Antigua Yacht Charter: Where the Crewed Yachts Come From
An Antigua yacht charter usually starts on a yacht based elsewhere: just 6 of 24 winter there. See delivery fees, what a week costs and how St. Kitts fits in.
An Antigua yacht charter usually begins on a crewed yacht that spent the winter on another island and sailed over for your week. Antigua is one of the Caribbean’s great sailing islands, home to Nelson’s Dockyard and to Antigua Sailing Week. Even so, few of the crewed yachts that cruise the Leeward Islands spend the winter there.
We looked at where the crewed yachts that start Antigua charters spend the winter, what fee they publish to sail over and what a week aboard costs. St. Kitts and Nevis, a day’s sail to the west, get a section of their own, because the same pattern is even stronger there. If you’re still choosing an island group, our guide to Caribbean crewed charter destinations compares them, and the Caribbean charter destinations page covers the region as a whole.
Where do Antigua yacht charters start?
Most Antigua yacht charters start on a crewed yacht that sails in from another island. Of the 24 crewed yachts with a 2026-27 Caribbean rate that name Antigua as a starting point, six winter there (Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026). The other 18 come from St. Martin, the Virgin Islands or the Windward Islands, or move between bases.
Antigua sits at the southeast corner of a cruising ground whose crewed yachts mostly live farther northwest. Of the 248 crewed yachts that list the Leeward Islands as a cruising area, 115 give the British or US Virgin Islands as their winter base, and St. Martin is the next most common. Our comparison of the Windward and Leeward Islands sets the two island chains side by side.
For you, the difference is at the start of the week. A yacht based in Antigua boards you at its own dock. One based elsewhere sails over before your charter, usually for a published fee, and you board in Antigua as if it lived there. Either way, the week itself is the same: a captain, a chef, your own cabins and the islands within a day’s sail.
Which crewed yachts are based in Antigua?
Antigua’s own crewed yachts are sailing monohulls of 66 to 83 feet, apart from one 47-foot catamaran, and every one of them sleeps six guests or fewer. That puts five of the 22 crewed sailing monohulls with a 2026-27 Caribbean or Bahamas rate on the island (Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026).
For a family of eight or a group of ten, then, an Antigua catamaran charter means a catamaran that sails in, and those are the bigger boats: 13 of the yachts that come from elsewhere sleep eight or more (Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026).
The Antigua-based yachts also all price plus expenses. You pay the weekly rate plus an advance provisioning allowance, typically 30 to 35 percent of the base rate. The crew spends it on food, drink, fuel and dockage and refunds what isn’t used.
If you want a week under a tall rig, heeled over under sail from one anchorage to the next, Antigua is one of the few places where that yacht is already waiting.
See which crewed yachts cruise the Caribbean for a group your size.
What does it cost to bring a yacht to Antigua?
A crewed yacht that sails to Antigua for your charter usually adds a flat delivery fee to the weekly rate, and the distance sets the amount. Twelve of the yachts that will start an Antigua charter state their delivery terms in their rate notes, and the yachts based on the island have no delivery to charge (Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026).
| Where the yacht sails from | Published fee to start in Antigua | Yachts | How the rate notes word it |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Martin | $500 | 3 | “Delivery fee: Saint Martin – Antigua” |
| St. Martin | $1,000 one way | 1 | “One-way delivery fees: SXM to Antigua” |
| Martinique | $1,000 one way | 1 | “One-way delivery fees: Martinique to Antigua” |
| The BVI, via St. Martin | $1,000 return from St. Martin, plus $1,500 return from the BVI to St. Martin | 1 | Listed as return trips: SXM to Antigua, and BVI to SXM |
| The BVI | $2,000 | 4 | “Within Leeward Islands”, with Antigua on the embarkation list |
| Grenada | €2,500 one way | 1 | “One way Antigua (to be reconfirmed)” |
| The USVI | No fee for Christmas and New Year | 1 | “St Martin, USVI or Antigua. No delivery fees!” |
Crewed yachts with a 2026-27 Caribbean rate that name Antigua as a place to start a charter and state a delivery fee. Fees sit outside the weekly rate. Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026.
English Harbour is about 100 nautical miles from St. Martin and about 180 from the BVI, in a straight line by our measurement from chart positions. At a typical eight knots, that’s roughly 12 hours of sailing from St. Martin and 22 from the BVI before the yacht can take you aboard.
Read the wording before you compare two yachts. “One way” covers the trip to Antigua, and “return” covers the trip there and back. A yacht that quotes its Antigua fee from St. Martin but lives in the BVI charges both legs.
Delivery also takes days out of the yacht’s calendar. A yacht sailing over needs free days before and after your charter, so one that’s free for your week may not be free to come. Ask for the fee and the delivery days in the proposal, before you choose a yacht.
What does an Antigua yacht charter cost?
An Antigua or St. Kitts yacht charter is priced as a Leeward Islands charter. Across the 118 crewed sailing catamarans that list the Leewards and publish a high-season rate, the median week is $32,000 all-in, with provisioning included and taxes and gratuity extra. The middle half ask $26,000 to $52,125 (Vital Charters rate analysis, October 2026).
Other kinds of yacht cost more, including the sailing monohulls Antigua itself is home to:
| Yacht type | Yachts with a high-season rate | Median high-season week, all-in |
|---|---|---|
| Sailing monohull | 11 | $63,180 |
| Power catamaran | 11 | $93,000 |
| Motor yacht | 29 | $148,500 |
Crewed yachts that list the Leeward Islands, 2026-27 high-season asking rates. All-in: plus-expenses rates include the provisioning allowance, so they compare with all-inclusive ones. Excludes taxes, port fees and crew gratuity. Vital Charters rate analysis, October 2026.
Two costs sit on top of any rate. The crew gratuity usually runs 15 to 20 percent of the charter fee in the Caribbean crewed fleet, the band the CYBA Inclusive Agreement (Clause 2.B) calls customary. Our crew tipping guide covers how it’s paid. Antigua and Barbuda’s government charges also apply where the rate doesn’t include them. All-inclusive terms usually cover permits and levies, but charter taxes and the gratuity are always yours. The Caribbean charter taxes and fees guide shows how each territory charges.
Where do you board an Antigua charter?
Antigua charters board on the south coast, in English Harbour or neighboring Falmouth Harbour, or at Jolly Harbour on the west coast. Among the yachts based on the island, every listing that names a dock names English Harbour (Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026). English Harbour holds Nelson’s Dockyard, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2016 as a group of Georgian-style naval buildings inside a walled enclosure (UNESCO World Heritage Centre).
The dockyard is still a working marina, run by the island’s National Parks Authority (National Parks Antigua). Falmouth Harbour, the next bay west, holds Falmouth Harbour Marina and Antigua Superyacht Marina. Jolly Harbour, about eight nautical miles up the west coast from English Harbour by our measurement, has its own marina and is a port of entry. Most of the day boats below leave from there.
Yachts that sail in rarely name a dock, so confirm it when you book. The airport, V.C. Bird International, is on the north side of the island, so plan the drive south to the boat and consider a night ashore before an early boarding.
Where does a crewed week from Antigua go?
A crewed week from Antigua circles the island and its offshore islands, and adds Barbuda to the north if your group wants a longer passage. The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority counts 365 beaches, “one for every day of the year”, and lists Great Bird Island, Green Island and Prickly Pear Island among Antigua’s offshore islands (Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority).
Each coast gives the week something different. On the south coast, Pigeon Point beach is a short hop from Nelson’s Dockyard. The west coast lies in the lee of the trade winds, with Deep Bay near St. John’s and a string of quieter beaches toward the southwest. On the east coast the reef does the sheltering: the tourism authority describes Long Bay as “completely protected by its reef”, and Half Moon Bay is now a national park.
Barbuda is the long leg (see the FAQ below), and Guadeloupe and Nevis are each a day’s sail away for a group that wants another country. Tell the crew whether you’d like quiet anchorages or a beach bar most afternoons, and they’ll route the week around the wind.
Day boat or crewed week: which Antigua charter fits?
An Antigua yacht day charter is a private boat for one day, most often out of Jolly Harbour on the west coast, with you back at the dock by late afternoon (operators’ own websites, read 19 October 2026). A crewed week is a different booking: you sleep aboard, a chef cooks, and the yacht moves between anchorages while you swim.
The day boats below are the private charters that kept coming up when we searched for an Antigua yacht charter in October 2026. They aren’t ranked or rated. The table shows only what each operator publishes about itself, and it leaves out sportfishing boats, which are a separate category.
| Day boat operator | Departs from | Boat | Guest limit | Published full-day rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antigua Day Charters | Seadream Dock, Jolly Harbour | 53-foot sailing catamaran | 24 | US$2,200 for up to four guests, rising per guest to US$7,000 for 24; eight hours, food and drink included |
| Happy Days Charter | Jolly Harbour | 46-foot Sea Ray motor yacht | 12 | From US$3,200 for six guests, 10am to 4pm, US$150 each extra guest; drinks included |
| Salt N Sun Charters | Jolly Harbour | 51-foot Beneteau Oceanis sailing yacht | 8 | From US$1,000 for up to eight guests, eight hours, lunch and drinks included |
| CocoVibes Tours | Dickenson Bay | 18-foot Boston Whaler | 6 | US$1,020 for up to four guests, six hours, lunch and sales tax included |
| Falmouth Ocean Club | Falmouth | Rafnar 1200 powerboat | 8 | $2,600 for the boat plus lunch per guest, eight hours; currency not stated |
| Catamaran Sailing Antigua | Al Porto, Jolly Harbour | 50-foot sailing catamaran | 16 | Not published |
Each operator’s own website, read 19 October 2026. Rates change, so check before you book.
Few of these pages say anything about fuel, tax or the crew’s tip, so ask what the rate leaves out before you compare two of them. Some of the boats also take far more guests than any crewed yacht sleeps.
Where does a St. Kitts yacht charter start?
A St. Kitts yacht charter almost always starts on another island. Only two crewed yachts with a 2026-27 Caribbean rate are based in St. Kitts, a 115-foot sailing yacht and a 92-foot motor yacht, and no other crewed yacht’s rate notes name St. Kitts or Nevis as a pickup or delivery point (Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026).
Most weeks that include St. Kitts and Nevis start in St. Martin or St. Barts to the north, or in Antigua to the east. Basseterre, the St. Kitts capital, lies about 49 nautical miles from Simpson Bay in St. Martin and 37 from Gustavia in St. Barts. Nevis lies about 50 from English Harbour. Those are straight-line distances by our measurement from chart positions, each a single day’s sail, so the islands fit inside a week without having to start it.
Ashore on St. Kitts, Brimstone Hill Fortress is “a UNESCO World Heritage Site” (St. Kitts Tourism Authority), inscribed in 1999 (UNESCO). On Nevis, Pinney’s Beach runs for four miles of white sand (Nevis Tourism Authority), and much of the capital, Charlestown, is preserved in its original historic state (Nevis Tourism Authority, history). Crossing the Narrows between the two islands takes a few minutes by water taxi (St. Kitts Tourism Authority, island hopping), so a yacht anchored off one can show you both.
Our Leeward Islands map shows where St. Kitts and Nevis sit between St. Barts and Antigua. If your week starts in St. Barts, the 7-day St. Barts itinerary shows how a week from there is paced, and St. Kitts is a day’s sail to its south.
A crewed week that calls at St. Kitts costs what an Antigua week costs (see the price section above), plus a delivery fee if the yacht comes from farther away. For a single day on the water, the St. Kitts and Nevis day boats that turn up first in a search publish their own rates:
| Day boat operator | Departs from | Boat | Guest limit | Published rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Kitts Yacht Charters | Christophe Harbour Superyacht Marina, St. Kitts | 44-foot power catamaran | 16 | US$5,500 for up to eight guests, 5.5 hours, lunch on Nevis included; US$650 each extra guest |
| Nevis Yacht Charters | Oualie Beach, Nevis, or St. Kitts | 45-foot Jeanneau sailing yacht | 8 | US$1,250 for a six-hour day; lunch and gratuity not included |
| Aquamax Adventures | Port Zante Marina, Basseterre | 36-foot power catamaran | 12 | $900 for up to six guests, four hours, with a stop at Pinney’s Beach on Nevis; currency not stated |
Each operator’s own website, read 19 October 2026. Rates change, so check before you book.
When is the best time for an Antigua yacht charter?
The best time for an Antigua yacht charter is December to April, the window in which the island’s crewed yachts publish their Caribbean rates (Vital Charters listings analysis, October 2026). March is the driest month: V.C. Bird International Airport averages 37.7 millimeters (1.48 inches) of rain in March, against 134.6 millimeters (5.30 inches) in November, the wettest (WMO 1991-2020 climate normals, archived by NOAA). The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 (National Hurricane Center).
Most of the yachts wintering in Antigua spend the summer in the Mediterranean, New England or the South Pacific, which is why the island’s crewed season is a winter one.
Two events bracket the season. The Antigua Charter Yacht Show runs from December 4 to 9, 2026 at Nelson’s Dockyard (Antigua Charter Yacht Meeting). Antigua Sailing Week, the island’s big regatta, returns for its 58th edition on April 21 to 25, 2027 (Antigua Sailing Week). Book early if you want to be there for the racing, or ask the crew to plan around it if you don’t. Our guide to the best time to charter in the Caribbean compares the months across the region.
How do you book a crewed charter from Antigua?
Booking a crewed charter from Antigua takes five decisions, in this order: group size, dates, where to start, the yacht and its delivery, then what the rate includes. Group size comes first because it decides whether a yacht based in Antigua can take you at all.
- Count guests and cabins. Up to six guests opens the yachts based in Antigua; more than six means a yacht that sails in. Our guide to choosing the right yacht size helps you decide who shares.
- Fix the dates, or a window. A flexible window opens more yachts than a fixed week.
- Choose where to start. Start in Antigua for a week around Antigua and Barbuda, or in St. Martin for a week that takes in St. Barts and St. Kitts.
- Ask for the delivery fee and the delivery days. Both belong in the proposal, next to the weekly rate.
- Read the terms. Check whether the rate is plus expenses or all-inclusive, and that every guest has a passport. Our guide to charter entry requirements lists the documents.
A broker runs your shortlist across the agencies that list these yachts and quotes from the same published rates.
The bottom line
An Antigua yacht charter usually means a yacht that sails in for your week, priced like any Leeward Islands charter, with a delivery fee you should see in writing. If there are six of you or fewer, a yacht based in Antigua can take you from its own dock. If there are more, plan on a catamaran from St. Martin or the Virgin Islands.
Tell us your group size and dates, then start a yacht search at Vital Charters and we’ll shortlist crewed yachts that can start in Antigua, with any delivery fee already in the price.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a crewed yacht charter in Antigua all-inclusive?
Only on a yacht that sails in from another island. Thirteen of the crewed yachts that can start an Antigua charter price all-inclusive, and every one of them comes from elsewhere (Vital Charters rate analysis, October 2026). Ask for one of those if you’d rather not settle a provisioning account at the end of the week.
Can you take a yacht from Antigua to Barbuda?
Yes. Barbuda lies about 30 nautical miles from Jolly Harbour, in a straight line by our measurement, so it’s a long day trip or an easy leg of a crewed week. Its draws are an 11-mile pink-sand beach and the Codrington Lagoon frigate bird colony, which the tourism authority calls the largest in the western hemisphere (Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority). One Jolly Harbour day operator publishes an eight-hour Barbuda charter from US$4,200 for up to six guests, with lunch paid separately (operator’s website, read 19 October 2026).
Can you start a yacht charter in St. Kitts?
Rarely, because almost no crewed yacht keeps its winter base there. Most weeks that take in St. Kitts and Nevis start in St. Martin, St. Barts or Antigua. You can ask whether a yacht will relocate to start in St. Kitts, but no listing publishes a fee for it, so expect it to be quoted case by case.
Should a Leeward Islands charter start in Antigua or St. Martin?
Start nearest the islands you want to see. Antigua suits a week around Antigua, Barbuda and Guadeloupe, whose northwest-coast port of Deshaies lies about 42 nautical miles south of English Harbour by our measurement. St. Martin suits a week built around St. Barts, Anguilla and St. Kitts, and far more crewed yachts are based there.
Do you need a passport for an Antigua yacht charter?
Yes. Every guest needs a passport, and US citizens need one that’s valid for 180 days after they leave Antigua and Barbuda; passport cards aren’t accepted (US State Department). The captain handles clearance. A week that also calls at St. Barts or St. Kitts crosses more borders, so keep passports where you can reach them.
Find the yacht that sails to Antigua for you
Tell us your group size and dates, and we’ll shortlist crewed yachts that can start in Antigua, with any delivery fee already in the price.
