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Engine failure on a charter: replacement boat or refund?
Short answer
A charter base owes you a seaworthy boat for the whole week.
If the engine fails it becomes a question of repair,
a replacement boat or a refund of the days lost,
and reporting it late can cost you all three.
The engine will not start in the anchorage, the cooling fails, the gearbox stops engaging. A technical failure hits a charter crew harder than an owner, because the time is booked and finite: every day spent alongside has already been paid for and the flight home is fixed. The starting point, at least, is clear. Anyone who lets a yacht owes a boat that is fit to sail, and owes it not only at the handover but throughout the charter period.
That produces an order of events. First, the base has both the right and the duty to put the fault right, which means sending an engineer or arranging a yard. If that succeeds within a reasonable time, the matter ends there. If it does not, an equivalent replacement boat comes into question where one is free, and only after that a refund for the days genuinely lost. The detail sits in the charter contract, and because the base is usually in another country, the local hire law applies alongside it. The picture changes completely if the failure came from the crew, after the wrong fuel, a rope through the propeller or an oil level nobody checked. That is no longer about refunds but about liability and about the deposit.
In practice the first hour decides everything. Report the failure to the base at once, by telephone and then in writing, and get the report acknowledged. Note when the engine failed, what happened immediately before, and what the base instructed; a logbook entry and a few photographs are enough. Do not repair anything on your own initiative and do not call in an outside yard without clearance, or the invoice stays with you. Carry on sailing while it is safe to do so, and do not abandon the week without agreement. Mention the failure for the first time at the handback and there is nothing left to point to.
Worth remembering
Reported at once
keeps replacement and refund open
Fixed on your own
usually stays on your invoice
The base owes you a boat that is fit to sail. But only if it hears about the failure in time.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
Do I have to report an engine failure straight away?
Yes. Without a report the base cannot put the fault right, and putting it right is its first entitlement. Raise it only at the handback and claims for a replacement or a refund are usually gone.
Am I entitled to a replacement boat?
Only where the repair does not succeed within a reasonable time and an equivalent yacht is actually free. What counts as equivalent, and what counts as reasonable, comes from the charter contract.
Will the days we lost be refunded?
As a rule the base refunds the days on which the boat genuinely could not be used, usually pro rata to the charter fee. Half a day alongside for a repair seldom counts as a lost day.
What if the crew caused the damage?
Then the position reverses. The charterer answers for damage arising from how the boat was handled, and the base settles it against the deposit. Wrong fuel and a rope in the propeller are the classic cases.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Engine failure on a charter: replacement boat or refund?” or another question: send us your residence and the flag your boat flies. You will get a straight answer in one email; including a no, if that is the answer.
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