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On a $400K charter quote, $60K is broker commission. The client never sees that number on the contract, because the commission comes out of the owner's side, not the client's. But the math affects everything from how brokers behave at quote time to whether discounts appear in shoulder season to which yachts get pushed harder than others. If you have ever wondered why a Friday-afternoon call from a broker insisting on a particular yacht felt off, this is the structure.
We work through the conventional split, where the variations are, what changes on sales versus charter, and what good brokers do with the commission they earn. The 2026 figures below are from MYBA-standard contracts and from delivered-deal data across the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The conventional split: charter
A standard MYBA charter contract carries a 15% gross commission on the base charter fee. The split:
- Central agent: 10% of the base fee. The central agent is the broker who represents the owner, holds the management mandate, and is responsible for the yacht's commercial program. Most yachts have one central agent (occasionally two, in a co-central arrangement). The central agent maintains the calendar, sets the rate guidance, and approves bookings.
- Retail broker: 5% of the base fee. The retail broker is the broker the charter client talks to. They source the yacht (often from a central agent's listing), negotiate within the rate the central agent has approved, and run the client relationship.
On a $400K base, that is $40K to the central agent and $20K to the retail broker. Total broker take: $60K, 15% of the base fee.
The commission is paid by the owner, not the client. The contract shows the gross base fee. The owner receives the net (base fee minus commission minus charter manager fee minus any operational deductions).
The 20% case
A few permutations push the commission to 20%.
The first is sub-central arrangements, where the central agent appoints a sub-central in a region (often a US-based central appoints a Med-based sub-central, or vice versa). The sub-central takes 5% on charters they bring in. Total: 10% central, 5% sub-central, 5% retail. The owner sees a 20% commission line.
The second is multi-broker chains, where the retail broker introducing the client to the deal works through a second broker (a friend, a referral chain, a junior at a larger house). The retail commission is split between the introducing broker and the booking broker. The owner still sees 15% gross.
The third is unique to the day-charter and platform-booked side. Online charter platforms (the Web-first booking services) sometimes take 18% to 22% commission, with the retail share covering platform overhead. On a $40K day-charter booking, a 22% commission is meaningful.
The conventional split: sales
Yacht sales follow a similar structure with different percentages.
- Listing broker: 5% to 7% of the sale price. The broker who holds the listing mandate from the seller. They set the marketing strategy, hold the photos and viewings, and run the seller side of negotiation.
- Selling broker: 3% to 5% of the sale price. The broker representing the buyer. They source the yacht, negotiate on the buyer's behalf, and run the survey and contract process.
Total commission on a sale: 8% to 10%. Some larger transactions (above $50M) move to a flat fee or a tiered structure, where the percentage steps down as the price rises. A $100M sale rarely carries a 10% commission. The structure is typically 6% to 8%, with negotiated caps.
How commission affects what you see
Three points to know.
First, the price the client sees is gross. The client pays the gross base fee plus APA, VAT, and gratuity. The owner receives the net. The client cannot reduce their bill by going around the retail broker; the central agent will quote the same gross figure. (Some central agents will negotiate slightly on the gross to capture the full 15% themselves, but most will not, because it creates channel conflict with the retail brokers they rely on for distribution.)
Second, the broker has limited discounting authority. Discounts must be approved by the central agent (and, for material discounts, by the owner). A retail broker who promises a 10% discount on a Friday afternoon without going back to the central agent is either bluffing or burning commission. The cleanest scenario: the central agent has shoulder-season discount authority (10% to 20%) that can be applied without owner approval. Retail brokers can pass that on. Beyond that authority, the owner has to sign off, and that takes time.
Third, commission rate is uniform across central agents for any given yacht, but the central agent's calendar discretion is not. Two yachts of the same size and quality can have different practical pricing depending on the central agent's flexibility. A central agent with a full calendar will hold rate. A central agent with three open weeks in August will move.
What good brokers do with their commission
This is the part of the structure that matters most for the client.
A good retail broker uses the 5% to absorb client-facing work that the central agent does not do. Pre-charter dietary briefs, special-event coordination, helicopter and ground-transport logistics, restaurant reservations, and the back-channel work with the captain in the weeks before embarkation. The broker is the single-point-of-contact for the client.
A good central agent uses the 10% to maintain the yacht's commercial program. Marketing, photography, broadcasting availability, calendar management, vetting charter clients (yes, owners ask), and dispute resolution if anything goes wrong on a charter. The central agent is the captain's commercial counterpart.
A poor broker on either side takes the commission and does the minimum. A poor retail broker passes the client to the captain on day zero with no pre-brief. A poor central agent broadcasts availability to retail and does nothing else.
Why brokers care which yacht you book
Commission is by base fee. A $400K booking pays $60K total in commission. A $200K booking pays $30K. A $700K booking pays $105K.
This creates a forward-bias in the broker's recommendations. Brokers earn more on larger yachts at higher rates. There is no incentive to push a client down to a smaller boat that is a better fit. There is a real incentive to push a client up.
Good brokers resist this. They size the yacht to the party, the routing, and the use case, even if that means a smaller boat at a lower commission. Bad brokers up-size relentlessly. Watch for the broker who keeps proposing 50m yachts when the family of 6 is asking about 38m to 42m. The broker is responding to their commission curve, not the client's actual need.
Why commission rates are stable
MYBA, the trade body that issues the standard charter contract, has codified the 15% structure since the 1980s. Most central agents are MYBA members and bind themselves to the structure. Discounts on commission to brokers (rather than to clients) are rare and tend to be reciprocal arrangements between major houses. Public list-broker discounting of commission to retail is almost unheard of.
The result: the rate is uniform across the brand-name brokers (Edmiston, Burgess, Y.CO, Fraser, Camper & Nicholsons, Cecil Wright, Ocean Independence, IYC, Northrop & Johnson). It is uniform at the smaller retail shops. It is uniform at most central agents. The conversation is rarely about whether the 15% applies; it is about who takes what share within the 15%.
Where the structure breaks down
Online platforms have started to apply pressure on the smaller end. Day-charter platforms that take 20%+ have been pricing through retail brokers on day-rate inventory. Some weekly-charter platforms have experimented with 12% to 13% total commission to offer marginal discounts. None of these have moved the needle on the brand-name central agents.
The bigger pressure is on the sales side, where Web-first listing services (YachtWorld, Yachtbroker.com) have created downward pressure on the sales commission. Some serious sales now close at 6% total instead of 10%, particularly on smaller production-yacht trades. The superyacht sales market (yachts above 40m) is still on the 8% to 10% structure.
What you can negotiate
Three levers on charter.
First, the gross base fee. The central agent has rate flexibility in shoulder season and on a calendar that is not fully booked. Ask the retail broker what the central agent's discount authority is and whether it applies to your dates.
Second, the APA. The APA percentage is set by the captain (with central agent input), but it can be reviewed pre-contract. On boats where APA has historically settled under the booked figure, the captain can offer a lower APA at quote time.
Third, the routing. If the routing reduces the yacht's repositioning cost (you stay in one cruising area instead of running across the Med), the captain can offer a lower APA or a small base discount.
You do not negotiate the commission split. That is between the brokers and the owner. You negotiate the gross.
What does not make the cut
We would not work with a retail broker who refuses to disclose whether they are the central agent on the yacht they are recommending, when asked. The disclosure is part of the trust signal.
We would not work with a broker who keeps recommending yachts that are 10m larger than the family needs. The commission incentive is visible at that point.
We would not assume that going direct to a central agent saves money on the gross. The gross is the gross. What going direct does is consolidate the client relationship under one broker, which has service implications, but no price implications.
The honest disclosure
We earn a referral fee when you charter, book, or buy through links on this site. The fee is paid by the broker, not by you. The fee is uniform across the brokers we work with (we have not bid for higher rates from any broker, and we do not adjust rankings for commission). The full breakdown is on our how-we-make-money page. This piece sits in the same space: explaining how the money moves, so you can read your quote with eyes open.
FAQ
Does the charter client pay the broker commission? No. The commission is paid by the owner, from the gross base fee. The client pays the gross.
What is the standard charter commission? 15% gross. 10% to the central agent, 5% to the retail broker.
What is the standard sales commission? 8% to 10% on yachts up to $50M. Negotiated, often lower (6% to 8%) above $50M.
Can I go direct to the central agent and save the retail share? You can talk to the central agent direct. You will rarely save money. The gross is the gross.
Why does my broker keep proposing bigger yachts? Because commission rises with the base fee. Watch for it. A good broker sizes to the use case.
Is there a broker who works on a flat fee instead of commission? A small number of niche brokers operate on a retainer or fee-for-service basis (mostly on the sales side, advising buyers through a complete portfolio process). These are rare and tend to serve buyers with multiple ongoing deals.