Most people sign a charter contract the way they sign a hotel confirmation. A quick scan, a signature, done. A crewed yacht charter in Greece runs on a different kind of document, and it is worth understanding before your name goes on it. For the Mediterranean, that document is almost always the MYBA Charter Agreement. Here is what it covers, who owes what, and where the money actually goes, written by a broker who coordinates these contracts from Athens.
What the MYBA Charter Agreement Actually Is
MYBA stands for the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association. Its charter agreement has been the industry standard for crewed yacht charters for more than thirty years, and it sits behind nearly every serious charter in Greek waters. It is governed by English law, and if a dispute ever arises it is settled by arbitration in London rather than in court. The point of a standard form is simple. Owners, charterers, and brokers all work from the same known terms, so nobody is reinventing the rules charter by charter.
It is a "plus expenses" contract. The base charter fee buys you the yacht and the crew's wages. Almost everything else, fuel, food, drinks, berthing, local charges, is funded separately through the APA. More on that below.
MYBA terms apply to crewed charters specifically. If you are still weighing crewed against bareboat, that is a separate decision, and we walk through it in the crewed versus bareboat guide.
The 2025 Update, and Why It Matters
For years the reference version was the 2017 MYBA Charter Agreement. In April 2025, MYBA published a revised version, the MYBA Charter 2025 Terms. Through 2026 you may see either one in circulation, so the first thing to confirm is which version your charter actually uses.
The core machinery is the same in both. What the 2025 version added is mostly about compliance and clarity:
- KYC and document exchange. Both sides confirm identity and provide the paperwork now expected under anti money laundering rules.
- A sanctions warranty. Each party warrants that it, and the guests, are not a sanctioned party, under a broad definition of what that means.
- Clearer charterer rights. The text spells out more plainly what the charterer is owed when an owner claims force majeure because of a breakdown, including the right to send a surveyor to inspect the yacht.
- An entire agreement clause. Earlier emails and broker chatter no longer form part of the contract. Whatever matters has to be inside the signed document.
That last point is the practical one. If a promise matters to you, it belongs in the contract, not in an email thread.
How the Contract Is Built
The agreement has two parts.
Page One is the part filled in for your specific charter. It carries the yacht's details, the names of the owner, charterer, broker, and stakeholder, the charter period down to the hour, the place of embarkation and disembarkation, the cruising area, the crew, the charter fee, the VAT provision, the APA, and the deposit.
The pages that follow hold the fixed clauses. The revised 2025 agreement runs to ten pages and thirty one numbered clauses. Page Two is reserved for Special Conditions, the place where anything specific to you is written down: a dietary need, a particular itinerary request, an agreed change to a standard term. The clauses themselves are not rewritten charter by charter. They are initialled, not negotiated.
Two structural points are worth knowing. First, the captain has full authority on board. The captain can refuse an itinerary or an instruction on safety grounds, and that authority is written into the contract for good reason. Second, your money does not go straight to the owner. It is held by a stakeholder, a neutral escrow party, and released to the owner under the contract's payment terms. That structure protects everyone in the deal.
One feature is easy to miss and matters a great deal for privacy. The agreement carries a confidentiality clause that binds every party, the crew included, and it survives the charter. The identity of the owner and the charterer, and the commercial terms, stay private. For clients who value discretion, that protection is built into the contract, not added on top.
Owner Obligations and Charterer Obligations
Strip away the legal language and the deal is balanced. The owner agrees to:
- Deliver the yacht on time, at the agreed place, clean, seaworthy, and fully crewed, with up to date safety equipment.
- Keep the yacht properly insured.
- Provide the yacht for your exclusive use across the charter period.
The charterer agrees to:
- Pay the charter fee, the APA, and any deposit on the dates set out on Page One, in cleared funds.
- Keep the guest count within the contracted number.
- Follow the captain's authority on safety and navigation.
- Re-deliver the yacht on time, and cover damage caused by negligence.
One detail charterers miss: if you delay re-delivery on purpose, or change the route against the captain's advice and run late, you owe one and a half times the daily charter rate for the overrun, and you stay liable for the running costs during that time. The schedule is part of the contract, not a suggestion.
Greek waters also add their own rule on how many guests a yacht can legally carry, which is a common surprise for larger groups. We explain it in full in the 12-passenger rule guide.
How the Money Moves
A MYBA charter is normally paid in two instalments.
- First payment: typically fifty percent of the charter fee, due shortly after signing, to secure the dates.
- Second payment: the remaining balance, plus VAT where it applies, plus the APA, usually due about thirty days before you board.
The exact split and dates are whatever Page One says, so read that section closely. Early bookings can sometimes be staggered differently, and some charters also carry a refundable security deposit. VAT on a Greek charter depends on the itinerary and is a subject of its own; we lay out the full cost picture in the complete Greek charter cost breakdown. There is also Greece's own cruising fee, TEPAI, which runs behind the scenes as the owner's responsibility, covered in the TEPAI guide.
The APA, in Plain Terms
APA stands for Advance Provisioning Allowance. Think of it as a running fund for everything the base fee does not include.
It is set as a percentage of the charter fee and written into the contract. As a rough guide, sailing yachts and catamarans run around twenty to twenty five percent, and motor yachts around thirty to thirty five percent, sometimes higher for a fuel-hungry yacht or a busy itinerary. You pay it before you board, usually together with the final balance.
The captain holds the APA in a separate account and spends it on your behalf: fuel, food and drink, berthing and port fees, communications, local charges, and the special requests on your preference sheet. The captain keeps the records, and you can review them. Whatever is left at the end is refunded to you. If the fund runs low mid-charter, the captain will ask you to top it up. Crew gratuity is not part of the APA. It is handled separately, customarily between ten and fifteen percent of the charter fee, and entirely at your discretion.
Force Majeure and Cancellation
This is the section nobody reads until they need it, and the part where a good broker earns their keep. The agreement separates two situations.
If the owner cancels for force majeure (an event genuinely outside anyone's control, such as a major mechanical breakdown, a fire, a storm, war, a pandemic, or a government restriction), your remedy is a full and immediate refund of everything you have paid, without interest. There is no claim for damages on top.
If the owner cancels for any other reason, you get the full refund and liquidated damages on top, on a set scale: twenty five percent of the charter fee if notice comes thirty days or more before the start, thirty five percent inside that thirty day window, and fifty percent in the final fourteen days.
There is also a delivery safety net. If force majeure stops the owner from delivering the yacht within forty eight hours, or one tenth of the charter period, whichever is shorter, you can treat the contract as ended. A similar test applies once the yacht is disabled during the charter: beyond a short interruption you are owed a pro rata refund for the lost time, or an agreed extension, and if it is out of action beyond forty eight hours, or one tenth of the charter, you can terminate.
If something does go wrong on board, the contract sets a clear path. Raise it with the captain straight away, and if it cannot be resolved there, put it to the owner or broker in writing within twenty four hours. Handled early, most issues never grow into disputes.
What about the charterer cancelling? You can give notice at any time before the charter starts. The owner keeps the instalments already due under the schedule at that point, so the cost depends on how close to the start date you pull out. There is a fairness valve, though: the owner has a duty to try to re-let the yacht for your dates, and if they manage it, you are credited with the net proceeds. Your APA and any security deposit come back. This is exactly why charterers should consider their own cancellation insurance.
One more thing worth knowing: the MYBA form does not contain blanket limits on liability between owner and charterer. Outside the cancellation and delay rules, both sides carry real exposure. That is not a reason to worry. It is a reason to use a broker who reads the whole document.
Insurance: Who Covers What
The owner is responsible for insuring the yacht: hull and machinery, and third party liability, including cover for the use of the water sports equipment. Structural damage to the vessel sits with the owner, unless it was caused by the charterer's negligence, in which case the charterer covers the insurance excess.
What is not automatically covered is you. The contract is explicit that travel insurance, cancellation and curtailment cover, and the charterer's own liability insurance are the charterer's responsibility, and it recommends arranging them. A week at sea is wonderful right up until someone needs a doctor on an island at midnight, and that is the moment the policy you bought back in spring pays for itself.
What This Means When You Book Through a Broker
Here is the honest summary. The MYBA Charter Agreement is a fair, well tested contract. It is also long, written in legal English, and full of clauses that only matter on the one day they suddenly matter a great deal.
My job, before your name goes anywhere near it, is to confirm which version is in use, check that the yacht's insurance and paperwork are in order, make sure the payment dates and APA on Page One are right, and put anything you have been promised into the Special Conditions where it actually counts. That is the difference between a contract you signed and a contract that protects you.
If you want to see how the rest of the process fits around the contract, the booking-to-boarding guide walks through what happens after you say yes, and the 50,000 euro mistake shows what tends to go wrong when there is no broker reading the document at all.
When you are ready, the first enquiry takes one email. Dates, guest count, the region you have in mind, and a rough budget. I take it from there.
This article is a general explainer of the MYBA Charter Agreement and reflects standard industry practice in 2026. It is not legal advice. Terms vary by yacht and by the version of the agreement in use, and the signed contract always governs. Read your own agreement, and ask your broker about anything that is unclear before you sign.
