For start, you should deal with a broker who is affiliated with MYBA or any other legit yachting associations. These organisations are legal entities that govern the industry and offer a 100% security for the charterers i.e the clients who book yachts. MYBA for instance is running a campaign for #chooseaMYBAMember to alert the public that dealing with the owners direct or agents or brokers that are not affiliated with any of the yachting associations carries a lot of risk. For example, under MYBA regulations the owners are not allowed to receive the funds direct but should appoint a broker /stakeholder who holds the funds in a secure clients account, this is an equivalent of an escrow account. The funds are held in this account before you arrive on the yacht, if the owner would default and we had seen a few owners defaulting over the last 2 years, your money is safe and secure and it will be refunded to you in full should the owner fails. Non MYBA or any other yachting association brokers and agents very often do not have escrow accounts but they simply charge the clients, take their commission and pass the funds immediately onto the owners.

Unfortunately this was a common scenario during the pandemic, a number of the owners/brokers took and spent the deposits received from the clients. This had resulted in many owners/brokers offering a 'postponement' to the clients to another year because they simply spent the clients money. Professional yacht charter brokers are very protective of this industry, we want the industry to grow but we want this growth to happen in a way that is beneficial to all parties involved, the owners, the charterers and the brokers. If we allow the owners trying to cut off the brokers whose role in this industry is of crucial importance as discussed above or allowing 'dodgy' agents or brokers entering this industry, the industry that we love so much will start crumbling.