Most owners who finance a yacht could pay cash. They borrow to keep capital working elsewhere. But lenders underwrite the owner long before they look at the vessel, so the request has to be built properly before it ever reaches a bank. That is the work we do.
This is the single most misunderstood thing about marine finance, and almost nobody says it plainly. A €20M facility against a €30M yacht is, from the bank’s side of the table, close to an unsecured loan to you, with a depreciating asset attached as nominal security. No lender believes a forced sale returns the principal.
So they underwrite you. Your liquidity, your balance sheet, the structure you own her through, and in most cases a wider banking relationship. Income matters less than liquid assets. A founder with €200M locked in private company equity is a weaker borrower than someone with €40M in listed positions.
Which means the work that wins good terms happens before a lender is ever approached. It is in how the request is put together.
Marine lending is not one market. It is four, each with different underwriters, different appetite and different speed. Where your yacht sits decides who will look at her, how much they will advance, and how long it takes. These are planning ranges, not quotes.
| Length | Typical value | Loan to value | Term | To closing | Who lends |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 – 30m | €3M – €10M | 60 – 75% | 7 – 12 yrs | 30 – 60 days | Specialist marine lenders and marine desks inside retail banks. |
| 30 – 45m | €10M – €30M | 55 – 70% | 7 – 12 yrs | 45 – 75 days | Dedicated marine units inside private banks. |
| 45 – 60m | €30M – €75M | 50 – 65% | 7 – 15 yrs | 60 – 120 days | Private banking relationships, usually alongside assets under management. |
| 60m + | €75M + | 45 – 60% | 10 – 20 yrs | 90 – 180 days | Bespoke structured facilities inside a private bank or family office. |
Pricing runs roughly 3-month Euribor plus 350 to 450 basis points in euro, or SOFR plus 250 to 425 in dollars, depending on size, vessel age and borrower. A fixed rate typically costs 60 to 120 basis points over the floating equivalent. Benchmarks shown as at 31 August 2026.
A term loan secured by a first preferred mortgage over the yacht. The most common structure, and the one most owners mean when they say “financing”.
For a yacht under construction. The lender releases funds against the yard’s milestones, each one verified by an independent surveyor before money moves.
Against a yacht you already own, either to replace an existing facility on better terms or to release capital without selling her.
A lessor owns the yacht and leases her to you with a purchase option at the end. Used mainly for VAT and ownership planning, most established under the Maltese framework.
Move the sliders to see the shape of a facility. This is arithmetic on the ranges above, not an offer, and it deliberately shows you the balloon as well as the monthly payment, because that is the number people forget.
Illustration only, on the ranges published above. Assumes a constant rate and monthly payments, with the balloon repaid or refinanced at maturity. Excludes arrangement fees, valuation, survey, legal and registration costs, and the running cost of the yacht, which typically falls near 10% of her value each year. Switching currency changes the benchmark assumption, not an exchange rate. Your actual terms depend on the lender, your position and the vessel.
Everyone negotiates the rate. Almost nobody negotiates the covenants, and the covenants are where the money goes. These five cause most of the trouble in the first three years of ownership.
Most facilities revalue the yacht every 12 or 24 months. If her value has fallen and the ratio breaches its threshold, you have 60 to 90 days to pay down principal or post more collateral. This is the single most common renegotiation event in the first three years, and it is rarely explained before signing.
Typically 1 to 3% of outstanding principal if you repay in years one to three. If there is any chance you sell early, this is a real cost and it is negotiable at term-sheet stage. Afterwards it is not.
A yacht loan written inside a wider private banking relationship can cross-default into your other facilities. A dispute over the yacht can accelerate a margin loan. The scope of that clause needs reading, and carve-outs are worth asking for.
Lenders keep an approved list, usually Cayman, BVI, Marshall Islands, Malta and certain UK territories. Registering outside it breaches the covenant. If your tax or charter plan points elsewhere, settle it before the term sheet, not after.
The facility will name minimum cover, acceptable insurers and loss-payee wording, commonly hull and machinery at 110% of the loan balance. Placing cover outside the lender’s approved list means buying it twice.
What the yacht costs to run, not just to buy. If borrowing is the wrong answer for your position, we say so here, before anyone has spent anything.
Lenders decide on your balance sheet long before they look at the yacht. We build the file properly: statement of position, liquidity, structure, intended use, flag and management.
Where lender appetite exists, the same package goes out on a comparable basis, in the right currency and jurisdiction, so terms are judged against the same facts rather than against different stories.
We flag the commercial covenants that deserve close review with your own legal and tax advisers. Rate is the number everyone looks at; the covenants are what actually cost money.
Valuation, survey, insurance placement, flag and registration, mortgage recording and drawdown, coordinated so the loan and the purchase close on the same day.
Credit decisions stay with the lender. Legal, tax and regulated financial advice stays with your advisers. We do the work in between, which is the part nobody else is doing for you.
Most finance introductions in this industry are paid for by the bank, which quietly means the introducer is working for the bank. We charge you a transparent fee, agreed in writing before we start, and we take nothing from the lender.
That is the only arrangement under which we can honestly tell you that a term sheet is poor, that a cheaper headline rate carries a worse covenant package, or that you should not borrow at all. If we cannot say all three, we should not be involved.
On fees: we quote a fixed amount for the work, not a percentage of what you borrow, because a percentage would pay us more for putting you further into debt. You will know the figure before you decide whether to proceed, and it is the same figure whether the facility closes at €10M or €60M.
Tell us the yacht and roughly where you stand. Vassilis will give you a confidential first view on what may be achievable, what it is likely to cost, and whether borrowing is worth pursuing at all.
— Vassilis · Flackton Yachting · Nicosia, Cyprus
Flackton Yachting is not a lender, and is not a financial adviser. We introduce owners and buyers to marine lenders and to the professional advisers a transaction needs. We do not provide credit, we do not give financial, tax or legal advice, and nothing on this page is an offer of finance or a recommendation to borrow.
Every figure shown is a market range drawn from published industry sources and benchmark rates as at 31 August 2026. We will share the sources behind any figure on request. Ranges move. Your terms depend entirely on the lender, your financial position, the vessel, its flag and its intended use, and will be set out in that lender’s own documentation.
Borrowing against an asset that depreciates carries real risk. A yacht can lose value faster than the loan amortises, and lenders can require additional capital if that happens. Take independent financial, tax and legal advice in your own jurisdiction before committing.
A hand-picked selection for purchase and charter, chosen by Flackton Yachting.
