The latest edition of On Board magazine is available at marinas and chandleries in the Mediterranean. It is a free magazine aimed at crews of superyachts in the region and because it a locally produced magazine is vastly more relevant than other crew magazines produced outside France and ported in.
Yes we write for it but then again we write for most of the better yachting magazines around the world but that is not the point of this posting.
What caught our eye was an article penned by the highly respected yacht broker Toby Maclaurin who has used the magazines opinion page to have a pop at crew gratuities.
What makes this strange is that Toby is as swell as being a top broker for Ocean Independence the current President of MYBA.
And while MYBA has a policy of enforcing crew gratuities Mr Maclaurin seems to suggest that because a yacht has not got a charter it is because of the clause in a contract for a charter of €600,000 per week yacht.
That clause read: “A crew gratuity of 15-20% of the charter fee is customary and it is aimed at the charterers discretion.”
The question I have is who is right Mr M or the MYBA the body for which he is the President. What are your views?