Illustrative photograph
Guide
Weddings, incentives and New Year
The charters that have a date attached, and what the date does to availability, minimum length and price.
A wedding on board in Phuket
Can I get married on a charter yacht in Thailand?
A ceremony aboard a charter yacht in Phuket is easy to arrange and most operators have done it many times. What a captain in Thai waters cannot do is solemnise a legally binding marriage: legal marriage in Thailand is registered at a district office ashore, with an affirmation of freedom to marry from your embassy first. The usual arrangement is to register the marriage ashore on one day and hold the ceremony people actually remember on the yacht on another, and the two are planned as separate events.
A corporate charter for twelve
How does a corporate or incentive yacht charter work in Phuket?
A licensed charter yacht carries no more than twelve guests, so a corporate group of twenty is two yachts cruising in company rather than one large one, which operators arrange routinely. Beyond that, an incentive charter differs from a leisure one in three respects: connectivity has to be specified rather than assumed, the itinerary needs a fixed return time that is contractually real, and the invoice needs to be addressed and itemised in a way a finance department will accept, including the 7 percent Thai VAT as its own line.
Christmas and New Year in Phang Nga Bay
How much more does a New Year yacht charter in Phuket cost?
Christmas and New Year are a separate market inside the peak season. Operators publish a distinct festive rate above the high-season rate, impose a minimum charter length that is usually seven and sometimes ten nights, and are largely booked out by the previous spring. The conditions are excellent, which is the reason for all of it: late December is dry, settled and around 30 degrees. If those dates are fixed, book roughly a year ahead, and expect the terms to be less negotiable than at any other point in the calendar.
The King's Cup, the boat shows and the Rendezvous
What yachting events happen in Phuket and when?
The Phuket King's Cup Regatta runs in early December and is the largest regatta in Asia, filling the marinas and the hotels for a week. The Thailand Yacht Show and the Thailand International Boat Show run in the first months of the year and bring visiting yachts into the marinas. The Asia Superyacht Rendezvous gathers the large yacht fleet in Phuket. None of these prevents a charter, but all of them tighten berth availability and hotel rates in the days around them, which is worth knowing when you pick your dates.
The other clusters
Chartering for the first time
What the booking actually involves, how many days a route needs and how big the yacht has to be for the group you are bringing.
Money and the contract
The base rate is about two thirds of the bill. APA, VAT, park fees, gratuity and the four clauses in a MYBA contract that decide who pays when something goes wrong.
Law and safety
A foreign-flagged yacht needs a Thai charter licence, and chartering without one puts the yacht and the guests at risk. Also: which sailing certificates Thailand accepts for bareboat.
Cruising grounds and weather
Northeast monsoon against southwest monsoon, month by month, and where the fleet still sails between May and October instead of sitting out the season.
Life on board
Who the crew are, what the preference sheet decides, what the toys are and how diving works off a charter yacht.
Choosing the yacht
Catamaran against monohull in the Andaman Sea, motor against sail with the fuel bill included, and what a gulet is for.
Every article in the guide opens with the complete answer in three to five sentences. If that paragraph settles the question, stop reading. The rest is there for when it does not.