Should I buy charter cancellation insurance?

Marcelle Hailwax
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

We recommend it, and for summer and fall BVI bookings, hurricane season, we recommend it strongly alongside a hurricane addendum in the contract itself. Cancellation and curtailment cover protects your charter fee if illness, travel disruption, or weather forces you to cancel or cut short.

Charter contracts have firm cancellation terms because the owner holds the yacht exclusively for you; past certain dates, payments are not refundable. Insurance is the clean answer, and it costs a small fraction of the fee.

Your broker can point you to suitable cover when you book. It is separate from our professional insurance as brokers and from the yacht’s own cover.