Is a boat club membership cheaper than chartering a yacht?

A boat club membership is cheaper than chartering a yacht only if you sail near home most weekends; for a one-week vacation, the math flips. Clubs like SailTime and Freedom Boat Club charge an initiation fee plus roughly $300 to $800 per month for scheduled use of small local boats you operate yourself. That adds up to $5,000 to $12,000 a year before fuel. A crewed charter is a different product entirely: one price buys a private yacht, a captain, a chef, and all meals for the week. Frequent local sailors save with a club. Travelers who want the Caribbean once a year come out ahead chartering, and a realistic charter budget shows exactly where the money goes.