The superyacht charter is the sailing holiday at its most complete expression of the luxury-as-management-of-environment principle. The forty-metre motor-sailer or sailing yacht with the helicopter pad, the beach club, the water toys, the jacuzzi on the flybridge, the chef who trained at the Michelin-starred restaurant, the crew of eight to twelve who anticipate every requirement before it is expressed, this is the sailing holiday configured as the floating five-star hotel in which the boat is the backdrop to the comfort rather than the boat as the specific vehicle for the offshore sailing life.
The forty-metre sailing superyacht in the Mediterranean in July costs €80,000 to €150,000 per week in charter rate. The APA at thirty percent: €24,000 to €45,000 for the week’s fuel, marina fees, provisioning, and running costs.
The crew gratuity at fifteen percent of the charter rate: €12,000 to €22,500 for the week. The total cost of the forty-metre superyacht charter for one week in the Mediterranean in the high season: €116,000 to €217,500 for the vessel, divided across the maximum eight to ten guests. Per person per week: €11,600 to €21,750. Per person per day: €1,657 to €3,107.
What the Superyacht Charter Provides
The superyacht charter provides the finest possible version of the managed sailing holiday: the comfort of the five-star hotel on the water, the crew whose role is the absolute management of the guest’s comfort and convenience, the cuisine at the level of the restaurant the chef came from, the water toys and the diving equipment and the tenders that the yacht’s beach club deploys for the guest’s use.
The superyacht charter in the Dodecanese or the Côte d’Azur or the Caribbean is genuinely magnificent. The guest who wants the sailing holiday in the form of the absolute luxury at sea and who has the budget for the absolute luxury at sea is well served by it.
What the superyacht charter does not provide is the offshore sailing life. The forty-metre motor-sailer that spends the week between Antibes and Saint-Tropez and Portofino is the vehicle for the comfort management of that itinerary. It is not the offshore sailing boat. The crew’s role is the management of the guest’s experience rather than the execution of the offshore passage.
The sailing, when it happens, is the backdrop to the comfort rather than the purpose of being on the boat. The route visits the marinas that the superyacht charter requires — the marinas with the dock that accommodates forty metres, the provisioning that services the superyacht galley, the restaurants and the nightlife that the Côte d’Azur provides.
What €11,600 per Person per Week Buys on the Eighty2
The Naora Coastal membership at €9,000 per year for one week is less than the per-person cost of the superyacht charter for the same week. The difference: the superyacht charter provides the managed comfort of the forty-metre vessel with the twelve-person crew.
The Naora membership provides the offshore sailing life with the five-year circumnavigation and the year-round Circle membership and the specific quality of the passage and the anchorage and the community that the superyacht charter in the Côte d’Azur is not configured to provide.
The person who wants the forty-metre superyacht in the Côte d’Azur in August should charter the forty-metre superyacht in the Côte d’Azur in August. The experience is magnificent and the budget justifies the product.
The person who wants the offshore sailing life in the Pacific or the Indian Ocean or the Red Sea, the experience that the superyacht charter cannot provide because the superyacht charter is not built for the offshore passage or the remote anchorage or the five-year circumnavigation — should book the Naora conversation.
The boat is different. The experience is different. The comparison is useful only when the experience the person actually wants is the starting point.
