The Owner-Operator Split

Three Contract Shapes, One Question

Charter management contracts come in three shapes. In a commission contract the operator keeps a percentage of each booking and bills the owner for every cost. In a shared revenue contract the operator takes costs off the top and splits what remains. In a fixed income contract the operator pays the owner a set percentage of the purchase price and carries the costs and the bookings itself.

Each shape answers the same question differently: who carries the fixed cost of keeping a boat charter ready when it is not booked. That is the question to ask of any yacht management company proposal, and it is why the headline split can mislead.

Part three of this series measured how many weeks a charter yacht actually books. This part applies the operator's terms to those weeks.

The 75/25 Split and What It Leaves Out

TMM Yacht Charters, a Road Town, Tortola operator in business since 1979, publishes its programme in full. Any charter booked by TMM or one of its agents carries a commission of 25 per cent, so the owner keeps 75 per cent of gross. Charters the owner books and administers personally carry no commission.1

Everything else is billed to the owner. Dockage, charter turnaround, maintenance, repairs, parts, insurance and government fees appear on a monthly statement, and revenue in excess of costs is paid out each month.1

So the 75 per cent is not what the owner earns. It is what the owner receives before paying for the boat. Part one of this series showed that broker commission is taken at the front of the charter agreement. Here the operator's commission is taken at the front of the owner's statement, and the cost base follows it.

The Fixed Floor Before a Single Booking

Because TMM publishes its tariff, the fixed floor can be assembled line by line for a 46 foot catamaran with air conditioning. Only charges that apply whether or not the boat is chartered are included.1

Dockage alone is 68 per cent of the floor. The figure excludes insurance, maintenance labour, parts, haul-out and every variable charge tied to a booking.

What the Floor Looks Like Against Real Utilisation

The floor only means something against revenue. The Caribbean's 2026 average advertised rate across Yacht-Rent's listings is 8,470 euro a week, and its average booking rate is 23.4 weeks.2 At the ECB reference rate of 1.1403 dollars on 25 September 2026 that week is about 9,658 dollars.3

Laundry at 7 dollars per guest per week is also deducted, assuming eight guests. Each booked week contributes about 6,500 dollars to the owner, so roughly four booked weeks cover the fixed floor. Insurance, maintenance and the capital loss are what the remaining weeks must pay for.

The Split That Is No Longer Published

Dream Yacht's Performance programme is the best known shared revenue contract. Its programme page, updated 4 September 2026, says the owner receives shared revenue for each charter booking after annual maintenance and operational expenses, and that the boat must be available for charter at least 7 weeks a year.4

The page does not state the percentage. It describes a favourable shared revenue model and directs buyers to ask the sales team for financial details. Older summaries of the programme circulate a 70 per cent owner share, but the operator's own current page does not carry that figure, so it should not be relied on.

The structural point survives without the number. A split applied after costs is a split of the residual, not of gross. Seventy per cent of what remains after maintenance can be a smaller or a larger number than 75 per cent of gross with costs billed separately, depending entirely on a cost line nobody publishes.

The Fixed Income Shape Moves the Risk, Not the Cost

The Moorings' fixed income programme pays the owner a monthly amount equal to 8 per cent of the purchase price a year for 5 to 6 years, stated as unaffected by the boat's actual charter activity. The operator pays berthing, routine maintenance, insurance, cleaning and standard repairs, and the owner has up to 12 weeks of annual use.5

Nothing in that structure makes the costs in section three disappear. The operator carries them and the utilisation risk from part three, and prices both into what it charges for the boat at the start. The owner is left with one exposure: what the hull is worth when the programme ends.

That residual is the subject of part five. The Moorings itself says the boat comes back as an ex-charter yacht with all the usage of a 5 to 6 year charter life.5

The Three Lines to Ask for in Writing

Comparing contracts on the split percentage compares the least informative figure on the page. Three lines decide the outcome, and each can be requested in writing.

The first is the full annual cost schedule, stated as rates rather than as a percentage deducted. TMM shows this can be published; an operator that will not do so is keeping the largest variable private.

The second is realised weeks and realised rate for comparable boats at the same base over three seasons. Season and location move the rate by half, so a base average is not a vessel figure.

The third is the end of term condition standard and who pays for it. That line converts a revenue contract into a capital outcome, which is where the yacht ownership programs comparison and the cost of owning a yacht both end up.

Where This Analysis Is Weakest

The rate and utilisation figures are market averages across Yacht-Rent's Caribbean listings, not a 46 foot catamaran specifically, and the booking rate is best read as a ceiling for the reasons part three sets out. Advertised rates are also not realised rates.

The cost schedule is one operator's, in one market, priced in dollars. Mediterranean berthing is priced very differently, as the berth and marina cost analysis shows.

Maintenance labour, parts and haul-out are billed at cost and no operator publishes an annual total, so the largest variable in the owner statement is missing here.

None of this is a return, targeted or otherwise, and none of it describes any particular fund or programme. The pillar page on yacht charter investment returns collects the whole walk, and is a yacht a good investment states where it lands.