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The short answer is yes, but less than the market thinks. Looking at 180 weekly charter rates across the 40m to 80m range as of May 2026, the builder name adds a measurable premium to the rate, but only at the top end of the build list. Below the Feadship and Lürssen tier, the rate is set by LOA, refit date, crew quality, and where the yacht is positioned. The builder badge stops mattering very fast.
We pulled 180 published charter rates from the major brokerage agencies in May 2026, normalised them to peak Mediterranean week and 35% APA, and grouped them by builder. The premium and discount numbers below are versus the size-class median (yachts within 5m of each other treated as comparable).
The Feadship and Lürssen premium
Feadship-built yachts in the 55m to 75m range carry an average premium of 18% over the size-class median. Lürssen sits at 22% over median in the 65m to 90m range. Those are the two builders where the badge alone is moving real money.
Two factors drive it. First, the build-spec ceiling. Feadship and Lürssen do not currently produce yachts at the volume or interior-finish compromise that the Italian builders accept. A 60m Feadship interior tolerances are different from a 60m Italian competitor. A 60m Lürssen sound and vibration data are different. Charter clients pay for that. Second, the supply constraint. Feadship delivers four to six yachts a year. Lürssen delivers five to seven. Both yards have order books out to 2030. The charter fleet in their builds simply does not flex. When demand rises, those rates rise with it. When demand softens, those rates do not soften because the owners are not rate-takers.
The 80m+ Lürssen tier is its own market. Yachts like Madsummer, Octopus, and the larger boats command rates that look unrelated to size class because the comparable inventory is so small. There are perhaps 25 yachts above 90m that charter commercially. The rate is whatever the market clears at, and the builder is a major input.
Italian top-tier (Benetti, CRN, Sanlorenzo)
Benetti runs slightly above size-class median in the 50m to 70m range, around 4% to 7% on average. The premium is real but small. We see it disappear entirely on yachts above 12 years old without a recent refit. CRN sits roughly at median, with newer builds (the FB-coded large yachts) carrying a 3% to 5% premium. Sanlorenzo runs slightly below median in the 40m to 55m range, around 5% under, which we read as the market correctly pricing for the build positioning. Sanlorenzo is good. It is not at the Feadship and Lürssen tier and the rates reflect that.
The Dutch second tier (Amels, Heesen, Royal Huisman)
Amels yachts charter at median to slightly below median in the 50m to 75m range. The yachts are well-built and reliable, but the brand premium that Feadship carries has not transferred to the broader Damen group label. We think this is wrong, but the market is doing what it does.
Heesen sits at median in the 40m to 55m range and slightly above (around 6%) in the 60m to 70m range. The Heesen brand carries weight in the 50m+ class and we have seen recent fast-displacement and hybrid Heesens charter at rates closer to Feadship money than Benetti money.
Royal Huisman is sailing-yacht only at the relevant size, and the sailing fleet does not behave like the motor fleet. We will treat that separately in our sailing yacht charter rate piece.
Turkish and other builders
Bilgin, Turquoise, Akyacht, Tamsen Yachts, and a handful of others occupy the 45m to 75m size class with builds that look more expensive than they are. The market discount on Turkish-built yachts versus Feadship-Lürssen-Benetti equivalents runs around 12% to 20%, sometimes more. Some of that is build-quality perception. Some of it is captain and crew availability, which tends to be deeper at the Northern European yards. The discount has narrowed over the past three years as the better Turkish builds (Bilgin's Tatiana, Turquoise's Vanish, Akyacht's Victorious) have established charter records that the market can price.
We have placed clients on Turkish-built charters at meaningful discounts to the brand-equivalent Northern European yachts and the weeks have been good. The yachts are real. The cost saving is real. The captain quality is the variable to underwrite, not the steel.
What this means in practice
For a 55m charter at $400K to $700K weekly, the builder name is moving roughly $50K to $130K of the rate. That is real money. It is not the largest variable in the equation. Refit date, crew tenure, recent charter reviews, and route fit will move more than that for most clients.
For a 65m+ charter at $700K to $1.5M weekly, the builder name starts to move $150K to $300K of the rate. At that point it is worth asking the question seriously: do I want the Lürssen badge for $1.2M or the equivalent-spec Italian competitor for $950K. The answer depends on what the rest of the spec sheet looks like and how the charter client values the marginal interior finish, the sound floor, and the resale-implied build quality.
The trap: paying the premium and getting the yacht
The Feadship and Lürssen premium is justified at the new-build and recently-refitted end of those builders' charter fleets. It is not justified on a 2008 Feadship that has not been refitted since 2015 and is showing it. We have seen brokers quote those yachts at near-newer-Feadship rates on brand pull alone. That is the moment to walk.
The reverse trap is paying brand-equivalent rate on a Turkish or second-tier Italian yacht that is leaning on a single owner relationship to justify the number. If you cannot find three charter clients from the past two seasons who will speak to the yacht, the rate is being held up by something other than market demand.
Passed on
We passed on a 62m Feadship from 2009 last month that was quoted at 11% above size-class median on the basis of a 2020 partial refit. The refit had been mechanical. The interior was original. The price was a charter client paying for the badge and getting a 17-year-old interior. Better options in the same week existed at the same money.
We also passed on a 47m Italian build from a yard outside our usual list that was quoted at a 9% discount to Sanlorenzo equivalents. The discount was real. The crew tenure was under one year across all four senior positions. That is a charter risk we will not place a client into.
What needs work
We would change how rate cards present the builder. Brokers default to listing the builder name at the top of the sheet, before any other spec. For 80m+ that is correct. For 50m to 70m it gives the badge more weight than it should carry. The rate-defining variables at that size are LOA, refit date, captain tenure, and crew-to-guest ratio, in roughly that order. The builder is the fifth or sixth input, and pricing it as the first one is a marketing decision, not a charter decision.
The rate-card structure we would push for is: LOA and beam, build year and refit year, captain name and tenure, crew count, then builder, then published rate. That order matches what actually moves the value.