Charter expenses: APA system
The APA (Advance Provisioning Allowance) system, or in simple language, is a cash deposit that a guest pays additionally when chartering a yacht, but very often does not realise what they are paying for.
The cost of yacht charter includes, usually, only the rent of the vessel itself and the crew service fee. But apart from these two main items, there are many more costs that will depend on the circumstances that arise directly during the stay on board:
- fuel
- food and drink
- communications, shore water/electricity
- water sports
- mooring
- taxes and harbour dues etc.
Spending on the above items is possible to calculate roughly, but of course it is very individual and depends on the guest’s own wishes.
Usually, APA is 20-30% of the charter price. This amount of money is paid in advance to the captain, who informs the guest of the current balance from time to time in order to monitor the balance. If there is more expenditure than anticipated, the deposit amount will need to be topped up. All spending is done strictly according to the expense documents that are provided to the guest. If at the end of the trip a part of the deposit remains unused, it is to be refunded back to the guest after the end of the charter.
