What Nobody Tells You About Tipping (and Talking to) Your Yacht Crew
Most first-time charter guests spend weeks choosing the right yacht — the length, the layout, the cabins, the toys on board — and almost no time thinking about the eight to twenty people who will actually make the week work. That's a mistake. The crew is the difference between a good charter and a great one, and there's a short list of things almost nobody explains before you step on board.
Tipping isn't optional — even though nobody calls it that
Gratuity on a yacht charter is customary, not legally required, but in practice it's treated as part of the cost of the trip. The standard is 5–10% of the base charter fee, on top of the charter fee itself and the APA (the separate allowance that covers fuel, food, and dockage). It's usually given in cash or by transfer at the end of the charter, handed to the captain, who splits it among the crew according to role and hours worked. If nobody mentions a number to you, that doesn't mean it isn't expected — it just means nobody wants to be the one to bring it up first. Ask your broker before the last day, not on it.
Talk to the chief stew, not just whoever's nearest
Every crew has a hierarchy, and it exists to make your week smoother, not more formal. The chief stewardess (or purser, on larger yachts) is your main point of contact for anything you need — meals, schedule changes, preferences, requests for the next day. Going through her means your request actually gets logged and actioned, rather than getting lost between deckhands. On day one, be specific: allergies, drinks you like, what time you actually want breakfast versus what you think you're supposed to say. The more detail you give upfront, the less you'll have to ask for later.
Respect the spaces you don't see
Crew quarters, the galley at certain hours, the bridge, the engine room — these aren't just off-limits out of formality, they're where an 18-hour workday happens in shifts you never see. A yacht that feels effortless from the guest cabin is running on a crew rotation below deck that never really stops. You don't need to tiptoe around the boat, but a little awareness of the fact that someone is always on watch, and always working, goes a long way — and tends to come back to you in the form of a crew that goes further out of its way for guests who notice.
The relationship gets easier by day three — use that
Most guests are slightly stiff with the crew on day one and completely at ease by day three. That's normal, and the crew expects it. Once the ice breaks, you can ask for more — a last-minute detour, a request from a specific cove for sunset, moving dinner two hours later — and it tends to get handled without friction, because you've built the kind of rapport that makes flexibility easy. The guests who get the most out of a charter aren't the ones who tip the most; they're the ones who treat the crew like professionals worth talking to.
None of this is complicated, but it's the part of chartering nobody puts in the brochure. That's exactly the kind of detail we walk clients through before they ever step on board — not just which yacht, but how the week actually works.