Two standard agreements govern almost every crewed charter in the world, and they are not interchangeable. Here is the candid comparison — jurisdiction, money and redelivery — set out plainly, before you sign.
A principal is sent a contract, glances at the unfamiliar acronym in the header and signs, assuming one charter agreement is much like another. It is not. The crewed-charter world runs on two competing standard forms — the MYBA Charter Agreement, drafted in the Mediterranean, and the CYBA (formerly AYCA) Crewed Yacht Charter Agreement, drafted for the United States and the Caribbean — and which one governs your week determines how the money is handled, how disputes are resolved and what happens if things go wrong. They were written for different waters and different legal traditions, and the differences are precisely the ones that matter when a charter sours. This page sets out what each agreement is, where they diverge and which protects you in a given cruising ground.
The MYBA Charter Agreement is the product of the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association and is the default instrument for crewed charters across the Mediterranean and, by extension, much of the rest of the world. The CYBA Crewed Yacht Charter Agreement — issued by the Charter Yacht Brokers Association, the body that succeeded the older American Yacht Charter Association — is the standard form of the United States, the Bahamas and the wider Caribbean. A third, narrower form, the American Yacht Charter Association agreement, survives in places, but in practice the choice you will face is MYBA or CYBA.
The distinction is not parochial. Each agreement was drafted around the legal customs, tax treatment and operating conventions of its home waters, and each carries assumptions that travel with it. A yacht based in Antibes will almost always offer a MYBA contract; a yacht based in the British Virgin Islands or Florida will almost always offer a CYBA one. The acronym in the header is therefore a reliable signal of where the yacht expects to cruise and which legal framework will govern your week — and reading it is the first, easily skipped, act of due diligence.
The single most consequential divergence is how running costs are handled. Under the MYBA agreement the base fee buys the yacht, her crew, insurance and core readiness, and almost everything else — fuel, food, beverages, port and marina dues — is met from the Advance Provisioning Allowance, the APA, a separate float of typically 25–40% of the base fee, paid in advance and reconciled at cost, with the unspent balance returned. You are, in effect, funding the running of the yacht and settling the true total only at the end.
The CYBA tradition leans the other way. Caribbean and US charters are frequently quoted on an all-inclusive or plus-expenses basis, in which fuel for a defined cruising range, food, standard bar and water-toy use are folded into a single headline price, with only a narrow band of extras — premium spirits, dockage, communications — charged on top. The practical effect is that an APA in the MYBA sense is often absent or much reduced. Neither model is cheaper in itself; the all-inclusive simply moves the uncertainty into the quote, while the MYBA model exposes it as an itemised float. The discipline is to know which you are signing, so that an APA-free CYBA quote is not mistaken for a saving, nor a MYBA base fee for the whole bill.
Where the two forms diverge most quietly — and most importantly when a charter goes wrong — is the law and forum that govern them. The MYBA agreement is conventionally subject to a chosen governing law and to arbitration, frequently seated in London or another agreed centre, conducted privately and in a manner familiar to the international yachting bar. The CYBA agreement sits within a United States legal framework, with disputes more typically resolved under the law of the relevant state or under US admiralty principles, and with arbitration or court proceedings framed accordingly.
For a principal this is not an academic point. The forum determines how a refund dispute, a damage claim or a breakdown argument is actually pursued — how quickly, how privately, how expensively and under whose rules of evidence. A claim under a London-seated MYBA arbitration is a different proposition from one under Florida admiralty law, in cost, in confidentiality and in the remedies available. The clause is buried near the end of the document and is almost never read, yet it is the one that decides what your other rights are worth in practice. It deserves to be read first, not last.
The cruising ground usually selects the contract for you, and trying to fight that is rarely productive — a Mediterranean yacht is set up, crewed and insured around MYBA assumptions, and a Caribbean yacht around CYBA ones. The sensible course is to recognise which framework your itinerary implies and to read the contract that comes with it on its own terms.
| Factor | MYBA Charter Agreement | CYBA Crewed Agreement |
|---|---|---|
| Drafting body | Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association | Charter Yacht Brokers Association (ex-AYCA) |
| Primary waters | Mediterranean, worldwide default | United States, Bahamas, Caribbean |
| Running costs | APA float, 25–40% of base, at cost | Often all-inclusive or plus-expenses |
| VAT / tax handling | EU VAT on the fee, by embarkation country | US / Caribbean sales and cruising taxes |
| Governing law | Chosen law, commonly arbitration | US state law / admiralty framework |
| Dispute forum | Private arbitration, often London-seated | US arbitration or court proceedings |
Read this way, the choice is less about preference than about fit. The question is never which agreement is superior in the abstract, but whether the agreement in front of you is the right one for the waters you intend to cruise — and whether its money and dispute terms have been read before, rather than after, the signature.
Both agreements share a common spine — the owner warrants a seaworthy, properly crewed and insured yacht; the charterer pays in defined instalments and uses the yacht within agreed limits — but the operative detail differs in ways that surface only under pressure. Three clauses repay close reading in either form.
The redelivery clause in particular catches charterers who treat the end time as flexible: a yacht due back at 09:00 and returned at dusk can incur a penalty measured against a daily rate that is itself substantial. Neither form is forgiving on the points where money changes hands, and the candid reading is that the protections each agreement offers you are matched by obligations it imposes — obligations that only an early reading will reveal in time to plan around.
The honest answer to which agreement protects you better is that neither is inherently superior; the protection lies in reading whichever governs your charter and in negotiating the few terms that are genuinely negotiable. Both the MYBA and the CYBA forms are even-handed instruments drafted by industry bodies that broker for owners and charterers alike, so the danger is rarely a predatory clause — it is an unread one. The principal who signs without establishing the APA basis, the cancellation scale and the dispute forum is exposed not by the contract but by the gap between the contract and their understanding of it.
The practical remedy is straightforward. Identify the form from the header, confirm the cruising ground matches it, establish in writing how running costs are handled, read the payment, redelivery and cancellation clauses, and find the governing-law and dispute provision before you sign rather than after a problem arises. A broker acting genuinely on your side does this as a matter of course, normalising an all-inclusive CYBA quote and an APA-based MYBA quote to a single comparable figure and flagging the clauses that bite. The contract is not the enemy; the failure to read it is.
We do not sell yachts and we do not flatter brochures. Through the Obsidian Helm Marketplace we source and vet vessels on your behalf through a private broker network, and we read the charter agreement with you before you sign — whether MYBA or CYBA — establishing the APA basis, the payment and redelivery terms and the governing law that decides what your rights are worth. Your advisor normalises an all-inclusive quote and an APA-based one to a single comparable figure, and remains your point of contact throughout, discreetly and under NDA. Our remuneration comes by referral arrangement with vetted brokers, never from a mark-up on your APA or your bill, which keeps our counsel candid. Request a private introduction to begin.
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The MYBA Charter Agreement is the Mediterranean standard form and the worldwide default, under which running costs are met from a separate APA float charged at cost. The CYBA agreement is the United States and Caribbean standard, where charters are more often quoted all-inclusive or plus-expenses with little or no APA. They also differ in governing law and dispute forum, MYBA leaning toward arbitration and CYBA toward a US legal framework.
Usually not, or only a reduced one. Caribbean and US charters under CYBA terms are frequently all-inclusive, folding fuel for a defined range, food and standard bar into the headline price, with a narrow band of extras charged on top. This is not automatically cheaper than a MYBA charter; it simply moves the cost uncertainty into the quote rather than exposing it as an itemised float.
Almost always MYBA. A yacht based in the Mediterranean is crewed, insured and operated around MYBA assumptions, including the APA model and EU VAT on the charter fee. Attempting to impose a CYBA framework on a Mediterranean yacht is impractical; the sensible course is to read the MYBA contract carefully and confirm the APA percentage and embarkation-country VAT before signing.
Because it decides how any dispute over a refund, damage or breakdown is actually resolved — under whose law, in which forum, how privately and at what cost. A MYBA charter is commonly subject to arbitration, often London-seated, while a CYBA charter sits within a US legal framework. The clause is near the end of the document and rarely read, yet it determines what all your other rights are worth in practice.
Neither is inherently safer. Both are even-handed standard forms drafted by industry bodies, so the risk is rarely a predatory clause but an unread one. Your protection comes from identifying the form, confirming it matches your cruising ground, and reading the APA basis, payment, redelivery, cancellation and dispute clauses before you sign rather than after a problem arises.
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