The problem is simple and it arrives on the last morning. Your crewed charter week is ending, the crew has just cooked breakfast, and you have no idea what to hand over, to whom, and in what currency. The honest answer: a tip is a custom, not a line item in the contract, so the amount is yours to decide — but there are conventions worth knowing before you land.
Start with what a tip actually is. As the Cambridge Dictionary puts it, the practice of tipping is "custom not law" — nothing obliges you, and nothing gained by pretending otherwise. But for many service workers, tips are an important part of their income, a point the Simple English Wikipedia makes plainly: a gratuity is money given in thanks for a service, on top of the fee charged.
Charter crew sit at the top end of that spectrum. They cook, drive, clean, guide and fix things for a week, often seven days without a break. On a crewed charter — the kind covered in what a week's crewed charter actually costs — the gratuity sits outside the contracted price, so it is worth budgeting for before you sign, alongside the APA, the money that isn't the price.
How much should you give?
No single figure applies across every fleet, flag and contract, and this article will not invent one. What the trade does have is a norm that travels with the paperwork: your charter broker or the contract itself will state the customary range for the boat and region you are booking. Ask before you sign — it belongs on the list in ten questions to ask before signing a charter contract.
Two things shape the number in practice. First, the size of the crew: a couple running a small boat is a different calculation from eight crew on a larger yacht. Second, the service you actually received. A tip is a thank-you, and the thank-you scales with the week. If the crew turned a storm day into the children's favourite memory, that is worth more than a formula. If the week was merely fine, a merely fine tip is honest.
For context on how percentages work elsewhere: in the United States, restaurant tipping is commonly framed as a percentage of the bill — according to Go2USA's tipping guide, 18–20% is described as standard for good table service. Charter gratuities are not the same economy — crew numbers, week length and regional convention all differ — but the underlying logic transfers: pick a percentage of the charter fee, adjust for the crew and the week, and let that be your answer rather than a coin-flip on the dock.
To the captain, or to each crew member?
Both routes exist, and the honest answer is that the captain usually knows how the crew want it handled. One approach worth asking about is to give the whole sum to the captain, who distributes it — often equally, sometimes weighted by role. If you want a particular deckhand or the chef recognised by name, say so when you hand it over; a named note travels with the money.
The alternative is tipping individually, which some guests prefer because it guarantees each person gets exactly what you intended. The trade-off: on a larger crew you may not know every name and job by the last morning, and you risk missing the person who worked hardest out of your sight — the engineer, the second stewardess. If individual is your style, ask the captain for the crew list early in the week, not at the farewell.
What this means in practice: ask the crew's preference on day one, not day seven. A quiet question at the first lunch — "how do you usually handle gratuities?" — settles the whole question and costs nothing.
Cash, wire, or card?
Cash remains the cleanest instrument. It is immediate, it is universal, and it needs no banking details. Asking which currency the crew prefer costs nothing. Bring the cash with you; assuming you will find a working ATM in a small harbour is a planning error, not a plan.
For larger sums, some guests prefer to move money electronically, and some crews accept a transfer. If you go that route, get the details from the crew themselves and send it before you fly home — chasing a wire from another continent is a poor ending to a good week. Whatever the method, the crew should never have to ask.
One caution: do not fold the tip into the final APA settlement without telling the crew. The APA is the owner's expense account for fuel, food and fees; a gratuity buried in it can take weeks to reach the people it was meant for, if it reaches them at all. Hand the tip to a person, not to an invoice.
When does the tip change hands?
The customary moment is the last day, at or just after the final meal. Envelopes are the traditional container, and a short handwritten line does more than its length suggests. If you are leaving early for a flight, tell the captain the night before so the goodbye — and the envelope — happens properly rather than in a hurry on the quay.
Timing matters for another reason: the crew may turn the boat around the same day. Cash in hand at disembarkation is money they can actually use; a promise of a wire "next week" is not. If you must transfer, say so at the farewell and follow through within days.
What the evidence on tipping more broadly establishes is modest but useful: it is a custom that varies by place and sector, it matters materially to the people receiving it, and there is no law behind any of it. The rest — the amount, the route, the moment — is a judgement call that belongs to you and the week you had.
The takeaway
Plan the gratuity the way you plan the preference sheet: early, in writing, with a number in mind. Ask the broker for the local convention when you book, confirm the crew's preferred route on day one, bring the cash, and hand it over on the last morning with a name attached. None of it is obligatory. All of it is noticed.
And if the week was genuinely exceptional, the most durable tip is not money at all — it is a truthful review and a request to book the same crew next year. Crews remember the guests who asked for them by name.
