How to Judge a Yacht Before You Stand On Her

Almost nobody stands on the yacht before they book her, so you judge her on evidence instead. The gallery is not that evidence. What counts is dated material, filmed and written this season, about the yacht as she is now and the crew who are on her now. We chase that on every yacht we put in front of you, and where we cannot get a piece of it, we tell you which piece and why.

Quick Answer

• The photo gallery is a sales tool. Use it to decide whether you like the layout, never to judge condition.
• Ask for 4 things on every yacht: a walkthrough video filmed this season, guest feedback from recent charters, crew CVs with time aboard, and when she last changed management.
• Crew turnover is what dates a yacht’s reputation fastest. Feedback from 2 seasons ago describes a crew who may have left.
• On every yacht we shortlist for you, we chase all 4 and tell you which ones we could not get, so you are comparing like for like.

What Listing Photos Do Not Tell You

You do not have to spot any of this yourself. It is what we look at on your behalf, and every gallery is a sales gallery. The skill is reading what is missing:

• Every interior shot on an extreme wide angle. When every frame uses it, the saloon is smaller than it looks.
• Every exterior shot at golden hour. Warm low light flatters tired paint and grey teak in a way midday sun does not.
• No photograph of the crew at all. Worth asking why, because it is usually either a new crew or an old shoot.
• A gallery stitched from 2 shoots, with different cushions or a different tender between frames. One set is out of date and you cannot tell which.

None of that makes a yacht a bad choice. It means the gallery is not evidence. We have had the person managing a yacht tell us outright that the listing photos predated the work done to the cabins. The fuller argument for why online promises drift from reality is in how to avoid getting burned on your luxury yacht charter. This is the practical half: what to ask for instead.

What to Ask For Before You Book a Yacht: 4 Pieces of Evidence

4 requests, and a way to read each answer when it lands.

A walkthrough video filmed this season. Not the promotional film with the drone and the music. A phone walkthrough by someone on board this year, moving through the cabins in order. Read it for what the camera skips past, and for whether the person filming knows the yacht well enough to narrate her.

Guest feedback from recent charters. What did people who chartered her this summer say about the crew, the food, and whether anything broke? Our client reviews are public, and where none of us has booked a yacht ourselves we ask the central agent and the brokers who have. Read the date before you read the praise.

Crew CVs, with time aboard. How long has this captain been on this yacht, and this chef in that galley? We would rather send you a captain and chef who have run several seasons together than a stronger pairing on paper who met 2 weeks ago.

When she last changed fleet or management. A move is often when money gets spent on a yacht. Read a recent move as a reason to ask what was done and when, rather than as good news or bad news on its own.

That is what a real walkthrough looks like, and this one is ours. Lian Blacquiere, one of our brokers, filmed it aboard IDEFIX II, a 47 meter Heesen, at the Nafplion Yacht Show, and we published it in June 2026. It is properly shot rather than a phone clip, which is fine, because the camera is not the test. The test is the narration and the order of the cabins: whether the person walking her knows the yacht well enough to keep talking. It runs 7 minutes 18 seconds. You learn more about a saloon in 40 seconds of that than in 20 photographs of it.

Why Old Guest Reviews and Crew Changes Date a Yacht

A yacht’s reputation is mostly her crew’s reputation, and crews move. A glowing report from 2 summers ago can describe a captain and chef who are now on a different boat, and the published crew list is not always caught up either. One of our brokers had an updated crew profile in his inbox and could not tell from the listing which version was current, so he went back to the central agent, confirmed who was actually on board that week, and told his client which of the 2 to believe.

So we date the evidence. Feedback from this season counts. Feedback from 3 seasons ago is context, not proof, and we say which. The same logic covers how a yacht is run between charters, which is why turnaround time matters: a crew with 6 hours to reset a yacht produces a different week than a crew with 2 days.

How Our Brokers Check a Yacht in Person

We go on board. At MEDYS in Nafplio, at the MYBA Charter Show, and on visits through the season, our brokers walk yachts in person, meet the captain and the chef, and look at everything above.

Those visits are not for a brochure. What the broker saw goes into our note on that yacht, and that note decides whether she reaches your shortlist at all. The aim is simple: the person recommending a yacht to you has stood on her. Where none of us has been aboard recently, we say so rather than paper over it, and we go to the central agent and to the brokers who have.

What That Leaves You Doing

Very little, which is the intention. A week in Greece at this level is usually a 100,000 to 250,000 euro decision. At that price you should not be squinting at a photo gallery, or turning yourself into an expert on charter paperwork.

What One Line of the Shortlist Looks Like

Here is the shape of it, written out as an example rather than a real client’s file:

• The yacht. 45 meters, 5 cabins, 10 guests, your week open.
• Walkthrough. Filmed in June this year by the central agent. 6 minutes, all 5 cabins, link attached.
• Recent feedback. 2 charters this season, both through brokers we know. Both rated the chef highly. One flagged slow tender service in the afternoons.
• Crew. Captain 4 seasons aboard, chef joined in April. CVs attached.
• Management. Changed fleet last winter. Engine work and new sundeck furniture done at the same time.
• Our note. Nobody here has been on board since 2024, so the crew read is second hand. We would rather flag that than dress it up.

Does Asking for All This Slow the Booking Down?

No, and this is the fear that stops people asking. Requesting evidence does not take a yacht off the market, and it does not move you down a queue. What holds a week is a signed contract and the deposit, not the order in which you asked your questions. In practice a walkthrough and a call with the captain land within a couple of days, and they run while we are already talking to the central agent about your dates. The clients who lose a yacht are the ones who sit on the decision for 3 weeks, not the ones who asked for proof in the first 2 days.

Send us your dates and who is coming, and finding the yachts is our job, not yours. Send us your dates and we come back with a shortlist, each yacht carrying the 4 pieces of evidence we could get, a plain note on anything we could not, what we think of her, and where it makes sense an introduction to her captain. We reply within 4 hours in business hours. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

From there, choosing between the yachts on your shortlist is a much shorter conversation. If one of your candidates is an older build, we answered whether an older build with a recent refit should worry you separately.

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