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The step from a 40m to a 50m charter yacht is the single most consequential size step in the market. On weekly rate, the band moves from roughly €180K to €280K (40m, peak Med, motor) to roughly €280K to €450K (50m, peak Med, motor), which is a €100K to €170K delta per week before APA. On platform, the 50m crosses three structural thresholds the 40m does not: a second deck of guest accommodation, a full beach club, and a crew count that supports a 2-tender, full-toy-fleet operation. Most clients reading this page are deciding whether the upgrade is worth it for their specific party and brief. The honest answer is that the 50m earns the delta for some parties and does not for others.
We rank inventory in both bands on the charter yachts 30-40m and charter yachts 40-50m pages. The 40m band carries roughly 250 yachts in active charter at peak Med, and the 50m band carries roughly 200. The five cases that decide the step sit below.
The 30-second verdict
Pick a 40m if your party is 8 to 10 guests, your dates run a 7-day Med week with 4 or 5 destinations, your shoreside time is more than 50 percent of the week, the brief does not require a full water-toy fleet, and the budget ceiling at €250K per week + APA is firm. Pick a 50m if your party is 10 to 12 guests, your brief includes a beach club as a load-bearing variable, you want a serious tender fleet (2 tenders plus jet skis) supporting an active water-sports week, your shoreside-to-sea-time ratio tilts toward sea time, or the brief includes a multi-generational family across 5 or 6 cabins where the cabin separation matters.
The structural similarities
Both bands sit in the midsize superyacht charter market. Both run on MYBA contracts. Both carry APA at 25 to 35 percent. Both are routed primarily through the upper-end charter brokers (Burgess, Edmiston, Camper & Nicholsons, IYC, Fraser, YCO). Both bands have inventory in both the Med and the Caribbean, with the Med carrying roughly 3x the inventory of the Caribbean at peak.
Both bands deliver the structural defining features of a charter superyacht: full crew at a 1-to-1 or better guest-to-crew ratio at the upper end of each band, at-anchor stabilizers as standard, a chef and a chief stew running a full service operation, and a captain and chief engineer running the operation at a yacht-management depth that a smaller yacht does not match. The 40m crosses these thresholds. The 50m simply runs them at a larger scale.
The differences sit in deck count, beach club, tender capacity, cabin count, crew count, and what the yacht does at anchor. We work through them below.
Ten dimensions, side by side
| Dimension | 40m | 50m |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cabins | 5 cabins, 10 guests | 5 to 6 cabins, 10 to 12 guests |
| Typical crew | 7 to 9 | 10 to 13 |
| Decks of accommodation | Main deck plus upper | Main, upper, and often a third upper-deck cabin |
| Beach club | Often a transom platform only | Full beach club with gym, hammam, or steam common |
| Tender garage | 1 tender, side-loaded | 1 to 2 tenders plus jet skis |
| Toy load | Light to moderate | Full fleet (2 tenders, 2-plus jet skis, foilers, inflatables) |
| Weekly rate, peak Med | €180K to €280K | €280K to €450K |
| Weekly rate, peak Caribbean | $160K to $250K | $240K to $400K |
| APA, typical week | €50K to €90K | €80K to €150K |
| Gratuity (10 to 15 percent of fee) | €20K to €40K | €30K to €65K |
The two dimensions that decide most reader decisions are deck count and tender capacity. The 50m crosses into 3-deck accommodation and into 2-tender operation. The 40m, in most builds, does not.
Where the 40m wins
The 40m is the yacht we recommend on five specific kinds of charter weeks.
The first is the 8-to-10-guest party where the headcount fits comfortably in 5 cabins and there is no pressure to grow. A 40m at 5 cabins delivers a guest-to-crew ratio at 1-to-1 or better and a crew structure that supports a quiet, well-run week. Adding a sixth cabin and 2 more guests at the 50m step changes the social composition of the party in ways that some guest groups prefer and others do not.
The second is the multi-destination Med week with 4 or 5 distinct destinations. The 40m runs into marinas at every port without a slot-allocation premium and pays roughly 30 to 40 percent less for stern-to dockage than a 50m. The Saint-Tropez-to-Cannes-to-Monaco loop is materially cheaper on a 40m and the marina availability at peak is meaningfully better.
The third is the shoulder-season Med week. A 40m at shoulder (mid-May or mid-September) runs €120K to €200K per week, which is 30 to 40 percent off peak. The same shoulder discount on a 50m runs €180K to €330K, which is more money in absolute terms even after the discount. For the value-conscious upper-mid-market client, the 40m at shoulder is the best Mediterranean charter weeks of the year on price-to-quality.
The fourth is the first-time crewed-charter week for a client who has chartered bareboat but not crewed before. The 40m delivers all the structural defining features of a superyacht week (full crew, chef, stew, captain, at-anchor stabilizers) at a rate that does not require the client to commit to the upper-band booking-window discipline. A first-time crewed client who books a 40m, has the week they wanted, and then steps up to a 50m on the second or third charter has a sounder buying path than the client who starts at 50m and discovers the brief did not require it.
The fifth is the Caribbean week with a brief that focuses on swimming, snorkeling, and beach-bar time rather than water toys at scale. The 40m's lighter tender and toy load is the right brief for the BVI loop, the Grenadines, or the Bahamas Out Islands when the week is built around anchorages and shoreside swimming rather than around a serious water-sports schedule.
Where the 50m wins
The 50m is the yacht we recommend on five specific kinds of charter weeks.
The first is the 10-to-12-guest party where headcount is the load-bearing variable. The 50m at 6 cabins for 12 guests delivers the headcount the 40m cannot match. A 40m booked for 12 guests by stretching the cabin count compromises the crew-to-guest ratio, the service tempo, and the privacy. The 50m is built for the band.
The second is the beach-club-led week. The 50m at most build years carries a full beach club with a side-opening transom, a 30-to-50-square-meter swim platform, a gym, a hammam or steam, and a beach-club bar. The 40m, in most builds, has a transom platform and a swim ladder, sometimes a small gym. The beach club is a load-bearing variable for a meaningful number of charter clients and the 50m delivers it.
The third is the toy-and-tender-heavy week. The 50m at most build years carries 2 tenders (a primary tender at 9 to 12m and a secondary tender for guest movement), 2 or 3 jet skis, a serious foiling-board load, an inflatable park, and a tender garage with crane handling. The 40m carries 1 tender and a lighter toy load. Clients who measure the week partly in water-toy hours should book the 50m.
The fourth is the long-passage week or the cross-region week. The 50m's range under power runs longer (3,000 to 5,000nm versus 2,500 to 4,000nm on the 40m at typical fuel loads) and the at-anchor stabilizer is more capable at scale, which makes the 50m more comfortable on a serious passage and on the cross-region repositioning weeks (Med to Aegean, Caribbean to Bahamas).
The fifth is the multi-generational family week with grandparents, parents, and children across 5 or 6 cabins where the cabin separation matters. The 50m's 3-deck accommodation puts the master suite on the upper deck or on a partial third deck, the parents-and-children cabins on the main deck, and the grandparent VIP on the main deck near the upper-deck-access lift on yachts that have one. The 40m's 2-deck accommodation puts every guest cabin on the main deck, which delivers less privacy across generations.
Where it is too close to call
The 8-guest peak Med week is genuinely contested. The 40m delivers the brief and saves €100K-plus per week. The 50m delivers a different register and the difference is real but absorbable. We default to 40m for the 8-guest party unless the brief specifically requires the beach club or the tender fleet.
The 10-guest week is the most contested decision in the market. A 10-guest 40m at 5 cabins of 2 guests each delivers the headcount; a 10-guest 50m at 5 cabins with the option to convert a study or a sky-lounge berth to a 6th cabin (sometimes) delivers more flexibility. We default to 40m for the 10-guest party where shoreside is the priority and to 50m where the beach club and the toys are the priority.
The 45m boat is its own band and we treat it as such on the charter yachts 40-50m page. A 45m at 5 cabins with a partial beach club and a 1-and-a-half-tender operation splits the difference and is the right yacht for clients who want the 40m's marina economics and most of the 50m's amenities. The 45m is the most underrated band in the market.
Three myths to ignore
"The 50m is always more comfortable." Partly true and partly overstated. The 50m is more comfortable on a passage, in a moderate sea, and in the public areas at anchor. The 40m is more comfortable in marina dockage, at quieter anchorages, and in the cabin-to-deck circulation because the yacht is smaller and the deck-to-cabin walks are shorter. The "always more comfortable" framing is sales talk.
"The 50m costs twice as much." False on weekly rate. The 50m runs roughly 1.5 to 1.7x the comparable 40m on weekly rate. The total cost of the week (rate plus APA plus gratuity plus marina premium) runs roughly 1.5 to 1.8x. The "twice as much" framing is for clients who do not run the math.
"The 50m is always a better resale." Inverts when applied to charter. The resale-value framing is a brokerage variable, not a charter variable. On the charter market, the 40m has more inventory turnover and a more competitive booking-window environment than the 50m, which favors the client looking for shoulder-week deals and last-minute availability.
Three things we would change about both
The 40m we would change on the marketing of the beach club at this LOA. The transom platform that brokers sometimes describe as a "beach club" is not a beach club, it is a swim platform. Clients reading the broker description should ask for the specific square meterage and the specific feature list (steam, gym, hammam, bar) before signing.
The 50m we would change on the disclosure of the marina premium at peak Med. A 50m at peak Saint-Tropez or Porto Cervo pays €3,000 to €5,000 per night for stern-to dockage, which over a 7-day week with 3 or 4 marina nights is €9K to €20K in APA pass-through. Brokers do not always volunteer the marina line clearly. Ask for the dockage schedule before signing.
Both we would change on the gratuity-expectation cycle. Crew gratuity at 10 to 15 percent of the charter fee is the standard but the broker community sometimes describes it as "discretionary" rather than as the operating norm. The honest framing is that the gratuity is part of the gross cost of the week and the how to tip yacht crew guide covers the bands.
FAQ
Is the 50m worth the delta over the 40m? For some parties, yes. The delta runs €100K to €170K per week before APA at peak Med. The right test is whether the 50m's beach club, second tender, sixth cabin, and 3-deck accommodation are load-bearing for your brief. If two or more of those are load-bearing, the 50m earns it. If none are, the 40m delivers.
Can I find a 50m at a 40m rate at shoulder? Sometimes. A 50m at shoulder (mid-May, mid-September, November) can run €180K to €280K, which is in the 40m peak band. The trade-off is the shoulder weather, which at the right shoulder weeks is the best of the year and at the wrong weeks is unsettled. The May and September windows are the safer shoulder bets.
Does the 50m always carry a chef and chief stew? At the upper end of the 50m band, yes. The 50m's crew structure supports a full chef-and-chief-stew operation at 10 to 12 crew. The 40m typically supports a chef but the chief stew role often runs through the captain's wife or a senior stew rather than a dedicated chief stew.
Which step up from the 50m is the next meaningful one? 60m. The 60m crosses into a full beam at 11 to 12m, a fourth deck on some builds, a serious helipad on some, and a crew at 14 to 18. The 50m-to-60m step is comparable in magnitude to the 40m-to-50m step.
Is the 40m or the 50m the better charter for a first-time client? 40m, default. The first-time crewed-charter client should not buy the upper-band-booking-window discipline on the first charter. The 40m delivers all the structural defining features at a rate that allows the client to build a charter cadence over multiple weeks before stepping up.
The close-call default
For a reader who has narrowed the choice and cannot decide on the briefs above, the close-call default is a 40m for the 8-to-10-guest party with shoreside as the priority, and a 50m for the 10-to-12-guest party with the beach club or the tender fleet as the load-bearing variable. The deeper decision usually comes down to whether the beach club is the centerpiece of the week, in which case the 50m wins, or whether shoreside time is the centerpiece, in which case the 40m wins.
The deeper rule is to read the charter yachts 30-40m and charter yachts 40-50m pages alongside this comparison. The specific yacht, the specific build year, and the specific crew shape the week more than the LOA category does.