A fifty metre motor yacht is chartered for certainty. Sail asks you to plan around the weather. A hull of this length, running twin diesels and zero speed stabilisers, simply goes where the itinerary says it will, with dinner served level. That predictability is why motor yachts account for the overwhelming majority of charters at this size.
The fleet divides roughly in two. Heavy displacement steel hulls from Benetti, Amels, CRN and Feadship carry enormous interior volume and cross oceans without drama. Lighter aluminium designs from Heesen, Turquoise and Rossinavi trade some of that volume for eighteen knots, which matters when you want Portofino for lunch and Saint Tropez for dinner. Both types take twelve guests in five or six cabins with a crew of eleven.
Weekly rates across this group run from around one hundred and sixty five thousand euros to just under three hundred thousand, with a handful of older hulls available nearer one hundred thousand. An advance provisioning allowance of about thirty percent sits on top, and fuel is a real line item here, since a fifty metre displacement yacht burns several hundred litres an hour under way.
Engines also change the map. A motor yacht at this length holds schedule through the Bonifacio strait in a mistral and covers the run from Naples to the Aeolian islands overnight. Summers favour Sardinia, Sicily and the Turkish coast, winters Saint Barths and the Bahamas. Send us your dates and we will tell you what is free.
