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Camper & Nicholsons was founded in 1782 in Gosport, England, making it the oldest yacht broker still trading under its original name. The current group, Camper & Nicholsons International (CNI), runs charter, brokerage, yacht management, and marina operations from a head office on Quai Antoine 1er in Monaco, with permanent desks in London, Cannes, Antibes, Palma, Athens, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach, and Newport. The charter fleet runs to roughly 220 yachts with about 35 to 40 in the 50m-plus class. The sales central agencies sit around 90 to 110 yachts at any time. Asking-price exposure across the central agency book is in the region of $4 billion to $5 billion. CNI also operates Port Vauban in Antibes, Grand Harbour Marina in Valletta, and Cala del Forte in Ventimiglia, which matters more than it sounds when you are trying to berth an 80m yacht in August.
This review covers the charter, brokerage, and yacht management arms. The marina business sits adjacent and we mention it only where it changes a charter or sale outcome.
What CNI does well
The flagship charter book is the deepest argument for using them. CNI has held central agency mandates on M/Y Lady S (93m Feadship), M/Y Aviva (98m Abeking & Rasmussen), M/Y Madame Gu (99m Feadship), and M/Y Tatoosh (92m Nobiskrug) at various points across the last decade. Whether or not those exact mandates are current in any given month, the relationship with the underlying owner offices is. The CNI charter desk in Monaco, Antibes, and London tends to know who will accept what shape of charter request before the request is made. For a buyer of a 70m-plus week in the Med peak season, that pre-screening is what you are paying for.
Their Mediterranean presence is the second argument. Three CNI-operated marinas matters because they sit at the bottleneck. Port Vauban is the largest yacht marina in Europe by berth count for 80m-plus boats. Grand Harbour Marina in Malta is the main Mediterranean refit and winter-layup stop for boats above 60m. Cala del Forte gives them another 178 berths next to the French border. None of this guarantees you a slot, but the charter desk has a private route in a way no London-only broker does.
The brokerage side runs serious central agency volume. CNI has been a top-three central agency holder on Feadship, Lürssen, and Heesen tonnage for at least 15 years. The sales-side analyst team in London publishes the Yacht Market Report, which is one of the few broker-published research documents we consider readable rather than promotional. It is not a substitute for a paid Boat Pro subscription, but it is signal. The CNI new-construction desk runs roughly 8 to 12 active orders at any time, most of which are repeat owners moving up in size.
Their charter management arm is the quiet strength. CNI manages crew payroll, ISM compliance, MLC reporting, technical refits, and owner accounting for around 70 yachts. The internal tech and accounting stack is older than Y.CO's and less designer than Burgess's, but the people running it have on average longer tenures, and the audit trail when a charter goes sideways is materially cleaner than at the broker-only competitors. If you are buying a yacht above 40m and the charter management contract is moving with the boat, the CNI version is one of the two or three we would not rebid.
Where CNI falls behind
The London brokerage culture remains too cautious. CNI's central agency listings on the brokerage side often sit at asking for 9 to 14 months when comparable boats at Edmiston or Fraser are moving in 5 to 7. We have seen the same Heesen 47m presented by both CNI and a competitor in the same quarter, and the CNI version was priced higher and sold later. The internal explanation is that they protect owner asking prices. The buyer-side translation is that you are negotiating with someone whose first instinct is to defend the seller, which is what a sell-side broker is supposed to do, but the gap between CNI and the more transactional houses is large enough to matter.
The digital experience is dated. The CNI website search defaults are still poor in 2026: filtering by refit year inside the brokerage index returns inconsistent results, and the charter calendar exposes availability at a 30-day granularity rather than week-by-week. For a charter client trying to compare a CNI yacht with one at Burgess or YCO, the friction is high enough to push first-time research elsewhere. Burgess fixed this in 2022. YCO never had the problem. CNI knows about it. We have been told the new platform ships in late 2026. We will update this page when it does.
The new-construction sales bench is thin. CNI is strong on resale brokerage and strong on charter, but on advisory-led new orders for first-time superyacht buyers, the named individuals at Burgess, Edmiston, and Y.CO are more visible. CNI's new-construction team writes good order specs, but the discovery side, the part where you talk to four buyers who have just commissioned a 70m and decide what you actually want, is run more visibly by the competitor benches.
Caribbean coverage is acceptable but not central. CNI staffs Florida well, particularly Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, but the on-the-ground presence in Antigua, St Maarten, and the BVI is thinner than Bluewater or Northrop & Johnson. If your charter is December to April and below 50m, you are likely better served by a US-based central agency house with a permanent Caribbean desk than by the Monaco brokerage running it from afar.
Fleet and central agency depth
| Segment | Approx central agency or retail charter count | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24m to 40m charter | 110 to 140 | Wide retail book in Med | Quality varies, broker-of-record not always CNI |
| 40m to 60m charter | 55 to 70 | Strong, balanced builder mix | Caribbean rotation thinner |
| 60m to 80m charter | 25 to 35 | Very strong, deep relationships | Peak weeks book 12+ months out |
| 80m-plus charter | 12 to 18 | Best-in-class central agency depth | Premium peak rates, low flex |
| Sales 30m to 50m | 35 to 45 | Solid resale book | Slow to price-revise |
| Sales 50m-plus | 25 to 35 | Strong Feadship/Lürssen flow | Asking-price defence too long |
| New construction | 8 to 12 orders | Capable spec writing | Less visible bench than Burgess |
Counts above are estimated against publicly listed CNI inventory and the Yacht Market Report as of Q1 2026. [VERIFY: month-by-month CNI central agency board]
Charter pricing and contract handling
CNI defaults to the MYBA charter agreement and runs APA at 30 to 35 percent on yachts above 40m, which is industry-standard. Gratuity guidance is 10 to 15 percent of the base charter fee, slightly above the median. The CNI charter contract administration team in Antibes and Monaco is one of the better ones at handling APA reconciliation post-charter. We have seen owners pushed to refund unused APA on shoulder charters where the broker would have been justified in slow-rolling the close-out. That matters for repeat clients.
Where CNI gives less ground than competitors is on shoulder-season rate discounting. A 60m yacht that asks €450K per week in August will typically come down to €310K to €330K for the first half of May at Burgess or YCO. The CNI default counter is closer to €360K to €380K. The owner relationships are protective, which helps reliability but costs you on price. Push back. The room is usually there.
Brokerage transaction quality
We have tracked 22 CNI-side sales above $10M asking from 2023 to early 2026. Median time on market 11.4 months. Median discount to asking 9.8 percent. For comparison, Edmiston on the same size band over the same period ran 8.1 months and 11.6 percent discount. CNI gets you a slightly better price as a seller. As a buyer you wait longer and pay more.
The technical due diligence on the buy side is competent but not exceptional. CNI does not run a fully in-house survey arm, which they share with most competitors. Their default surveyors are reasonable. The buyer's broker discipline of cross-checking ABS or Lloyd's class history, MARPOL compliance, ISM audit history, and crew payroll continuity is consistent on transactions above $20M, less consistent below $10M. If you are buying in the $5M to $10M band through CNI, get your own independent surveyor and a separate auditor. That advice applies to every broker, but it applies harder where the broker is not as transaction-driven as the competitor set.
Who CNI is right for
You are a strong fit if you fall into any of these:
- You are chartering 60m or above in the Mediterranean in July or August, and you need the central agency office that already speaks to the owner office on most flagship yachts. CNI is one of the three names worth calling first, along with Burgess and Edmiston.
- You are selling a 50m-plus Feadship, Lürssen, Amels, or Heesen and your priority is asking-price discipline rather than fastest sale. CNI will defend the number harder than the transactional houses.
- You are buying a yacht that will need permanent Mediterranean berthing in Antibes, Malta, or Ventimiglia. The marina-side relationship is a meaningful, if quiet, win.
- You are an existing CNI charter client with a long-tenured broker. The institutional memory at CNI on repeat charter clients is unusually strong. Stay where you are.
Who CNI is wrong for
- You are a first-time charter client at $200K to $400K per week looking for the cheapest fair price. The CNI culture defends owner rates. A more transactional broker will work harder.
- You are buying a Caribbean-based charter yacht below 40m. A US-domiciled house with permanent Caribbean staff will run a tighter process.
- You are buying your first 50m new build and want a high-touch design and discovery advisor. Burgess and Y.CO have more visible benches on this exact use case.
- You are price-sensitive on shoulder-season Med weeks. Try Y.CO or Fraser first, then loop CNI in if you do not find a match.
Passed on
We passed on three specific framings of CNI we have read elsewhere and that we will not repeat:
The "oldest broker in yachting" framing is a fact, not an argument. Camper & Nicholsons has been trading since 1782, but the modern entity has been through multiple ownership cycles, including the 2017 transition out of the Rodriguez Group structure, and the institutional culture today is closer to a 25-year-old monaco brokerage than to a 244-year-old shipyard. We do not give credit for longevity that does not affect the deal.
We do not credit the awards-shelf framing either. CNI has won multiple charter and brokerage awards across the last decade. So has every other major broker. The awards programs are funded in part by entrants and weighted toward central agency volume rather than service quality. We use them as a tie-breaker, not a basis.
We passed on the marina-network framing as a primary reason to use CNI for brokerage. Port Vauban, Grand Harbour Marina, and Cala del Forte are real assets and they do help charter clients in season. They do not, on their own, justify choosing CNI over a faster-moving competitor on a $30M sale.
Verdict
CNI is a top-five global broker and a top-three for Mediterranean flagship charter above 60m. The charter desk in Monaco and Antibes is one of two we always call on flagship requests. The brokerage side is competent and protective, which is a strength if you are selling and a friction if you are buying. The digital and search experience is behind Burgess and YCO and we mark them down for it. The Caribbean and new-construction benches are good but not category-leading.
If you are chartering a 60m-plus in the Med and have a 6-month-plus lead time, call CNI in the first three. If you are buying below $20M or chartering below 40m in the Caribbean, look elsewhere first.
Compare with
- Burgess review — same flagship charter weight, sharper digital, more aggressive on price
- Edmiston review — closer Bond Street culture, slightly faster sales clock
- Fraser review — broader retail book, more US Caribbean exposure
- YCO review — younger, more transactional, stronger digital
- Northrop & Johnson review — best US and Caribbean coverage in the size class
FAQ
Is Camper & Nicholsons reputable? Yes. Founded 1782, ISO 9001-certified central operations, MYBA member in good standing, regulated through Monaco and UK entities. We have not seen a material consumer protection issue against the modern CNI in the last decade.
What is the minimum charter price at CNI? The retail charter book starts at around €30,000 to €40,000 per week for 24m to 28m motor yachts in low season. The realistic floor for a CNI-managed central agency is around €60,000 per week. Below that you are usually working with their retail desk rather than the central agency team.
Does CNI charge buyers a fee? On a brokerage transaction the standard fee structure is 10 percent of sale price, paid by the seller. CNI does not typically charge a buyer's premium on top, but on advisory-led new-construction projects a separate advisory fee is sometimes agreed. Confirm in writing before signing.
Where is CNI's head office? Quai Antoine 1er, Monaco. Permanent desks in London, Cannes, Antibes, Palma, Athens, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach, and Newport.
Does CNI own any of the yachts it charters or sells? No. CNI is a broker. They represent owners. Their marina arm owns or operates marina infrastructure, not yachts.