Choosing the yacht
Explorer yachts, and why Mergui needs one
What kind of yacht do I need for a Mergui Archipelago charter?
The short answer
What kind of yacht do I need for a Mergui Archipelago charter?
The Mergui Archipelago has around eight hundred islands, almost no infrastructure, no fuel dock worth the name, poorly charted anchorages and no meaningful rescue service. That makes it explorer territory: a displacement hull with range and tankage, a full dive compressor aboard rather than a rendezvous arrangement, and a crew carrying spares for the things that cannot be bought within three hundred miles. The decisive factor is not the yacht, though. It is how many seasons the captain has done there, and that is the question to lead with.
What the archipelago does not have
- Fuel and water at any useful scale. The yacht carries what it needs for the voyage.
- Charts you would want to rely on. Much of the archipelago is surveyed to a standard that means the depth sounder and the eye do the work.
- Rescue and medical support. The nearest real hospital is a long way and a border away.
- Provisions. Everything for ten days is aboard from Kawthaung.
What the yacht needs
| Requirement | Why |
|---|---|
| Displacement hull with range | No refuelling for the length of the voyage |
| Large fresh water tankage or a watermaker | No shore water |
| Compressor and full dive kit aboard | No dive centre to rendezvous with |
| Serious spares and a competent engineer | Nothing can be sourced locally |
| Satellite communications | Patchy to no mobile coverage |
| 24 m and up, in practice | The permit and licence regime, and the sea conditions on the crossing |
The permit, briefly
Cruising permits are issued in advance through the Myanmar state travel agency, take two to three weeks, and a government guide stays aboard for the whole voyage. Guests transfer roughly four hours by road from Phuket to Ranong, or fly by seaplane, and clear immigration at Kawthaung. The operator handles all of it, and only a handful of operators do.
The right question for a Mergui charter is not the price. It is how many seasons this captain has run this archipelago. Answers below two are worth thinking about carefully.
Last checked 6 September 2026. Rates, fees and regulations in this market change every season, so figures on this page are correct as at that date and not afterwards. How the figures are gathered.