mitigate | Not public |
| If the owner cancels | Full reimbursement (Clause 6.B) | Payments promptly repaid (Clause 9) | Full reimbursement plus 25, 35 or 50 percent (Clause 9.E) | Not public |
| Storm remedy | Credit for 12 months, or refund less 35 percent, your choice (Clause 10.C) | Payments repaid (Clause 9) | Repayment in full, the stated exclusive remedy (Clause 9.B) | Not public |
| Security deposit | Not mentioned anywhere in the document | Clause 17, amount blank on page one | Clause 17, amount blank on page one | Not public |
| Law and forum | Florida and US law, arbitration in Florida | English law, arbitration in London | US maritime law, arbitration in Fort Lauderdale | Not public |
Sources: the CYBA Inclusive Charter Agreement, Version 2020-03; the MYBA Charter Agreement specimen revised 2009, which sits on MYBA‘s own file server without being listed in its documents library; the AYCA Recreational Bareboat Charter Agreement and Vessel Services Agreement, revised 2015, which AYCA distributes by subscription and does not publish, so its clause text here is quoted from a copy circulating in the trade rather than from a link we can give you; and IYBA, whose forms are member-gated and which we haven’t read.
One note on that table. The AYCA row describes its two agreements together, which is how they are always signed. Its own 2026 captains’ guidelines require the captain to carry both aboard and to understand the whole of them before your week starts.
Nine Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Every one of these has an answer in the document, and every one of them is a question our brokers answer routinely. Ask your broker to walk the contract with you and take them in order.
- Which form is this, and what version? The version string is usually at the foot of the last page.
- What dates went into the payment schedule? They’re blanks, so somebody chose them.
- Whose account holds my money until the charter starts? Clause 4 in the CYBA form names an escrow or client account, not the owner.
- If I cancel, who has to try to re-let the week, and what is deducted if they succeed?
- If a storm cancels it, do I choose between a credit and a refund, or does the owner?
- Is there a security deposit on this yacht, how much, and when does it come back?
- Where would a dispute be heard, and under whose law? If the answer’s London, ask whether an addendum is appropriate.
- What is written in the special conditions box? It overrides the standard clauses above it.
- What has been added or struck out? Compare against the blank form, which is why getting the blank form early is worth doing.
The Bottom Line
A yacht charter contract isn’t written to catch you out. Read end to end, the CYBA form is a reasonable document that puts your money in a third party’s account, obliges the owner to try to re-let a week you cancel, gives you the choice of remedies after a storm, and sends any argument to arbitration in Florida rather than across an ocean. It also leaves the payment dates, the guest count and the security deposit blank, which means those numbers came from a conversation and can be part of one.
The gap worth closing isn’t between you and the contract. It’s between the quote and the contract, and our own numbers show how wide it is: none of 635 current rate sheets tells you when your balance is due or where your deposit sits. Vital Charters is a Caribbean and Bahamas crewed yacht charter brokerage, and reading these documents with clients is a large part of what we do. Start a yacht search at Vital Charters, or tell us about your charter and we’ll send the blank form along with the quote. If you are early in the process, our guide to booking a crewed charter covers the steps that come before this one, and our first-time charterer’s guide covers what happens after.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a yacht charter contract negotiable?
Parts of it are, and the parts that are negotiable are usually the blanks rather than the clauses. The payment dates, the guest count, the security deposit and the delivery and redelivery ports are all empty fields somebody fills in. Standard clauses can be changed too, but properly, through an addendum signed alongside the agreement rather than a line written into the special conditions box. Your broker negotiates this before you see the final document.
How much deposit does a yacht charter contract require?
The contracts don’t say. The CYBA Inclusive Charter Agreement prints three payment lines with blank due dates and no percentages, and the MYBA and AYCA forms do the same. A 50 percent deposit with the balance due 30 days before boarding is a common market practice, not a contractual requirement, and the actual figures on your agreement are whatever the parties agreed and typed in.
Is a yacht charter deposit refundable?
Not by default. CYBA Clause 4 states that “all Charter Fee payments shall be deemed earned and non-refundable unless otherwise set forth herein,” and that covers the deposit along with every other payment. Two later clauses create the exceptions. Clause 6.A returns the net proceeds if the owner re-lets a week you cancelled, and Clause 10.C lets you choose a credit or a refund less a 35 percent charge if force majeure cancels the charter. Outside those triggers the deposit is treated as earned when it is paid.
What happens to my money if a hurricane cancels my charter?
Under the CYBA agreement you choose between two remedies within 15 days of being notified. One is a credit for the full charter fee against a rebooking of the same yacht within twelve months, with no rebooking fee and your funds staying in the stakeholder’s account. The other is a refund of everything you paid less a 35 percent cancellation charge. The choice belongs to the charterer, not the owner.
Do I get a refund if I cancel a yacht charter?
Only if the week is re-let. Under CYBA Clause 6.A the owner may retain what you have paid, but the owner and broker have to make reasonable efforts to book a new charter for those dates. If they succeed, you receive the net proceeds of the replacement charter less 20 percent of the charter fee, and less anything the owner had already spent provisioning for you. If they can’t re-let it, the clause says you receive no refund, which is why trip insurance carries its own acknowledgement in the same contract.
Is there a security deposit on a crewed yacht charter?
It depends on the yacht, and the contract may not settle it. The CYBA Inclusive Charter Agreement has no security deposit clause at all. The MYBA and AYCA forms each have one at Clause 17 with the amount left blank on the front page. Of 635 yachts with a current Caribbean or Bahamas rate, exactly one states a charterer’s damage deposit in dollars on its rate sheet, and that one is $3,000 on an 88-foot catamaran, so this is a question to ask about your specific boat rather than a figure to assume. It is one of several charges we cover in our guide to the fees that surprise first-time charterers.
Which contract will I be given for a Caribbean charter?
Most likely the CYBA Inclusive Charter Agreement, which is the standard form for all-inclusive crewed charters in the Caribbean and Bahamas. Plus-expenses yachts are more often written on MYBA terms. Rate sheets rarely say: only 116 of the 635 yachts in Vital Charters’ Caribbean and Bahamas fleet name any association form, and among the plus-expenses fleet, MYBA is named 92 times against three for CYBA.
Does the charter contract cap the number of guests at twelve?
Not directly. The CYBA form leaves the guest number as a blank field and contains no cap. The twelve comes from the Safety of Life at Sea convention, which defines a passenger ship as one carrying more than twelve passengers and doesn’t count crew or a child under one year as passengers. Crossing that line changes the vessel’s regulatory class entirely, so the number written into your contract will be twelve or fewer.
Where would a dispute about my charter be heard?
It depends on the form. The CYBA agreement provides for mediation and then arbitration in Florida, under Florida and United States law and Miami Maritime Arbitration Council rules. The AYCA form arbitrates in Fort Lauderdale under US maritime law. The MYBA form applies English law and arbitrates in London, which a maritime attorney writing in IYBA’s magazine described as impractical for an American client chartering in the Caribbean, since it means travelling to London and hiring an English lawyer.
Do I need a lawyer to review a yacht charter contract?
For a standard weekly charter on a published association form, almost never. These documents have decades of use behind them and a broker who works with them daily will flag anything unusual, particularly anything written into the special conditions box or added by addendum. A maritime attorney becomes worth the cost when the terms are custom, when the value is unusually high, or when you’re being asked to sign something that is not a recognised association form at all.
We send the blank form with the quote.
Every clause explained, every blank accounted for, and the contract in your hands before you commit to anything.
