At 800,000 euros per week, the Leeward Islands charter market reaches the very top of the available fleet worldwide: 120 to 140 metre megayachts whose names appear in industry reference works as benchmarks of scale, design and technical ambition. Their charter terms require specialist broker relationships, their availability is extremely limited, and their arrival in any Leeward Islands anchorage is a genuinely rare occasion.
When one of these vessels charters through the Leeward Islands chain, the experience for the twelve or fewer guests aboard is defined by an extraordinary ratio of resource to person. A crew of thirty or more. A helicopter and pilot as a permanent member of the operations team. A submersible for deep reef exploration off Antigua and Guadeloupe. A medical suite with a physician. A wine cellar of 1,000 or more bottles. A chef programme indistinguishable from the finest restaurants in Europe.
The Leeward Islands at this scale becomes a circuit rather than a destination: the yacht starts in St Martin, runs south through St Barts, Nevis, Antigua and Guadeloupe, and may extend as far as Barbados or the Grenadines if the charter party wishes a longer arc. The only constraint is the desire to return to base at the end of the seven nights.
The advance provisioning allowance at this level runs to 220,000 to 250,000 euros, encompassing helicopter and submersible operations, the medical programme, premium provisioning and fuel for the full extended circuit.
