Palm Beach Boat Show Yacht Charter

A typical charter on a 40-metre yacht for the show week (six nights, including the four show days plus the soft arrival and a Sunday wind-down) runs $215,000–$370,000 all-in. That comprises a base charter fee of around $135,000–$215,000, APA of 30–35%, the show-week berth supplement at Rybovich or equivalent of $14,000–$32,000, and concierge, restaurant programme and private-aviation coordination of $25,000–$50,000. Larger yachts in the 50m bracket move the all-in to $450,000–$740,000; 60m+ yachts move it beyond $1.1m.

Yes — Rybovich offers transient charter berths through show week, contracted separately from the yacht. Allocation is broker-coordinated and the better positions are taken by the previous autumn. Old Port Cove and Sailfish Marina are the secondary options when Rybovich is full.

Three meaningful differences. First, the buyer demographic — Palm Beach is more concentrated on UHNW family-office and principal buyers, with fewer broker-trade attendees. Second, the scale — Fort Lauderdale has roughly twice the in-water inventory, but Palm Beach's quality of buying-side attention per square foot is materially higher. Third, the social calendar — Palm Beach's evening programme on Worth Avenue and at the Breakers is denser and more contested per night than Fort Lauderdale's broader, more dispersed ashore offering. Fort Lauderdale is the volume show; Palm Beach is the relationship show.

Ten to twelve months ahead for any yacht above 40m. The serious East-Coast charter inventory is taken by the previous autumn; inside six months, you are working with a narrower set of options and Rybovich's better berths are gone.

Yes — this is the most common single use-case. A chartered yacht at Rybovich gives you a private, controlled environment for the conversations that should not happen on the show floor or in a public restaurant. The yacht's sky lounge or formal indoor dining is the venue for the brokerage follow-ups that compress months of in-person diligence into the four show days.

For a principal-plus-advisor charter where the yacht is the base, 35–45m. For a host charter with a meaningful Friday-evening reception of forty to sixty guests, 46–58m. For a shipyard or brokerage sponsor activation, 59m+. Most successful Palm Beach charters sit in the 40–50m bracket — large enough to host meaningfully, small enough to keep operational simplicity in a four-day window.

Wednesday evening is a VIP preview. Thursday through Saturday are open to the general public, with trade and VIP access running in parallel. Buying-side charter clients typically concentrate their walk-throughs Wednesday evening through Friday morning, when broker schedules are most flexible and the show floor is less crowded.

PBI (Palm Beach International) is the primary airport — 15 minutes from Rybovich, 20 minutes from Palm Beach proper. Excellent private-aviation infrastructure and direct commercial connections to New York, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. FLL (Fort Lauderdale) is 80 minutes by car and a useful alternative for guests connecting through Caribbean private-aviation legs.

Yes, and this is the most popular continuation. Slip lines Sunday morning from Rybovich, transit the Gulf Stream in 6–8 hours, and anchor in Green Turtle Cay, Treasure Cay or Marsh Harbour in the Abacos by Sunday evening for the start of a private decompression week. The Exumas (Highbourne, Staniel, Norman's Cay) are a 10-hour overnight passage from Palm Beach and the deeper-water continuation for clients with a fuller week.

The most reliable single window of the Florida charter year. Daytime 24–27°C, overnight 17–20°C, humidity moderate, rain rare. The Gulf Stream sea state is steady; the Intracoastal is calm. Aft-deck reception evenings through show week are weather-friendly with very high confidence.

Yes. East-Coast US charter yachts run Starlink with redundant 5G failover; bandwidth supports board calls, video conferencing and a connected household. Palm Beach cellular coverage is excellent across the marina and the island, so guests' own devices work without intervention.

Children are welcome and we have run family charters around show week. The chief stewardess can organise a parallel programme — beach mornings on the Atlantic side of Palm Beach island, paddle-boarding off the swim platform, visits to the Norton Museum or the Society of the Four Arts — that runs alongside the adult calendar.

Palm Beach is a structurally discreet environment — the town's resident population is heavily UHNW and the cultural norm is to ignore visible guests rather than to engage. The marinas are controlled environments. For specific principal-protection requirements we coordinate with the guest's existing security director and trusted regional close-protection partners; it is not a default add-on.

Yacht charter cancellation follows the MYBA or industry-standard agreement signed at contract — typically 50% deposit non-refundable from signing, balance at six months, full balance non-refundable inside ninety days. Berth contracts at Rybovich and the alternative marinas are non-refundable from allocation. We recommend a specialist charter insurance policy that covers both the yacht and the berth; we introduce a broker at contracting.