Tipping?

labatt · #1 (**permalink**) 08-18-2006

We're heading for a crewed charter in a couple of days in Maine. We'll have a captain/owner on board. The charter broker said that a 15% gratuity is standard for a good charter. Since we're talking thousands of dollars for the charter fee, we're talking hundreds of dollars for a gratuity. Is this a standard practice for a crewed charter? When the crew is the owner of the boat? Thanks!

chrondi · #2 (**permalink**) 08-18-2006

Tipping the boat owners? It sounds strange - very strange indeed!

sailingdog · #3 (**permalink**) 08-18-2006

Yeah, right... they're full of it...

camaraderie · #4 (**permalink**) 08-19-2006

No...that is right...tips are standard for captain and crew on a charter no matter who owns the boat. Tips are generally not calculated on a 15% basis in my experience however. $100-150 bucks each is pretty standard for a week on a sail charter in a 40-60'boat. When you take a cruise ship..you tip. When you go on a fishing charter ..you tip. Same for sail charters with captains. You must be renting SOME boat to have "thousands and thousands of $'s" for 2 days!
But...as with all tipping...you should base YOUR amount on the service YOU receive rather than some arbitrary amount.

sailmaster25 · #5 (**permalink**) 08-19-2006

It seems that tipping is always a problem with yacht charters. There those people who maintain that an owner/Captain should not be tipped,'after all he owns the yacht and the charter fee goes in his pocket'!
There are those who over tip....yes that happens.. and where it's nice to have happen, it's also embrassing too !!

For the first group of guests, I have to say this.. In most cases they are comfortable tipping a 'Rent a Captain' a few bucks for driving them around, but when it comes to tipping a professional owner/captain there hands get stuck in there pockets. Perhaps it's the fact that the owner has this large yacht that they would also like to own,

or perhaps its an overall state of confusion...

... what ever the reason, tip the owner if he has meet your expectations of showing you a good time. Just like the 'rent a captian' the owner/captain also lives off tips too!!

So how much ?
15% tip of the charter fee is extremely nice, but way over board. If you had the best time in the world, the service was just incredible, the wind was perfect and the food was to die for then perhaps 10% would be justified. But that would be for the whole boat and given to the captain for distrubution around to the crew.

A much more diplomatic way is to tip each crew something according to there post, when you finish you will most likely have tipped about 5% of the charter fee, a much more resonable amount..

Good luck and have fun, crewed yacht charter is amongst the best ways of having a successful sailing holiday

jmdelbello · #6 (**permalink**) 09-20-2006

There is an article about this at:
http://www.sailing-advisor.com/yacht...w-skipper.html
Hope it helps.

T34C · #7 (**permalink**) 09-20-2006

TIPS - To Insure Proper Service. I think the owner/captain already agreed to give proper service when he/she accepted the charter, and your money. Tipping an owner used to be considered an insult. It indicated that you expected less than proper service from THEIR business. Owner/captains don't live off tips, they live off of charter fees and referals. If you feel your charter was a good experiece, give the captain the best tip, refer a friend.

camaraderie · #8 (**permalink**) 09-21-2006

T34C...
2 wrongs...
TIPS does not stand for that...see Urban Legends
Owner captains need tips and count on them...just ask one!...and by all means give em a referral too!

yotphix · #9 (**permalink**) 09-21-2006

Hey, yacht crew here! Yep we get tips when we show people a good time. Very rarely less than ten percent and sometimes a well heeled and appreciative guest goes to 20 percent or more. Most boats the captain splits even steven with the crew. Tipping according to position would suck. A dh works harder than anyone on a well maintained vessel and you probably wouldn't think that "according to position" they deserve a an equal tip to the Captain or the Chef. Plus the dh makes less to start with.

BTW Captain's got that yacht you want only because he is willing to share it with anybody who has the $$. Would you really want to do that?

xort · #10 (**permalink**) 09-21-2006

Try this...

Don't tip the boat but do tip the captain and crew.
What I mean is don't base your 15% on the entire cost of the trip, that would mean you are tipping the boat as well as everything else. A good captain gets about $250 per day so tip 15 to 20% of that, $40 per day or so. Figure the mate gets about $150 per day, etc...