The MYBA contract and the four clauses that decide who pays

Why a standard form is worth insisting on

The MYBA agreement is not neutral in your favour, but it is known. Brokers, owners, insurers and lawyers across the market all read the same document, which means a dispute is argued about facts rather than about wording. An operator's own terms may be perfectly fair, and they may also contain a clause nobody has ever had to test.

Clause one: delivery

What happens if the yacht is not there. Engine failure, a delayed previous charter, damage in the yard. The form should say whether you get a substitute of equivalent standard, a pro-rata refund or a full refund, and who decides what equivalent means. This is the clause that turns a mechanical problem into either an inconvenience or a lost holiday.

Clause two: cancellation

Yours and theirs, with the notice periods and the percentages. Charter cancellation terms are hard, and the standard pattern is that a deposit is non-refundable and the balance becomes non-refundable at a stated point before departure. Read the dates against the date your flights become non-refundable, because those two schedules are rarely aligned.

Clause three: the APA

How much, when it is paid, how it is accounted for, how a top-up is requested and how quickly the balance is refunded. The last of those is the one that goes unwritten most often and matters most afterwards.

Clause four: limitation of liability

What the owner is and is not responsible for. Expect the yacht's liability to be limited and expect personal effects, personal injury beyond the insured position and consequential losses to sit outside it. This is the clause that tells you what your own travel insurance actually has to cover.

One structural check before the four clauses: who is named as the owner. A contract naming only the broker gives you a claim against an agent. The form is designed to name the yacht, the owning company and the charterer.