Paid skipper
They get a fee and work all week. They do not pay into the kitty but eat with the crew, on board and usually ashore too. Agree before the trip whether their restaurant meals go through the kitty.
The boat kitty on a sailing trip: rules, amounts, template
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Diesel, harbour fees, the big shop on the first evening: what goes in the kitty, how much per person and week is usual, whether the skipper pays in and what happens to what is left at the end. Plus a template with a fully worked example week, to print or open in Excel.
Go to the templateWhat goes in the kitty
The kitty pays for what comes up along the way for everyone and changes with the route, the weather and the mood. What is in the charter contract and paid before the trip is split separately: you settle that up front, usually by transfer to whoever booked.
Goes in
- Provisions: the big shop on day one and every top-up along the way
- Drinks, bottled drinking water, ice
- Diesel, including filling up before you return the boat, and petrol for the outboard
- Harbour fees, berths, mooring buoys and anchoring fees
- Water and electricity where the harbour charges extra, and shower tokens
- National park and nature park fees charged per boat
- Whatever falls due at the charter base, such as final cleaning if you did not pay it with the charter
- Taxi to the supermarket, gas if a bottle has to be bought along the way
Kept separate
- Charter price: split up front, per head or per cabin
- Security deposit: lodged by whoever signs the contract; it is not kitty money
- A paid skipper’s fee: it goes to the skipper, not through the kitty
- Deposit insurance: a fixed amount before the trip, so split it like the charter price
- Flights, trains, transfer to the marina
- What someone buys for themselves: souvenirs, sun cream, the ice cream ashore
And eating out?
Customs differ here. On many crewed berth-charter trips everyone pays for their own meals ashore and the kitty only covers what is eaten on board. Among friends the shared dinner often goes through the kitty, because nobody at the table wants eight bills. Both work, just not differently every night. If restaurants go through the kitty, the wine becomes the real question; more on that under shares.
How much boat kitty per person and week?
The answer depends on two questions: do restaurants go through the kitty, and do you spend every night of high season in a marina? Examples from published listings for berth-charter trips and club trips:
| Trip | per person and week | What the kitty pays for |
|---|---|---|
| Croatia, central Dalmatia: club trip in September, 2024 and 2025 | approx. €120 to €140 | Diesel, harbour fees, provisions |
| Croatia: berth-charter trip with skipper | approx. €150 on average | Harbour, diesel, food and drinks, the skipper’s meals. Everyone pays for their own restaurant meals; final cleaning, bed linen, tourist tax and deposit insurance cost an extra €99. |
| Berth-charter trips with skipper in Croatia, Greece and from Flensburg to Denmark | approx. €200 to €300 | Food, harbour, diesel, excursions, restaurant meals, the skipper’s meals |
| Greece, Saronic Gulf: berth-charter week from Athens | €50 at most | Only harbour, diesel and final cleaning; food comes on top |
The biggest item after food is nights in harbour. In Croatia a berth for a 13-metre yacht costs between €52 (Nerezine) and €218 (ACI Rovinj) a night in 2026. Buoys and town quays in small villages often come to around €100 for a 12-metre charter boat. Split eight ways that is €6.50 to €27 per head and night; two nights at anchor instead of in a marina save €13 to €55 per person over a week.
For planning, that means €120 to €150 per person and week if you cook on board and pay for restaurants yourselves. €200 to €300 if meals ashore go through the kitty or you spend most nights of July and August in a marina. The example week below comes to about €270 for everyone who was on board all week, including one restaurant evening and the final cleaning.
Template: the boat kitty as a spreadsheet
An example week with eight people from Split in July: big shop, Šolta, Hvar, Vis, Brač, diesel. Jonas joins on Monday by ferry to Hvar. Anna is the skipper and pays in like everyone else, because it is a trip among friends. Print the page for the chart table or download the spreadsheet; it opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets.
| Date | What | Paid by | Amount (EUR) | Split between |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 4 Jul | Big supermarket shop: provisions, water, drinks | Ben | €642.80 | by days: 7 each, Jonas 5 |
| Sat 4 Jul | Final cleaning, paid at the base | Anna | €200.00 | all 8 |
| Sun 5 Jul | Mooring buoy in a bay on Šolta | Clara | €90.00 | 7, without Jonas |
| Mon 6 Jul | Berth in Hvar | David | €196.00 | all 8 |
| Mon 6 Jul | Bread, fruit, ice | Eva | €54.60 | all 8 |
| Tue 7 Jul | Mooring buoy off Komiža (Vis) | Felix | €85.00 | all 8 |
| Tue 7 Jul | Dinner at the konoba, together | Greta | €412.00 | all 8 |
| Wed 8 Jul | Supermarket top-up on Vis | Jonas | €96.40 | all 8 |
| Thu 9 Jul | Berth in Milna (Brač) | Anna | €142.00 | all 8 |
| Fri 10 Jul | Diesel, filling up before return | Ben | €168.40 | all 8 |
| Fri 10 Jul | Drinks for the last evening | Clara | €63.20 | all 8 |
| Total | €2,150.40 | |||
Who transfers what to whom
Paid minus share gives the balance: plus means you get money back, minus means you pay. Instead of everyone sending everyone their share of every receipt, these seven transfers settle it:
- Eva to Ben€218.78
- Felix to Ben€188.37
- Jonas to Greta€138.64
- Clara to Ben€120.20
- David to Anna€68.60
- David to Ben€8.78
- Jonas to Ben€1.67
| Person | Paid | Share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anna | €342.00 | €273.40 | +€68.60 |
| Ben | €811.20 | €273.40 | +€537.80 |
| Clara | €153.20 | €273.40 | −€120.20 |
| David | €196.00 | €273.38 | −€77.38 |
| Eva | €54.60 | €273.38 | −€218.78 |
| Felix | €85.00 | €273.37 | −€188.37 |
| Greta | €412.00 | €273.36 | +€138.64 |
| Jonas | €96.40 | €236.71 | −€140.31 |
If Anna were a paid skipper, she would not appear under “Split between” in any row, and her share would be spread over the other seven: about €40 more for everyone aboard all week, about €34 for Jonas.
In the file every person has a column with their share of each row. Put your names in the header row, delete the example rows and add an AutoSum under each person’s column: that is their share. Filter on “Paid by” to see what someone laid out.
Does the skipper pay into the kitty?
By old seafaring custom, no: the crew feeds the skipper and shares the kitty among themselves. Crew agreements of berth-charter operators say so almost word for word. Whether the custom fits depends on who the skipper is.
Skipper of a berth-charter trip
Whoever sells the berths and runs the trip does not share in the kitty either. Listings usually put it under “not included”: the skipper’s meals, paid from the kitty.
Trip among friends
One of you has the licence and the responsibility, the others are on holiday. There is no fixed rule here. Some crews split everything equally, skipper included. Others cover the skipper’s share of the kitty as thanks for the planning, the handover and the night on anchor watch in 30 knots. Both are fair if they are said before casting off.
Working your passage
The idea comes from deliveries and owner trips: you work on board and pay nothing for your berth; food, diesel and harbour fees are often the owner’s. If you sail like that on a chartered boat, it is open whether the free berth includes the kitty. Ask first.
Couples, children, late arrivals: who pays how much
Splitting per head works as long as everyone is on board all week and eats and drinks about the same. For everything else there are shares.
Joining late or leaving early
Jonas joins on Monday. For the big shop he carries 5 of 7 days, for Sunday’s buoy nothing, and everything from Monday in full. Counting nights instead of days works just as well; what matters is that it applies to everyone.
Couples
A couple is two people and two shares. Sharing a cabin changes nothing about the diesel. Anyone who has a double cabin to themselves pays for that through the charter price, not the kitty.
Children
For provisions, half a share per child is an easy choice. Harbour fees and diesel are charged per boat; they go to the adults or to each family as a whole. A simple rule everyone understands beats a precise one.
Wine, beer, water
If two people drink nothing and six share two bottles of wine every evening, it gets lopsided. Make alcohol its own receipt, split only between those who drink. For the big shop that means two receipts at the till, one for food, one for alcohol.
Kitty up front or settle up at the end?
Both get you to the same result. They differ in who handles the money and when the sums are done.
Kitty up front
On the first evening everyone puts the same amount in, say €150. One person looks after it, ideally not the skipper, who has other things to do when mooring. Pay in cash or with the treasurer’s card, and every receipt goes in the envelope. When the kitty is half empty, everyone tops up by the same amount. At the end there are only refunds. Exceptions such as Jonas’ missing days still have to be worked out one by one.
Settle up at the end
Everyone pays as things come up and enters it straight away: date, amount, who was in on it. On the last evening it is clear who transfers how much to whom. No cash, no treasurer, an exception costs one row. The catch: whoever likes to pay fronts money for a week. In the example week that is €811.20 for Ben.
Both together
You can also mix them: a small cash kitty for buoys, bread and ice, and everything paid by card gets entered. The easiest way is for one person to run the cash kitty like an account: the others’ contributions go in as payments to them, and whatever they pay from it as their own expense for everyone.
Leftover money, deposit and damage
What is left at the end
With a kitty up front there is money left in the tin at the end. It does not belong to everyone equally; each person gets back what they paid in beyond their share of the spending. If everyone paid in the same and ate along for the same time, that comes to the same thing. A few euros a head often go on ice cream on the last day, if everyone agrees.
The security deposit
The deposit is lodged by whoever signs the charter contract, usually as a hold on their credit card. It is not kitty money and is not split as long as nothing happens. On a 12-metre yacht it is a four-figure sum on a single card; one more reason to agree beforehand who pays what if something gets damaged.
When something breaks
If the charter company keeps money for damage, it hits whoever signed first. How the crew splits it among themselves, you agree beforehand; a message in the group chat is enough. A simple rule: everyone shares damage equally, skipper included, up to a limit per person; whoever causes damage deliberately or through gross negligence pays for it themselves. One berth-charter operator’s crew agreement sets the limit at €100 per person on monohulls and €200 on catamarans. How a dispute without an agreement would end depends on the case; this is not legal advice.
Deposit insurance
If there is damage, it replaces what the charter company keeps from the deposit, fully or minus an excess, depending on the terms. The premium is fixed before the trip and belongs with the charter price, not the kitty: split between everyone, skipper included if they are covered too.
Questions about the boat kitty
What should be settled before the trip?
Five questions, one message in the group chat: do restaurants go through the kitty? Does the skipper pay in? How are alcohol, children and half weeks split? Kitty up front or settle up at the end? Who carries damage, and up to what amount?
Who should run the kitty?
Not the skipper: when mooring they are at the helm, and at the fuel dock they are holding the nozzle. A good choice is someone who photographs every receipt right away without being reminded.
What if you are not paying in euros?
Croatia has used the euro since 2023, and Greece, Italy and Spain use it anyway. In Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Turkey or the UK, the easiest way is to enter the euro amount your card was charged. That way your bank statement and the kitty match.
When should everything be settled?
On the last evening on board, while all the receipts are there and everyone is at the table. Transfers should be done within the following week; whoever has paid says so, so that nobody pays twice.
A reminder 14 days before your trip
Two weeks before departure is the right time for provisions, packing and the check-in list. Enter when you cast off. 14 days before, an email arrives with the lists. One email, then the address is deleted.
The template as an app
In Crewsy everyone books their receipt with a photo. Crewsy splits equally, by shares, by percentage, to the cent or with a surcharge for individuals, and shows who transfers what to whom: simplified as above or pairwise. The skipper imports a Splitwise export as a CSV file. Amounts in euros, 14 days free, no payment details.