TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Skipper tipping / per diem

We embark on our crew’s maiden voyage next week and want to make sure we are whole with the hired Skipper. In comparing notes from searching the board here versus documentation the charter company provided, there are widely different perspectives on how to handle tipping and per diem / meals with the Skipper.

Charter company documentation states:
• ~$40/day per diem, assume he’ll eat with you some as well
• Tip $75-100/day on top of the $175/day Skipper fee ($525-$750 for 7 days)

Posts / Threads on the board and feedback from others suggest:
• Assume the Skipper will eat what we eat (provision for him)
• Pay for Skipper’s meals and invite him to a couple meals with the crew, which in our case will be mostly dinners as we plan to eat breakfast/lunch on the boat.
• Tip 15% - 20% of the total Skipper fee ($185-$250)

Can you all weigh in on these questions?
1) What’s the best way to handle meals / per diem assuming we want to keep the skipper happy? If paying a per diem, do you pay it up front or as we go?
2) What’s the best approach for tipping given the wide variance in perspectives above?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

The former applies to a hired skipper (though I think there is some error in the tip), and the latter applies to the skipper of a crewed boat.

We only have a skipper.

Is this Moorings? Seems they charge a provisioning fee on top of the daily skipper fee. That tip has got to be a mistake though.

We went w/TMM and this is listed on the Skipper FAQ page.

Ok, yeah I see it. But 40% to 60% seems like a crazy range for a gratuity.

We used a captain through Voyage.
He ate about all meals with us or fended for himself if he wanted to.
We were concerned this would be awkward, but most have done this enough, that they are quite adept at fitting in and leaving you alone as needed.
We tipped $100/day at end of trip for excellent service.

The Captains are season pros about the eating with the guests or not just make sure he is fed and happy.

Tipping .. you are tipping him on the Charter Price not on his salary. If we got a $35 gratuity per the day which is what you have quoted on his salary they are not going to be happy.. Remember they are responsible for the boat and YOUR safety and the enjoyment of your vacation.

We normally tip at least $100 per day and up to $200 depending on service.

Since the hired skipper is absolutely responsible for the boat 24/7 AND is certainly attempting to give the guests a great vacation experience, keeping everyone safe and happy, working hard to satisfy and get along with many different personalities in a small space for a week, using acquired local knowledge while trying to continually judge the level of participation or intrusiveness expected by each guest aboard -- a substantial gratuity for a successful charter is always appreciated.

I am aware this topic has been discussed over and over and most charter websites touch on it as well but I still have one question, is the suggested gratuity per person, per cabin, or per charter?

For example (from TMM)
WHAT IS THE TYPICAL GRATUITY?

Skippers work hard to provide the best possible service to their clients. If they have done a good job for you, they will appreciate a gratuity at the conclusion of the charter. A rule of thumb is $350-$500 for a one week charter. A one-day Check-Out Skipper (COS) gratuity would be a percentage of the fee of $175. Twenty-five dollars tip for a COS would be a good rule of thumb. All gratuities are optional.

Is that 350-500 per week per person, per cabin or per charter?

Others sites suggest 15-20% of captains fee, same question applies.

Thanks in advance!

15 to 20% of the Captains fee is normal. If a week charter with a 1500 dollar fee 300 is reasonable for a good skipper.
Fully crewed charters are very different and in that case you normally tip the crew 15 to 20% of the price of the charter.
G

The (unwritten) rule is this:
You tip between 10 and 20% of the CHARTER FEE.
10% if you the skipper was just OK, not more.
15% if skipper is very good.
20% for outstanding performance.

We normally tip 100.00 a day and than if we have money left in our kitty we give that to the Captain at the end of the trip also.
The first time we chartered on our own and had to hire a Captain I read someplace to remember that they are working 24 / 7 while you are on vacation 24/7. You may think they are sleeping but even when they are sleeping they are still on watch.
I contacted our Captain ahead of time to see if he had any food allergies or wanted anything special, asked what he drank etc. I wanted it to be a good experience for him with us too!
He ate every meal with us. Breakfasts were on board and lunch or dinner was out. We took turns on who would add his meal to their tab.
We took care of him, he took care of us....found fresh aloe for our sunburn, climbed a tree and got us fresh coconuts, got us a discount on a slip, deal on a rental car....the list goes on.

If you are not going to include your captain in your meal out or on board one night my suggestion is to communicate that early in the day and ask them how they would like to handle the cost of their meal that day. They may appreciate you giving them the money upfront that day....and most would not ask. Times are hard now there and they may not be carrying a lot of cash with them.

Michael, I generally agree with what you post but I have never heard of a hired skipper getting tipped based on the cost of the charter. As a Example a cheap monohull can be had for 2000 a week and that would put the tip in the 200-400 range. A large expensive cat could be 15,000 and the tip would be 1500 to 3000 for a skipper where the fee to hire him is only about 1200 to 1500 a week. His job is the same with either boat and his living accommodations are likely to be better on the cat.
Based on what your posting the tip for a hired skipper just driving the boat around would be much higher than the normal crewed charter tip after it is split between the Captain and chef not to mention they cater to your every whim including cooking all meals and cleaning your cabins, heads and even making the beds. I don’t think a hired skipped rates a much higher tip than a full service crew.
G

I think we're talking about two different things (again). Skipper hired by the day, vs. crewed yacht.

Definitely 2 different topics:
With Crewed charters, the crew is taking care of the boat before and after the trip as well as provisioning. Also expectations for service (beds made, cleaning, meals, as well as planning the destinations and activity suggestions. The more experienced crews generally move to larger (and more expensive) yachts, for both a better "housing", as they live there even when boat not out on charter, and a "promotion" as the larger boats charter for more an therefore have higher potential for gratuity.

With bareboat plus skipper added, then this is basically a "boat driver". He or she has no other chores. There is a contractural fee the charter company adds for this service. The bareboat skipper "add on" fee is usually unrelated to the boat size/ pricing.

When unsure, I would recommend questions as you are considering booking a trip, and also hopefully FAQs of charter company covers this topic.(The hired skipper should know what the charter company FAQs regarding skipper and gratuity as well as provisioning for skipper)