A generator fails on day two and the question is no longer the holiday but the money. Here is the candid position on breakdowns, refunds and remedies under the MYBA agreement, set out plainly, before you sign.
It is the scenario no broker dwells on at the booking stage: you have paid a six-figure sum, you are two days into a seven-day charter, and the yacht suffers a mechanical failure that confines her to harbour. The crew are apologetic, the owner's manager is reachable but vague, and you have no idea whether you are owed anything at all. The good news is that a charter written on standard terms is far from silent on this. The MYBA Charter Agreement sets out exactly what the owner owes you and when, and knowing those provisions before you sign is the difference between a calm conversation and a ruined week.
Not every fault triggers a remedy. The contract distinguishes between an inconvenience — a failed ice maker, a temperamental tender, a cabin air-conditioning unit that runs warm — and a material failure that renders the yacht unfit for the intended use or unsafe to operate. The first the crew are expected to work around or repair without affecting your entitlements. The second engages the owner's obligations directly.
Material failures typically include loss of main propulsion, failure of the generators that power the entire vessel, a compromise to the yacht's safety systems, water ingress, or any defect that prevents the yacht leaving harbour or carrying guests safely. The test is not how annoyed you are; it is whether the yacht can still deliver the charter she was contracted to provide. Establishing which category a fault falls into is the first and most important step, because it determines everything that follows.
Under the MYBA agreement the owner warrants that the yacht will be delivered in seaworthy condition, fully equipped, in good working order and properly crewed and insured, and that she will be maintained in that state throughout the charter so far as is within the owner's control. This is the spine of your protection. It is not a vague promise of a nice time; it is a contractual warranty of working condition.
When a material breakdown occurs, the owner's first duty is to remedy the fault with due diligence — to mobilise engineers, parts and, where appropriate, a replacement of the affected system as quickly as is reasonably possible. Crucially, the cost of repair falls on the owner, not on your APA, where the failure stems from the yacht's own condition rather than from your use of her. If the crew try to draw repair costs from your provisioning float for an owner-side mechanical failure, that is a point to resist firmly and immediately.
The agreement gives the owner a window to put things right before your refund rights crystallise. In practice the sequence runs as follows, and time is measured against your charter, not the owner's convenience.
The pivotal phrase is pro-rata. A refund is typically calculated for the days, or even hours, during which the yacht was unusable, not for the entire charter, unless the failure occurred at the outset and was never remedied.
Charterers consistently over-estimate the breadth of a refund. The MYBA agreement is generous on the charter fee and deliberately narrow on consequential loss. The table sets out the realistic position.
| Item | Recoverable? | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Charter fee for unused days | Yes | Pro-rata refund on termination or lost time |
| Unspent APA balance | Yes | Always returned; it is your money |
| Owner-side repair costs | Yes (owner bears) | Not chargeable to your APA |
| Flights, hotels, missed connections | Generally no | Excluded as consequential loss |
| Loss of enjoyment / disappointment | Generally no | Not a recoverable head under the contract |
This is precisely why travel and charter-specific insurance matters: the items the contract excludes — your wider trip costs and the holiday you lost — are exactly the items a well-structured policy is designed to catch. The contract protects the fee; insurance protects the rest.
The owner's obligation is anchored to seaworthiness and due diligence, not to a guarantee that nothing will ever fail. Where a breakdown arises from force majeure — an event genuinely outside the owner's control, such as extreme weather or a port closure — the refund mechanics still favour the charterer for the lost time, but claims of negligence fall away. The distinction matters when apportioning fault, though for your refund the cause is often less important than the simple fact that the yacht could not be used.
Separately, the yacht carries her own hull and machinery insurance and her protection-and-indemnity cover, which respond to the repair and to third-party exposures. These do not pay your refund — that flows from the charter fee under the contract — but they explain why a reputable owner can mobilise expensive repairs quickly. Confirming, before you sign, that the yacht is properly and currently insured is part of basic vetting, and a yacht that cannot evidence it is one to decline.
The time to win a breakdown dispute is before it happens. A well-prepared charterer takes a small number of deliberate steps that turn a stressful negotiation into a settled entitlement.
None of this is adversarial; it is simply the discipline of a principal who has read the terms. A broker acting genuinely on your side handles most of it for you, and the existence of that protection is one of the quiet reasons to charter through vetted counsel rather than direct.
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, examining survey history, maintenance records and insurance currency before you ever step aboard — the very factors that determine how a breakdown is handled. Your advisor reads the MYBA breakdown and refund clauses with you, raises material failures on your behalf and protects your pro-rata entitlement, discreetly and under NDA. Our remuneration comes by referral arrangement with vetted brokers, never from a mark-up on your bill. Request a private introduction to begin.
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Yes, where the failure is material — it renders the yacht unfit for use or unsafe — and the owner cannot remedy it within the contractual window or offer an acceptable substitute. The refund is typically calculated pro-rata for the days or hours the yacht was unusable, not automatically for the whole charter. Your unspent APA is always returned.
The owner. Under the MYBA agreement the owner warrants a seaworthy, working yacht and bears the cost of repairing faults that stem from the yacht's own condition. Such repairs should not be drawn from your APA; if the crew attempt to charge them to your provisioning float, resist it in writing immediately.
Generally no. The charter contract refunds the unused charter fee but excludes consequential losses such as flights, hotels and loss of enjoyment. Those are precisely the costs that charter-specific travel insurance is designed to cover, which is why carrying a suitable policy alongside the contract is strongly advised.
The contract gives the owner a window to repair with due diligence — commonly framed as a short period such as 24 to 48 hours — or to offer an equivalent yacht or an extension. If the yacht cannot be made fit within that window and no acceptable substitute is provided, you may terminate and recover the fee for the unused balance.
For your refund, often less than you would expect: the pro-rata refund for lost time generally applies whether the cause was a mechanical defect or genuine force majeure such as extreme weather. Fault matters more for any negligence claim and for insurance apportionment, but the contract protects your use of the yacht regardless of blame.
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