BVI Crewed Catamaran Charter: 2026 Rates and What’s Included
A BVI crewed catamaran charter lists a median of $32,000 a week in high season, across 242 current all-inclusive rates. The bands by length and guest count, what the rate covers, and the two lines that sit outside it.
A BVI crewed catamaran charter lists a median of $32,000 for a week in high season, measured across 242 current all-inclusive rates for British Virgin Islands catamarans read in September 2026 (Vital Charters rate analysis). That is what a BVI catamaran charter with crew costs before the gratuity. The middle half of that market falls between $25,000 and $43,375, and length is what moves a boat from one end of it to the other.
How much does a BVI crewed catamaran charter cost in 2026?
A BVI crewed catamaran charter lists at a median of $32,000 per week on all-inclusive terms in high season. The middle half of the market runs $25,000 to $43,375 (Vital Charters rate analysis of 242 current BVI sailing catamaran rates, September 2026). That’s one rate per yacht, high-season pricing, and only seasons that haven’t already ended. Rates on this page were read in September 2026 and cover the 2026/2027 season.
The denominators shift through this page, so here is the fleet behind them. There are 282 crewed sailing catamarans working the British Virgin Islands. Of those, 260 publish a high-season week and 242 do it on all-inclusive terms. Rate-entry counts run higher than yacht counts, because one yacht often publishes several seasonal rates.
Every band on this page is a sailing catamaran, because that is what the BVI overwhelmingly charters. Power catamarans are a small and pricier corner of the same fleet: 23 of them quote a high-season week at a $42,210 median. Our comparison of sailing against power catamarans covers when the premium is worth paying.
Catamarans dominate BVI crewed yacht charter, and the British Virgin Islands is an all-inclusive market almost to the exclusion of anything else. Of 260 BVI crewed sailing catamarans quoting a high-season week, 242 quote all-inclusive terms and only 18 quote a base rate plus expenses. Those 18 are the larger boats: a $53,500 median base, or about $61,375 once the provisioning allowance is added.
Two things about those numbers before you build a budget on them. They’re asking rates published by each yacht’s central agent, not audited transaction prices. A negotiated week can land below them. They’re also the boat, not the trip. The crew gratuity sits outside every figure on this page, and we say exactly where it lands further down. The BVI sits a shade above the region: the Caribbean-wide median for an all-inclusive crewed sailing catamaran is $31,500 against the territory’s $32,000, a gap of under 2 percent. For the wider picture across all five Caribbean charter grounds, our Caribbean charter rate analysis runs the same cuts region-wide, and our Caribbean catamaran charter guide covers the hull type everywhere it sails.
What does a 50-foot crewed catamaran cost in the BVI?
A 50 to 59 ft crewed catamaran in the BVI lists at a median of $31,000 per week, with the middle half between $26,000 and $32,750, across 131 current rates (Vital Charters rate analysis, September 2026). That’s the busiest band in the territory and the tightest priced. It’s also the size most groups of six to eight end up on.
View data table
| Length | Yachts | 25th percentile | Median week | 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 to 49 ft | 37 | $19,000 | $22,000 | $24,500 |
| 50 to 59 ft | 131 | $26,000 | $31,000 | $32,750 |
| 60 to 69 ft | 56 | $42,000 | $48,000 | $55,250 |
| 70 ft and up | 18 | $52,100 | $73,500 | $91,500 |
Source: Vital Charters rate analysis of current British Virgin Islands crewed sailing catamaran rates, September 2026. All-inclusive terms, high-season rates with an unexpired season; the crew gratuity is not included.
The spread widens fast on either side of the 50 to 59 ft band. Below 50 ft, 37 catamarans list at a $22,000 median. Between 60 and 69 ft, 56 boats list at $48,000. Past 70 ft the sample thins to 18 yachts and the range blows open, from $52,100 at the lower quartile to $91,500 at the upper. That band mixes production catamarans with custom builds that have little in common beyond hull count.
Before we get into group sizes and what the rate covers, see which BVI crewed catamarans are actually open.
What does a BVI crewed catamaran for 8 guests cost?
A BVI crewed catamaran sleeping eight guests lists at a median of $32,000 per week, with the middle half between $26,000 and $43,000, across 120 current rates (Vital Charters rate analysis, September 2026). Eight is by far the most common configuration here. Of the 282 crewed sailing catamarans working the British Virgin Islands, 131 sleep exactly eight.
Divided out, the eight-guest median is about $571 per guest per night for the boat, the crew, every meal and the bar. Add a gratuity at the middle of the customary band and it is roughly $671 per guest per night, all in.
| Group size | Yachts | 25th percentile | Median week | 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 guests or fewer | 51 | $19,950 | $23,000 | $26,000 |
| 8 guests | 120 | $26,000 | $32,000 | $43,000 |
| 9 to 10 guests | 59 | $32,000 | $39,547 | $50,000 |
| 11 or more guests | 12 | $42,000 | $46,500 | $60,918 |
Vital Charters rate analysis of current BVI crewed sailing catamaran rates, high season, September 2026. All-inclusive terms; the crew gratuity is not included.
What is striking is how flat the cost per head stays across most of that range. At each band’s full capacity the median works out to about $548 per guest per night on a six-guest boat, $571 on an eight, and $565 on a ten. Three very different boats, and barely $23 between them. Only past ten does it climb, to roughly $604 on an eleven-guest yacht, because by then you have moved into a size class where the boat itself is the expensive part. Weighing a specific group against a specific hull? Our guide to choosing a yacht size for your group works the trade-off cabin by cabin.
What is included in an all-inclusive BVI catamaran rate?
Everything except the crew gratuity, in the vast majority of cases. Of 619 all-inclusive rate entries for BVI crewed catamarans currently on the books, 602 name no advance provisioning allowance at all. Fourteen state a small one and three describe it as optional, at a median of 5 percent (Vital Charters rate analysis, September 2026). That’s the practical meaning of all-inclusive here. The number you’re quoted is very close to the number you pay.
Inside the rate on a standard BVI crewed catamaran: the yacht, the crew and their wages, all meals aboard, and the ship’s bar within reason. Fuel for the week, water and ice, bed and bath linen, mooring and dockage on the itinerary, and the water toys the boat carries. Government cruising permits, park fees and the arrival levy are almost always covered too. Where they aren’t, that’s disclosed up front, and it tends to be yachts with European management wintering in the Caribbean.
Outside the rate: the gratuity, anything you eat or drink ashore, and land excursions or diving with an outside operator. Plus any premium spirits or wines a particular yacht names as excluded. The full all-inclusive explainer works through the boundary line, and the APA guide covers what happens on the plus-expenses contracts the other 18 BVI catamarans use.
What is not included: the 2026 BVI invoice
The crew gratuity, customarily 15 to 20 percent of the charter fee in the Caribbean crewed fleet. That’s $4,800 to $6,400 on a $32,000 week (CYBA Inclusive Charter Agreement, Clause 2.B). It’s discretionary in form and near-universal in practice. Whatever the contract type, it’s the one line that’s always yours.
What lands on a British Virgin Islands charter invoice in 2026
The BVI’s government charges: a cruising permit of $16 per guest per day (USVI-based yachts) or $4 (BVI-based), a $10 arrival levy per guest, and small National Parks Trust fees. All-inclusive rates cover these in the vast majority of cases; the customary 15 to 20 percent crew gratuity is always yours. No mandatory APA on all-inclusive catamarans.
| Line item | Typical amount | Who sets it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA (Advance Provisioning Allowance) | None mandatory on all-inclusive catamarans (about 2 percent of rates state around 5 percent). Plus-expenses charters add an APA, typically 30 to 35 percent of the base rate, intended to cover every running fee except government taxes, refunded where unspent | The charter contract; mechanics per MYBA | MYBA, Information for Charter Yacht Captains and Crew |
| Cruising permit (per guest, per day) | $16 on foreign-based charter yachts; $4 on BVI-based (Schedule 2 was amended by S.I. 2024 No. 83 from June 1, 2025; the Order’s text isn’t published online, so $16 and $4 are the last rates verifiable from the gazetted Act; the $6 some operators quote matches a 2017 release under the repealed Act) | HM Customs, Government of the Virgin Islands | Cruising and Home Port Permit Act, 2021, Schedule 2 |
| Environmental and Tourism Levy | $10 per guest (age 3 and over), once per arrival, air or sea | Government of the Virgin Islands | GIS release, September 2017 (archived) |
| National Parks Trust fees | The Baths day pass $3 per adult, $2 per child; park mooring permits are bought by your operator (fees set by the NPT, not published online) | National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands | NPT ticketing, The Baths National Park |
| Crew gratuity | Customarily 15 to 20 percent of the charter fee in the Caribbean crewed fleet, the band CYBA’s Inclusive Agreement (Clause 2.B) calls the customary rate; MYBA’s published suggestion is 5 to 15 percent, always at your discretion | Custom, written into the CYBA form; guidance published by MYBA | CYBA Inclusive Agreement, Clause 2.B (2020) |
Fees verified September 2026.
Here’s that arithmetic on the median eight-guest week, so you can see the shape of a real BVI invoice rather than a range.
| Line | Amount | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Charter fee, 8 guests, one week, all-inclusive | $32,000 | The yacht |
| Cruising permit, environmental levy, park fees | Inside the rate in the vast majority of cases | Government of the Virgin Islands |
| Crew gratuity, 15 to 20 percent | $4,800 to $6,400 | Custom, at your discretion |
| What you actually pay | $36,800 to $38,400 |
Median eight-guest BVI crewed catamaran, high season, September 2026. Excludes anything bought ashore.
Those government charges are per guest, and on all-inclusive terms the yacht absorbs them. That is precisely why they never come up in the conversation. For eight guests over a week they run somewhere between roughly $328 and $1,000, depending on where the yacht is registered. The only thing worth checking on a proposal is whether they sit inside the rate or beside it. Our Caribbean charter tax and permit registry carries every published figure with its statutory source. The crew gratuity guide covers what the trade associations actually publish about tipping.
Does the season change a BVI catamaran rate?
Far less than almost anyone expects. Of 235 BVI crewed catamarans that publish both a high-season and a low-season all-inclusive rate, 180 quote the identical number in both. Fifty-two charge more in high season and three charge more in low. The median seasonal premium is zero and the mean is 2 percent (Vital Charters rate analysis, September 2026).
Across the whole territory the low-season median is $31,500 against $32,000 in high season, a gap of about 1.6 percent. That isn’t the seasonal discount the Caribbean is famous for. The reason is structural. A crewed catamaran’s cost base is two or three salaried professionals living aboard, and those wages don’t fall in July.
What season does change is the weather, and that calendar is worth planning around even when the rate will not move. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks on September 10 (NOAA National Hurricane Center). NOAA’s climate summary for the Virgin Islands puts the wet season from May through October, the dry season from November through April. Availability follows that calendar closely. Price does not.
What season really changes in the BVI is availability and weather, not price. Our month-by-month guide to Caribbean charter timing lays out which weeks book first and which shoulder weeks reward a flexible date.
How do BVI crewed catamaran companies differ?
Less by fleet and more by who owns the boat you sleep on, and the crew that comes with it. Of 268 BVI crewed sailing catamarans reporting a crew number, 175 carry just two people (Vital Charters rate analysis, September 2026), so the operator’s model matters far more than its size. A BVI crewed catamaran is generally one of three things. An owner-operated yacht run by the couple who own it, a privately owned yacht placed with a management company, or a hull inside a larger commercial fleet. The rate sheets look alike. The week doesn’t.
The standard BVI crewed catamaran carries two crew. Of the 268 that report a crew number, 175 run a captain and a chef between them, 56 carry three and 23 carry four (Vital Charters rate analysis, September 2026). The other 14 list either one crew member or five and up. Two crew for eight guests is the configuration the territory is built around. It’s also why BVI weeks feel less formal than the same money buys elsewhere.
The fleet is also growing and younger than most people assume. More than 90 charter vessels relocated to the Virgin Islands ahead of the 2025/2026 season. The government valued that at $13.99 million in direct seasonal activity (Government of the Virgin Islands, Territorial Address, June 2026). The median BVI crewed catamaran was built in 2022. Five builders account for 203 of the 242 boats quoting an all-inclusive high-season week: Lagoon with 69, Bali with 56, Fountaine Pajot with 39, Leopard with 24 and Sunreef with 15. So if you’re comparing two proposals in the same size band, you’re usually comparing two versions of the same production hull with different crews aboard.
| Ownership model | Who is aboard | What it means for your week |
|---|---|---|
| Owner-operated | The couple who own the boat, usually as captain and chef | The most personal week available, and the crew has every reason to protect the boat’s reputation. Style is theirs, so the fit matters more. |
| Privately owned, professionally managed | Employed crew placed by a management company | Consistent standards and cover if a crew member falls ill. Crew may change between your enquiry and your charter. |
| Commercial fleet hull | Employed crew rotating across several boats | The most availability and the easiest rebooking. Least likely to have the same crew twice. |
Worth being clear about the commercial structure too, because the search results conflate two different things. A charter company owns or manages yachts and rents them out. A broker represents you, shops the whole market, and is paid by the yacht rather than by you. Our explainer on how a charter broker works sets out where the money goes.
What does a BVI charter week actually look like?
Short hops in remarkably steady wind. NOAA records the prevailing wind across the Virgin Islands as easterly in all twelve months of the year. Winds above 33 knots blow about 0.1 percent of the time annually, and seas top nine feet under 2 percent of the time in every month (NOAA United States Coast Pilot 5, Chapter 14, August 2026 edition). Water temperature runs between about 78 and 83 degrees Fahrenheit across the year (NOAA Coral Reef Watch). That combination is why so many people take their first crewed charter here.
One rule shapes every BVI itinerary and almost nobody explains it: park moorings are day use only. That’s why the boat leaves the Indians or the Baths before dinner rather than staying put. The standard week runs:
- Tortola or St Thomas, where the charter starts
- Norman Island and Cooper Island
- The Baths at Virgin Gorda
- North Sound
- Anegada, usually for one night
- Jost Van Dyke on the way back down the north shore
Nothing on that route is a long day, and you’re never more than a couple of hours from the next anchorage. Our seven-day BVI itinerary walks it anchorage by anchorage, and the BVI crewed charter guide covers the parts of the trip that never appear on a rate sheet. Anchorage by anchorage, the British Virgin Islands charter destination pages set out what each island is actually for.
To see which boats are actually open rather than what the market looks like in aggregate, start a search across the crewed yachts we broker.
The bottom line on BVI crewed catamaran rates
A BVI crewed catamaran charter is one of the few luxury purchases where the headline number is close to the final one. Get the size band right, budget the gratuity honestly, and the rest of the arithmetic on this page holds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is a BVI catamaran charter with crew per week in 2026?
A median of $32,000 per week, all-inclusive, with the middle half of the market between $25,000 and $43,375, measured across 242 current British Virgin Islands crewed sailing catamaran rates in September 2026 (Vital Charters rate analysis). A 50 to 59 ft boat, which is the most common size, has a median of $31,000.
What is the per-person cost of a BVI crewed catamaran for 8?
A median of $32,000 a week across 120 current rates, or roughly $571 per guest per night before the crew gratuity and about $671 with it. Eight is the most common configuration in the territory: 131 of the 282 boats working these islands sleep exactly eight.
Is there an APA on a BVI all-inclusive catamaran charter?
Almost never. Of 619 all-inclusive rate entries for these boats, 602 name no advance provisioning allowance at all. Fourteen state one and three call it optional, at a median of 5 percent. An APA is standard on plus-expenses contracts, which only 18 BVI catamarans use.
What does a 50-foot crewed catamaran cost in the BVI?
A median of $31,000 a week, all-inclusive, with the middle half between $26,000 and $32,750, across 131 current rates in the 50 to 59 ft band (Vital Charters rate analysis, September 2026). It is the largest band in the territory and the tightest priced, so boats of this size vary far more by crew and layout than by money.
How do I choose a BVI crewed catamaran charter company?
Start with the ownership model rather than the fleet name. A BVI crewed catamaran is owner-operated, privately owned under professional management, or a hull inside a commercial fleet, and that choice decides how personal the week feels and how likely the crew is to change before you board. Because 203 of the 242 rated boats come from just five builders, the boat itself is rarely the differentiator.
Does the British Virgin Islands charge VAT or a charter tax?
Not on the charter fee. The BVI’s Inland Revenue Department publishes what it collects: payroll tax, stamp duty, motor vehicle tax, hotel accommodation tax, land and house tax, liquor licence, cheque duty and service charges. No VAT, no sales tax, and nothing levied as a percentage of a charter fee. What the government does charge is per guest: a $10 environmental and tourism levy on arrival, National Parks Trust fees, and a cruising permit your crew files. That is why a BVI invoice reads shorter than a Bahamas one, where 14 percent applies to the charter fee itself.
Is a BVI crewed catamaran cheaper in summer?
Usually not. Of 235 boats publishing both seasons, 180 quote the identical rate in high and low season. The territory-wide low-season median is $31,500 against $32,000 in high, a difference of about 1.6 percent. Crew wages are most of the cost base, and they don’t fall in summer.
How many crew are aboard a BVI crewed catamaran?
Two, on the standard boat. Of the 268 that report a crew number, 175 carry two, typically a captain and a chef. 56 carry three, 23 carry four, and the other 14 carry one or five and up. The four-crew boats are almost all yachts over 60 ft with a dedicated stewardess.
Do US citizens need a passport for the British Virgin Islands?
Yes. The BVI Tourist Board states that travelling by air or by sea, visitors must present a passport to enter and depart the British Virgin Islands. Since January 1, 2025 every traveller also completes an online embarkation card before arriving. You can do it up to 72 hours ahead (UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, November 2025). Your crew handles the yacht’s clearance. The passport and the card are yours.
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