Antigua Charter Yacht Show 2026

Every December, a small protected harbour on the south coast of Antigua becomes, for one week, the centre of the global luxury charter industry. The Antigua Charter Yacht Show — running annually since 1961 and hosted by the Antigua and Barbuda Marine Association — is the moment the world's leading charter brokers gather in Falmouth Harbour and Nelson's Dockyard to view the season's fleet. Sixty to one hundred charter yachts, ranging from 25 to 80+ metres, open their hatches; the year's new launches make their Caribbean debuts; and the chef competitions that close the week have become a Caribbean institution of their own.

The 2026 edition takes place across the first or second week of December 2026. Exact dates are confirmed by ABMA each summer; the show traditionally runs from a Monday through a Friday, with the Concours de Chef and crew awards on the final two days. Visitor access is strictly trade-only — brokers, charter managers, and accredited industry guests. Charter clients themselves do not attend in person.

That is the part of the event that often surprises clients researching it for the first time, so the page below explains what you actually need to know: why this show matters for your Caribbean charter even though you don't attend, when to book a season slot relative to the show calendar, where to stay and dine on the island either side, and how Antigua itself works as a charter base — whether for a single-week trip to Saint Barths and Barbuda, or as the start of a longer Caribbean season for the months that follow.

The Antigua Charter Yacht Show is a trade event in the strict sense: closed to the public, accredited brokers and crews only, no consumer entry tickets. That structure exists because the show is fundamentally a working week — the world's leading charter brokers and managers walking through fifty or sixty yachts in five days, comparing crews, kitchens, layouts, and itineraries, and forming the working knowledge they'll spend the next four months recommending from. The brokerage market for the entire Caribbean charter season — December through April — is calibrated on this one week.

For a client booking a Caribbean charter, this matters in three practical ways. First, the fleet you'll have access to is the fleet seen at the show. Yachts that present in Falmouth are, by definition, available for Caribbean charter this season; yachts that don't are usually committed elsewhere or in refit. Your broker's first-hand notes from the week are the difference between matching you to the right yacht and matching you to the closest yacht.

Second, the show is when crews and chefs are evaluated alongside the boats. A 50-metre yacht with an exceptional chef is a fundamentally different charter from the same yacht with a mediocre one. The Concours de Chef and the parallel crew awards exist precisely to surface that distinction — and the results travel through the brokerage network within hours of being announced. If you've ever been told "this yacht is wonderful but you'll really love the boat next door", that judgement was almost certainly formed at Antigua.

Third, the show is the place where Caribbean charter pricing for the coming season effectively settles. Yachts that present strongly hold their rates; yachts that don't may negotiate. Brokers who have walked Falmouth have a feel for which is which. Clients who book through brokers who attend the show benefit from that intelligence — directly, even though they never set foot on Antigua during the show itself.

Antigua charter timing follows the Caribbean charter season rhythm more than the show calendar itself. The season opens in late November as the fleet finishes its Atlantic crossing; the Antigua Charter Yacht Show in the first week of December functions as the formal opening; and the season closes in late April as boats begin repositioning back to the Mediterranean for the European summer.

A reasonable timeline for 2026/27:

• Christmas and New Year week (mid Dec – early Jan): The most heavily booked week of the Caribbean year. Christmas and New Year charters are usually committed by the previous March — and the largest yachts sometimes a year earlier still. Premium rates, minimum-charter periods of 10 nights, and very limited last-minute availability.
• Early January – mid February: The shoulder weeks of the season. Strong availability, more reasonable rates, and the Caribbean at its most settled. A natural choice for clients with date flexibility.
• Presidents' Week / Half-term (mid-to-late February): The second peak of the season. North American clients drive demand; mid-size charter yachts in the 30–45m range fill first.
• March – mid April: The reliable mid-season window. Excellent weather, good availability, and the Caribbean at its sailing best.
• Easter week: Premium dates depending on calendar. Book by the previous October.
• Late April: The closing weeks of the season. Many yachts repositioning; itineraries shorter and more passage-focused. Reduced rates, narrower yacht selection.

Antigua's charter market is concentrated around two protected south-coast harbours that have been sheltering boats since the British naval era. The island's other charter centre, Jolly Harbour on the west coast, handles a meaningful share of family and beach-focused charters but plays less of a role for the Caribbean Charter Yacht Show specifically.

Falmouth Harbour

The larger of the two south-coast harbours and the home of the Antigua Charter Yacht Show itself. Falmouth's Antigua Yacht Club Marina, Falmouth Harbour Marina, and the deeper Catamaran Marina together hold the bulk of the island's superyacht inventory through the season. The harbour is also where the on-shore show programme happens — the Concours de Chef, the crew awards, the after-parties at the Mad Mongoose and Skullduggery. For most clients chartering an Antigua-based yacht, Falmouth is the embarkation point.

English Harbour & Nelson's Dockyard

The historic harbour immediately east of Falmouth, separated by a short walk over the hill at Shirley Heights. Nelson's Dockyard is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the only continuously working Georgian dockyard in the world — and forms a striking backdrop to the smaller, more curated yachts that present here during the show. English Harbour itself is too narrow to accommodate the largest superyachts (anything over about 60m typically anchors outside), but for clients chartering in the 30–50m range it is a natural and atmospheric base.

Jolly Harbour (west coast)

The third option, on the leeward west coast of the island. Jolly Harbour Marina handles smaller motor yachts and catamarans, with a more residential and family-focused feel. Charters from Jolly Harbour are usually beach-and-cruise oriented; the marina sits within walking distance of several beach restaurants and twenty minutes from Antigua's main airport.

From Antigua: where charters typically cruise

An Antigua-based charter is ideally positioned for short-passage Caribbean cruising. Barbuda sits 35 nautical miles north (a three-hour passage); Saint Barths is 95 miles north-west (a longer overnight or a quick early-morning run); Saint Kitts and Nevis are 50 miles west; and Guadeloupe is 45 miles south. A standard week-long Antigua charter typically combines two or three of these destinations with several nights anchored in Antiguan bays themselves — Green Island, Five Islands Harbour, and the long sweep of Half Moon Bay being the perennial favourites.

Antigua famously claims 365 beaches — one for every day of the year. The number is a rough approximation but the underlying fact is reasonable: the island is small, coral-protected on most coasts, and consistently fringed by clean white sand. Around the show week in December, the surrounding programme is essentially the Antigua charter-season social calendar itself.

• Nelson's Dockyard. The UNESCO-listed Georgian dockyard in English Harbour is open daily, with a small museum, several restored buildings, and the working dockyard itself still receiving boats as it has since the 1740s. The on-site Pillars Restaurant is the natural early-evening drinks venue during show week.
• Shirley Heights Sunday BBQ. The Sunday-evening steel-pan-and-rum-punch institution on the hilltop above English Harbour. The view across the south coast at sunset is the most photographed in the Caribbean. Plan to arrive by 16:00; the BBQ runs through to around 22:00.
• Pillars of Hercules. The natural rock formation just outside the entrance to English Harbour, best visited by tender or stand-up paddleboard from the yacht. A short morning excursion before lunch.
• Galleon Beach. The horseshoe beach immediately east of Nelson's Dockyard, with restaurant service at Catherine's Cafe Plage and an easy swim across to the harbour itself.
• Barbuda day-trip or overnight. Antigua's smaller, lower-density sister island, with the seventeen-mile sweep of Coco Point and Princess Diana Beach. The most photographed sand in the Lesser Antilles.
• Stingray City and Bird Island. Two short-cruise destinations on the north coast — a stingray sanctuary and a small uninhabited bird sanctuary. Both work as half-day excursions.
• Saint Barths weekend. The single most common Antigua-charter extension. A 95-mile run north-west to one of the Caribbean's most polished destinations — Gustavia harbour for shopping and dinner, Anse de Colombier for swimming, and Maya's or Le Toiny for the obligatory long lunch.

Antigua's restaurant scene is small but consistently good — a mix of west-coast clifftop dining, English Harbour bistros built into the Georgian stonework, and beach restaurants that operate at the pace of the island itself. During show week the demand pattern is sharp: brokers and crews fill the harbour-front venues, and reservations for any of the headline restaurants need to be made before the show opens.

The bars of Falmouth and English Harbour are the connective tissue of show week. Brokers and crews migrate between them through the evening, the after-parties move location by location, and the rum punch keeps pace with the conversations.

Antigua is a small island and its nightlife scene is concentrated rather than sprawling — almost everything worth going to sits within the south-coast triangle of Falmouth Harbour, English Harbour, and Shirley Heights. During Antigua Charter Yacht Show week, that triangle hosts the entire global charter industry across five nights; the rest of the year, it operates at a much more leisurely pace.

• Mad Mongoose. The default late-night destination of Falmouth. Live music on the back deck, the bar inside running through to closing, and an open-air programme that during show week brings in DJs and special programming most nights.
• Abracadabra after midnight. The Italian restaurant transforms into the closest thing English Harbour has to a club. The dance floor is small but the crowd is committed.
• Shirley Heights Sunday BBQ. Not nightlife in the late-evening sense, but the Sunday-evening institution above English Harbour deserves its own category. Steel pan from 16:00, dance music from 19:00, rum punch throughout, and a view across the south coast that is genuinely one of the great Caribbean experiences. Plan to arrive by tender from your yacht — taxi traffic up the hill is restricted at peak time.
• Trappas. The English Harbour late-night cocktail bar. Quieter than the Mongoose, more cocktail-focused than Abracadabra, and the most reliable place to find a seat after midnight.
• The Boom! late hours. The Nelson's Dockyard restaurant extends its bar service later than its kitchen during show week — a slow wind-down by the water as the dockyard quietens around midnight.

Because the Antigua Charter Yacht Show is a trade event with no consumer attendance, there is no charter-rate premium attached to the show week itself. Charter pricing in Antigua follows the standard Caribbean season rhythm — Christmas and New Year are the headline premium weeks, Presidents' Week is the secondary peak, and the rest of the season runs at standard Caribbean high-season rates.

Caribbean charters include the yacht, full professional crew, comprehensive insurance, and use of all on-board equipment and tenders. Most Antigua-based charters also include a marina berth at Falmouth or English Harbour for the embarkation and disembarkation nights; longer charters operate on anchorage for most of the week.

Additional costs are APA (typically 30–35% of the charter rate, covering fuel, food, beverages, and dockage), Antigua and Barbuda tax (where applicable to the itinerary, currently 5%), and a recommended crew gratuity of 10–15% paid at the end of the charter. Cross-island clearance for trips into Saint Barths, Saint Kitts, or Barbuda is administered by the crew but typically itemised in APA.

Antigua has a strong sailing-catamaran charter market alongside the motor-yacht fleet, particularly suited to families and groups prioritising stability and beach access. Catamaran charters run from approximately US$25,000 per week for a quality 15-metre boat and scale up to US$70,000+ for a fully-crewed 25-metre option. The catamaran inventory shifts in and out of Antigua across the season; ask your broker about availability windows specific to your dates.