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Marine diesel at Mediterranean marina pumps in spring 2026 ran roughly €1.55 to €1.85 per litre, depending on the country and the marina. A 50m motor yacht running a standard Med charter week (five cruising days at modest speed, two anchorage days) burns 4,500 to 7,500 litres over the week, putting the fuel line in the APA reconciliation between roughly $8,000 and $18,000 as of May 2026. A 70m motor yacht on the same week burns 12,000 to 18,000 litres, putting fuel at $20,000 to $40,000. Fuel is the largest single line item in most charter APAs, and it is the single most-common cause of APA overruns. Knowing the fuel-burn profile of the yacht you are chartering is part of charter literacy. This post is the data, by yacht size class, and the implications for how to budget.
How marine fuel works on a charter yacht
Yachts above 24m typically run twin-engine diesel propulsion, with main engines (typically MTU, Caterpillar, MAN, or Wärtsilä on larger yachts) and one to three diesel generators (MAN, Cummins, or smaller MTU sets) that provide ship's power at anchor and dockside. Fuel burn comes from two sources: the main engines while cruising, and the generators while at anchor or in marina. The cruising burn dominates the weekly fuel line on most charters. Generator burn is non-trivial in hot weather (August in Sardinia with the air conditioning running flat out) but typically less than 30% of total weekly fuel.
Yachts cruise efficiently at displacement speeds, typically 10 to 13 knots, where the hull moves through the water at low resistance. Above that, fuel burn rises non-linearly. A 50m motor yacht cruising at 11 knots burns roughly 100 litres per hour. The same yacht at 18 knots burns 280 to 350 litres per hour. The same yacht at top speed (often 22 to 24 knots on a planing-style hull) can burn 600 to 800 litres per hour. The captain on a charter week typically cruises at displacement speed unless the guests have requested a fast passage.
Sailing yachts under engine burn less than motor yachts of equivalent length, because their hulls are slimmer and they typically have smaller engines. Under sail, they burn nothing. A 60m sailing yacht running a Med charter week with three sailing days and two motor days will use 1,500 to 3,000 litres of diesel for the week. The same yacht as a pure motor yacht would burn three to five times that.
Fuel-burn data by yacht class
Below is the per-hour fuel-burn band we use when budgeting weekly fuel for a charter week. These are cruise-speed burn rates (10 to 13 knots) for displacement-hulled motor yachts in the 2010 to 2025 build period, drawn from captain-reported data on charter yachts we have placed in the last three seasons. Older yachts run at the high end of each band. Newer hybrid yachts run at the low end.
30m to 40m motor yacht. Cruise burn: 40 to 70 litres per hour. At 16 knots: 140 to 220 litres per hour. Weekly fuel on a typical Med charter: 3,500 to 5,500 litres. Weekly cost: $6,000 to $11,000.
40m to 50m motor yacht. Cruise burn: 60 to 100 litres per hour. At 16 knots: 200 to 320 litres per hour. Weekly fuel: 4,500 to 6,800 litres. Weekly cost: $8,000 to $14,000.
50m to 60m motor yacht. Cruise burn: 80 to 130 litres per hour. At 16 knots: 280 to 400 litres per hour. Weekly fuel: 6,500 to 9,500 litres. Weekly cost: $11,500 to $19,500.
60m to 75m motor yacht. Cruise burn: 130 to 230 litres per hour. At 16 knots: 400 to 600 litres per hour. Weekly fuel: 10,000 to 16,000 litres. Weekly cost: $17,500 to $33,000.
75m to 90m motor yacht. Cruise burn: 200 to 400 litres per hour. At 16 knots: 600 to 1,000 litres per hour. Weekly fuel: 16,000 to 28,000 litres. Weekly cost: $28,000 to $58,000.
90m+ motor yacht. Cruise burn: 400 to 800+ litres per hour, depending on the hull and the engine room. Weekly fuel: 25,000 to 50,000+ litres. Weekly cost: $44,000 to $100,000+.
These are charter-week figures with a typical itinerary of five cruising days at modest speed. Long-passage weeks (e.g. a 14-day Mediterranean tour from Naples to Athens) burn substantially more. Short, anchorage-dominated weeks (e.g. a Saronic Gulf or Pakleni Islands week with two-hour cruising days) burn less.
Sailing yacht fuel-burn data
Sailing yachts deserve their own table. A 60m sailing yacht with a 350 kW or 500 kW main engine runs at 9 to 10 knots under engine, burning 40 to 70 litres per hour. The same yacht under sail in a 14-knot breeze burns nothing, except for the generator that runs the systems. Generator burn on a sailing yacht under sail is roughly 6 to 12 litres per hour.
50m sailing yacht. Cruise burn (under engine): 30 to 50 litres per hour. Generator burn (under sail or at anchor): 5 to 9 litres per hour. Weekly fuel on a typical Med week with three sailing days and two motor days: 1,800 to 3,000 litres. Weekly cost: $3,200 to $6,100.
60m sailing yacht. Cruise burn: 40 to 70 litres per hour. Generator burn: 6 to 12 litres per hour. Weekly fuel: 2,500 to 4,000 litres. Weekly cost: $4,400 to $8,200.
75m+ sailing yacht. Cruise burn: 60 to 110 litres per hour. Generator burn: 8 to 15 litres per hour. Weekly fuel: 3,500 to 6,000 litres. Weekly cost: $6,200 to $12,200.
The fuel cost on a sailing yacht charter is materially lower than on the equivalent-LOA motor yacht. This is one of the reasons sailing charters can sometimes price competitively despite a lower guest count. See /blog/charter-cost-sailing-vs-motor/.
Explorer and ice-class yacht fuel burn
Explorer yachts and ice-class yachts are typically built for range, not speed, with efficient hulls (often a fast-displacement hull form like the Heesen FDHF or the Abeking 75m series). Their cruise burn is in line with the motor yacht bands above. Their long-passage burn is materially lower than a typical planing-hull motor yacht of the same length.
The exception: converted explorer yachts (e.g. an ice-class commercial vessel converted to a yacht, like M/Y Ragnar or M/Y Legend) carry larger engines and consume more fuel even at cruise speeds. Their weekly fuel on a Northern Norway or Greenland expedition can be three to five times the equivalent-LOA Med charter week.
Generator burn at anchor
The yacht is not only burning fuel when she moves. At anchor, the generators run the air conditioning, the fridges and freezers, the watermaker, the lighting, and the laundry. Generator burn on a typical August anchorage day in the Mediterranean:
- 35m to 45m yacht: 80 to 160 litres per day (one or two generators on).
- 45m to 60m yacht: 150 to 280 litres per day.
- 60m to 75m yacht: 250 to 450 litres per day.
- 75m+ yacht: 400 to 800 litres per day.
A week with two anchorage days and five cruising days has 2 x generator-day fuel plus 5 x cruising-day fuel. A week with five anchorage days (a slow week) and two cruising days has the inverse. Captains typically run the yacht to limit overall fuel without compromising guest comfort, but August in the Med means the air conditioning runs hard and the genset burn is real.
Some yachts have lithium battery banks or zero-emission anchor systems that allow the generators to be turned off at anchor (the Sanlorenzo Bluegame line, Feadship hybrid yachts, certain Heesen hybrids). These yachts save 20 to 40% on at-anchor fuel. The hybrid charter market is growing. See /blog/yacht-hybrid-electric-deliveries/.
How marina pump diesel pricing works
Marine diesel at Mediterranean marina pumps in spring 2026 was approximately:
- France (Saint-Tropez, Antibes, Cannes): €1.75 to €1.95 per litre.
- Italy (Naples, Capri, Porto Cervo): €1.65 to €1.85 per litre.
- Greece (Mykonos, Athens, Rhodes): €1.55 to €1.80 per litre.
- Croatia (Split, Dubrovnik): €1.50 to €1.75 per litre.
- Turkey (Bodrum, Marmaris): €1.50 to €1.75 per litre, with currency fluctuation a regular factor.
- Spain (Mallorca, Ibiza): €1.60 to €1.85 per litre.
These are pump prices at marina fuel docks. The MYBA-standard charter pays the marina pump price plus a small service charge. Some marinas charge VAT on the fuel and some do not, depending on the charter's tax structure and the country.
Yachts that bunker offshore (a few of the largest yachts can take on fuel from a bunker barge) sometimes pay 8 to 15% less per litre than the marina pump price. Most charter yachts in the 35m to 75m range refuel at marinas during the charter week.
How fuel hits the APA
The captain refuels during the charter week as needed. Most captains refuel once or twice in a typical week, sometimes more on long-passage weeks. The fuel cost goes on the APA card or is wired from the APA account at the marina. The captain logs the receipt, the volume, the per-litre price, and the date.
At the reconciliation, fuel appears as a single category total with the receipts attached. Charter clients who want to see the volume and the per-litre price can ask. Most do not. The MYBA standard reconciliation includes the fuel volume and price as a matter of course.
How to budget fuel by route
The captain's quote at the planning stage will include a fuel estimate. If you want to sanity-check it, the rough calculation is:
(Total expected cruising hours during the week) x (Yacht's cruise burn rate, litres per hour) + (Total anchorage days) x (Yacht's daily genset burn) = Total litres for the week.
Multiply by the destination's diesel price per litre to get the cost. Add 10 to 15% for marina top-ups and miscellaneous burn.
For example, a 50m motor yacht doing a Croatia week from Split with five cruising days at four hours each (20 cruising hours total) and two anchorage days:
- Cruising fuel: 20 hours x 100 litres per hour = 2,000 litres.
- Anchorage fuel: 2 days x 200 litres per day = 400 litres.
- Total: 2,400 litres.
At €1.65 per litre, that is €3,960 for fuel. Add 10% buffer: €4,400. The captain's quote should be in this range.
If the captain's fuel quote is materially higher than the calculation, ask why. Possible reasons: longer cruising hours than your itinerary, higher cruising speeds, an older yacht with above-band burn, or expected use of jet skis and water toys (which burn fuel separately, but are sometimes consolidated into the fuel line). All are answerable.
What the fuel cost does to APA
On a 50m motor yacht with a $300,000 weekly charter rate and 30% APA ($90,000), fuel is typically $10,000 to $15,000 of the $90,000 APA, or 11 to 17%. Other lines (dockage, food, drinks, communications, anchorage permits) take the remaining 83 to 89%. On a 70m yacht with a $600,000 rate and 30% APA ($180,000), fuel is typically $22,000 to $35,000, or 12 to 19%. The pattern is consistent: fuel is the largest single line, but it is less than a fifth of total APA. The other lines matter.
How to reduce charter fuel cost
The captain decides cruise speed. If you want lower fuel cost, ask the captain to plan the week at displacement speed (10 to 11 knots) rather than at faster cruise speeds. Most yachts cruise efficiently at displacement. Only a few are noticeably uncomfortable at lower speeds. The fuel saving on a typical week from running at 10 instead of 14 knots is 25 to 40%, which is real money.
Avoid long passages where possible. A short-hop week (Saronic Gulf, Pakleni Islands, Cote d'Azur loops) is fundamentally cheaper to fuel than a long-passage week (Naples to Sardinia to Corsica, Mykonos to Crete).
Choose a sailing yacht. If the size and guest count work, a 50m sailing yacht under sail uses less than a third of the fuel of a 50m motor yacht. See /blog/sailing-yacht-charter-rate-2026/.
Choose a hybrid. Several recent deliveries (Sanlorenzo, Feadship, Heesen) run diesel-electric propulsion, with the option to run on battery for short periods and at anchor. The fuel saving over a season is 15 to 25%. Charter availability of hybrid yachts is still limited. See /blog/yacht-hybrid-electric-deliveries/.
The friction
The opaque parts of charter fuel that the industry could fix:
- Marine diesel pump prices are not consistently posted online. The marina-by-marina rate is known to the captain but not transparently published. Charter clients have no easy way to compare destination fuel costs in advance.
- Some captains do not detail fuel volume and price on the APA reconciliation by default. Always ask for it.
- Some yachts run the generators harder than strictly necessary at anchor, particularly when the air conditioning is set very cold. A modest temperature setting saves real fuel without compromising guest comfort. Worth a conversation with the captain at the welcome aboard.
Passed on: charter yachts where fuel cost is a red flag
- Older yachts (pre-2005 builds) with above-band burn that the broker is not flagging at contracting. Ask for the recent-charter fuel data.
- Yachts on a "fast cruise" reputation (24+ knots top speed, planing or semi-planing hull) where the broker is selling the yacht on speed without flagging the fuel implication.
- Yachts where the central agent cannot tell you the typical weekly fuel consumption for the most common route the yacht runs. The data exists. If they will not share, ask why.
FAQ
How much fuel does a charter yacht burn per hour?
At 10 to 12 knots cruise speed: a 35m motor yacht burns roughly 50 to 80 litres per hour, a 50m burns 80 to 130 litres per hour, a 70m burns 200 to 350 litres per hour, and a 90m burns 400 to 700 litres per hour. At higher speeds, fuel burn typically doubles or triples. Sailing yachts under engine burn less than equivalent motor yachts. Under sail they burn nothing.
What does a charter week's fuel cost?
A typical Mediterranean charter week with five cruising days at modest speed costs $8,000 to $18,000 of fuel on a 50m motor yacht as of May 2026. The same week on a 70m yacht costs $20,000 to $40,000. On a 90m yacht, $40,000 to $80,000. Long-passage weeks and high-speed weeks run higher.
Is fuel paid out of APA?
Yes. Fuel is the largest single line in most charter APAs. The captain refuels at marina pumps, with the per-litre price posted at the pump. Most marinas accept the central agent's APA card or a bank wire from the captain's APA account.
Why does the same yacht's fuel burn vary so much within a band?
Engine room configuration (the same model yacht can be delivered with two engine options), hull condition (an older bottom paint adds friction), recent main-engine overhauls (a fresh top-end runs efficiently), and trim (loading and weight distribution) all contribute. Two 50m sister yachts from the same yard can burn 15 to 20% differently for the same itinerary.
Does cruising at night save fuel?
No. The engine does not care about daylight. What night cruising sometimes does is allow the yacht to make a passage at displacement speed (cheaper) rather than at high speed during the day to reach the next anchorage by dinner. That displacement-speed routing is the fuel saving, not the time of day.