What is the yacht charter cancellation policy when a hurricane is forecast?
Miami sits in the hurricane belt and everyone who charters here knows it. The Atlantic season runs from June 1 to November 30. The National Hurricane Center puts the peak at 10 September (read 2 Oct 2026). Most activity falls between mid August and mid October. So the honest answer is that weather cancels charters here, a few times every season.
What matters is not whether it happens. It is whether you know in advance what you get back, and when. Until this month our policy said only that the captain decides and that unsafe weather is the one exception. It never said when you would hear, or what you get. It now answers it properly, and this guide quotes the new wording rather than paraphrasing it.
The short version: if we cancel for weather, you choose a refund or a credit. If you cancel, your payment is nonrefundable, with one storm exception that we added on purpose. Everything below is quoted from the cancellation policy page. Read it, the terms and the charter agreement in full before you book.
Who decides, and when will you hear?
The captain decides. That is not a dodge. The captain is the person who can see the sea state, knows how the booked hull behaves in it, and carries the license. Nobody in an office overrules that.
The policy now puts a clock on it. Quoting the page: "The captain makes the weather call. For most charters that call is made the morning of the charter, when the day's forecast and sea state are known. For crossings to Bimini or the Bahamas, and for any charter under a National Hurricane Center watch or warning, we tell you by 6pm the day before whether the charter will run, move or be refunded."
Two different clocks, for a reason. A four-hour Biscayne Bay afternoon can be judged on the morning's forecast with no cost to you. A Bimini day means an early start and, for most groups, a hotel night. You need that one decided the evening before.
If a named storm is anywhere near your date, you will hear from us before you have to ask. Watching the cone and messaging guests is part of the job.
What exactly counts as a cancellation by us?
This is the line that used to be missing, and it is the reason the post exists. Quoting the policy: "A charter is treated as cancelled by us, with the weather options below, when any of these apply on the charter date: a National Hurricane Center hurricane or tropical storm watch or warning for Miami-Dade or the charter route, a US Coast Guard port condition that closes the departure marina, or a small craft advisory the captain judges unsafe for the booked vessel."
The first two are public facts, so there is nothing to argue about. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are possible in your area. The National Weather Service issues one 48 hours ahead of anticipated tropical storm force winds (read 2 Oct 2026). A warning means those conditions are expected, and goes out 36 hours ahead. Either one, over Miami-Dade or your route, and your charter is cancelled by us.
A port condition is the Coast Guard captain of the port restricting or closing the harbor as a storm approaches. If the marina you leave from is inside that closure, nobody is going anywhere.
The third is the captain's judgement, and it stays that way. A small craft advisory covers winds of 20 to 33 knots, or seas considered hazardous to small boats. That is the National Weather Service definition (read 2 Oct 2026). Whether that is unsafe depends on the hull. A 115ft motor yacht and the 38ft Axopar do not feel the same four foot chop. The call is made boat by boat, subject to conditions on the day.
Refund or credit: which one do you get?
Your choice, not ours. A straight reschedule to another available date at no extra charge stays open. The top of the policy page and the charter agreement both say so. Beyond that, quoting the policy: "If we cancel for weather, you choose: a full refund to the original payment method within 10 business days, or a credit for the full amount paid, valid for 12 months from the original charter date, usable on any boat subject to availability and any difference in rate."
Take the refund if the trip is off. It goes back the way it came in. Ten business days is the outer limit the policy sets.
Take the credit if you are coming back. Twelve months from your original date covers a rebooked trip next season. The credit is not tied to the boat you booked, so any boat in the fleet is open to you. If you move up to a bigger hull you pay the difference in rate. If you move down, the balance stays on the credit.
There is no partial refund and no cancellation fee in either direction.
What if you want to cancel before the storm arrives?
This is the awkward one, and the policy used to give an answer nobody liked. Confirmed charters are nonrefundable. Read strictly, a guest who cancelled three days before a named storm, before the captain had made any call, got nothing.
So we added a courtesy. Quoting the policy: "Guest cancellations remain nonrefundable. If you cancel because a National Hurricane Center watch or warning has been issued for the charter date, we will hold your payment as a credit valid for 12 months rather than treat it as forfeited."
It is deliberately tied to a published watch or warning rather than to a forecast you read somewhere. That keeps it checkable in both directions. If the storm turns and your date was never under a watch, the ordinary nonrefundable rule applies. The right move then is to ask us about moving the date.
Outside hurricane weather, the rule has not changed. Once a charter is confirmed it is nonrefundable. A no-show you never called us about is treated as completed. A late arrival may shorten the time on the water, when another booking follows yours, and it does not change the price.
What do the Florida charter contract terms actually say?
There is one contract you sign, it is one page, and you can read it before you give us anything. It is the charter agreement you sign at checkout, you can read the full charter agreement before you book. The signed copy and the public copy come from the same file, so they cannot drift apart.
Six clauses. Booking and confirmation: signing reserves the booking, subject to our team confirming availability. Payment: the total covers the charter rate, any add-ons you picked, gratuity if you added it, and a processing fee on card payments. The balance is due at boarding. Cancellation: the no refunds rule above, with the weather exception.
Then conduct and safety, which gives the captain full authority to alter or end the charter. Liability, which is an assumption of risk clause with an exception for proven crew negligence. And identity verification: the lead guest shows government issued ID matching the name on the agreement.
The terms of service sit behind the agreement and cover the rest: guest conduct, vessel capacity, and governing law. Florida law governs, and disputes are handled in Miami-Dade County courts. We are not giving you legal advice here. Read both pages, and ask us about anything in them before you pay.
Changing your date
Until this month the terms said changes were "subject to availability" and left it there. That is not much use when you are deciding whether to call us. There is now a number.
Quoting the terms: "A date change requested at least 72 hours before the charter is accommodated once at no charge, subject to availability. Changes inside 72 hours are at our discretion."
Once, free, with 72 hours notice. Inside 72 hours we will still try, because an empty slot helps nobody. The captain and the crew are already committed by then, so we cannot promise it. Weather cancellations are not counted against it. If you are choosing a date for the calmest water, the best time of year to charter in Miami goes month by month.
Is paying online for a yacht charter safe?
Payment security on a luxury charter comes down to one thing. The safest part of our flow is how little of it touches your card. No card details are collected on this website or in a chat thread, at any point. Checkout takes your charter details, your name and contact, and your signature on the agreement. It also offers two optional uploads. One is a photo of the lead guest's ID, which we ask for anyway once your date is confirmed. The other is a screenshot, if you have already sent a Zelle payment.
Once our team confirms the boat is free, we send an exact amount payment link by text and email. You pay on Stripe's own page, not ours. Stripe is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1, which it describes as "the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry" (read 2 Oct 2026). The same page states that card numbers are encrypted at rest with AES-256 and that requests on older versions of TLS are blocked.
The deposit is 50%, quoting the terms: "Your date is held when the 50% deposit is paid through the payment link we send after confirming availability. The balance is due at boarding. Where our team agrees a different deposit in writing, that written arrangement applies." Card payments add a 5% processing fee. Zelle carries none, and we do not add sales tax to your total.
Two habits that protect you more than any certificate. First, there are exactly two ways to pay us. One is the payment link we send from our own number or inbox. The other is the Zelle detail shown inside our own checkout, once you have signed. That Zelle account shows a different business name, and we tell you so on the screen itself. Anything else is not from us, so call us on (786) 460-1898. Second, nothing is charged before you open that link yourself. Quoting the cancellation page: "If we cannot confirm your booking, no payment is requested and the hold on your date is released."
Read the yacht charter cancellation policy, then send us your date
Every policy sentence above is quoted from pages you can open right now. They are the cancellation and refund policy, the terms of service and the charter agreement. The payment figures, the 50% deposit and the 5% card fee, are our live checkout rates. Read those three pages in full before you book: they are the wording, not this page.
If you are still working out the number, what a Miami charter costs lays out the rates with what each one includes. How to charter a yacht in Miami walks the whole booking through.
When you are ready, send us your date and group size or message us on WhatsApp. We will tell you what is free, what it costs, and exactly what you are signing before you pay a cent.
