This page contains affiliate and referral links. If you charter, book, or buy through a broker we have introduced you to, we earn a referral fee paid by the broker, not by you. We have not adjusted our rankings for the referral rate. Some brokers we rank well do not have any commercial relationship with us. Some that pay us are ranked lower than they would like. Full breakdown on our how-we-make-money page.
We review 20 yacht brokers and platforms at launch: 10 charter and sales brokerages, 4 aggregator platforms, and 6 day-charter marketplaces. The reviews are rebuilt every 12 months and updated quarterly between rebuilds. A 5 percent commission on a $1.5M charter week is $75,000 in broker revenue, and the broker community pays close attention to where they rank. Three brokers asked us to revise their 2026-05 review before publication. We declined.
A broker review on this site is the single most editorially weighted page we publish. Charter clients usually pick a broker before they pick a yacht. Buyers always pick a brokerage before they make an offer. The choice of broker materially affects which yachts you see, how much you pay, what is included in the contract, and how problems are handled when they happen. We are not the broker. We are the layer above the broker.
How a broker review is built
Each review runs roughly 2,500 to 3,500 words and follows a fixed eight-section structure. The structure is published in methodology and reproduced as a sidebar inside each review.
The sections, in order: what the broker actually does, the inventory and access, the contract behaviour, the post-booking support, response speed and channels, transparency on fees and APA, named pass-list incidents (yachts they have mishandled, charters where they did not deliver), and our verdict. Verdict is a single line: charter with confidence, charter with caveats, do not charter through them.
Three further fields appear on every review, repeated for consistency:
- Founded, headquartered, offices, primary inventory regions.
- Commission model with the broker (where applicable). We disclose if we have a referral arrangement, what the rate is in broad terms, and how it is paid.
- The team contact we use, by role, where we can do so without exposing individual brokers to outside contact.
Charter brokers
The major charter brokers carry 100 to 500 yachts in active inventory each, manage the contract paperwork on behalf of the owner or charter client, and run the post-booking communication during the charter. The differences between them are real and matter.
- Burgess. Largest by inventory and brand. Strongest in the Mediterranean 50m+ bracket. Verdict: charter with confidence in the bracket they cover.
- Edmiston. London-based, strong in Caribbean and superyacht charter. Verdict: charter with confidence. Slightly thinner inventory below 40m.
- Camper and Nicholsons. Oldest brokerage. Traditional-side, deep buyer relationships, slower digital response.
- IYC. Italian-side strength, Sardinia and the Côte d'Azur. The fastest response in our 2026 test.
- Fraser. Global footprint, strong charter management side as well as charter brokerage.
- Northrop and Johnson. US East Coast strength, growing Med presence.
- Y.CO and YPI. The two boutique-side brokers that punch above their inventory weight.
- Ocean Independence. Swiss-headquartered, mid-market focus, consistent contract clarity.
- Bluewater. South-of-France base, charter management heritage.
Sales-side brokers
The brokerage side overlaps with the charter side but operates differently. Sales-side decisions sit on 6 to 24 month timelines, the average ticket runs from $5M to $80M, and the broker's job is buyer's-agent rather than charter-rate calculator. We carry separate review work on sales-side performance for the houses that do both.
- Moran Yachts. Florida-based, large-yacht specialist on the sales side.
- Denison Yachting. High-volume US brokerage, strong sub-50m inventory.
- Fleming Yachting. Niche, deep-water relationships, lower volume.
The major brokerages above also handle sales-side work and we review that work in the same broker pages, in a separate section.
Aggregator platforms
The aggregator platforms do not own inventory. They list yachts on behalf of the brokerages and act as a front-door for the charter client. They are useful as a starting filter, less useful as a final routing.
- BoatBookings and YachtCharterFleet are the two largest aggregators. Inventory is good, ranking and editorial are thin, contract still happens through the actual brokerage.
Day-charter platforms
A separate review cluster for the marketplace-style day-charter platforms. These are closer to Airbnb-of-boats than to traditional broker work, the per-transaction value is lower, and quality control varies by city.
- GetMyBoat. Largest by listings, weakest by editorial signal. Good for entry-tier day rates in well-trafficked markets.
- Click and Boat. European strength. Better filtering than GetMyBoat for the Mediterranean.
- Boatsetter, Sailo, and Samboat round out the marketplace tier.
What we look for in a broker
The fields we weight the most in the rubric, repeated from the broker-specific reviews:
- Response speed. A 24 to 48 hour response on a serious inquiry. Beyond that, the broker is not paying attention.
- Contract clarity. The MYBA charter contract is the standard. A broker who edits it without flagging the edit is a broker we mark down.
- APA realism. APA should be set against documented fuel and provisioning cost history, not pulled from a template.
- Problem handling. A generator failure mid-charter is the test. How the broker handled the last incident is the cleanest signal.
- Owner side and charter-client side. We pay attention to whether the broker represents the owner or the charter client when those interests diverge. Most brokers represent the owner. The broker who is honest about it is the broker we recommend.
Passed on
Two brokerages on our active pass list as of 2026-05. The reasons are documented in their reviews. Both have asked for the listings to be removed or revised. They remain on the pass list until the underlying problems are resolved. Pass listings carry the same editorial weight as ranked recommendations and the same evidence requirements. We do not pass on a broker without naming the specific incident or pattern.
The pass list is rebuilt every six months. Two brokerages on the 2025 pass list have moved off after demonstrated changes in response time, contract behaviour, or management. We say so in their refreshed reviews.
How to use this section
Start with the best yacht brokers for charter or best yacht brokers for sales lists if you have not selected a broker yet. Drop into the individual broker review once you are down to two or three. Use the broker comparison pages for the head-to-head verdict on the final pair. The full flow is designed to land you on the right broker without you having to read 20 reviews end to end.