Catamaran charter in Phuket

Catamaran charter in Phuket starts from ฿11,200 a day for a 6-guest Catathai 34 Open, and 29 of the 57 daily prices are ฿26,600 or less. Hourly boats cost ฿6,850–13,200, a private day trip from ฿19,000, and power catamarans from ฿95,900. Many boats come with a mandatory skipper.

What a catamaran costs: day, hour or trip

Catamaran prices on the island come in four units: per day, per hour, per trip and, on a few bareboat yachts, per night. Fix the unit first and compare the amount second.

Daily rates across 57 boats

From ฿11,200 to ฿226,400 a day

The lowest daily price among the island's catamarans is ฿11,200 for a Catathai 34 Open, a 10.2-metre sailing boat for 6 guests with 3 cabins, and the highest is ฿226,400 for the Sunreef 60 Eco, an 18.4-metre catamaran for 8. Between those two poles sits the bulk of the market: 29 of the 57 daily prices are ฿26,600 or less, and 30 boats fall between ฿15,000 and ฿29,999. The Fountaine Pajot Mahe 36 (฿13,700) and the Island Spirit 410 (฿14,300, 10 guests) complete the trio under ฿15,000. So what is a fair benchmark for catamaran rental in Phuket? In my reading, the ฿26,600 midpoint says more than either extreme, because one luxury boat pulls the average up by itself. Set every offer you receive against that midpoint first, then ask what puts a boat above it — size, cabins, an engine or equipment.

Hourly boats and private day trips

Two catamarans are priced by the hour: the Lagoon 440 sailing catamaran at ฿6,850 an hour for up to 30 guests, leaving from Chalong, and the Stealth 47ft Powercat at ฿13,200 an hour for 15. The powercat costs nearly twice as much per hour and carries half as many people — the price of an engine-driven hull. A third format is the private day trip priced per trip: from ฿19,000, or from ฿25,000 for the version with a slider, a ฿6,000 difference for the same outing. None of these figures converts into a daily rate without knowing the hours involved. Before you set an hourly boat against a daily one, multiply the hourly price by the hours you actually want on the water, and ask how many hours a "trip" covers — two numbers that decide which offer is cheaper.

Group size, cabins and the price per guest

The number of people in your group narrows the choice faster than any price filter. Here is how the boats split by capacity, what each guest pays and how cabins change the count.

Which boats fit 6, 10, 15 or 30 guests

Why a longer hull may carry fewer people

Length and guest numbers do not move together on the island's catamarans. The Lagoon 620 is the longest boat with a stated length, at 19 metres, yet it takes 12 guests, while the 17-metre Fountaine Pajot Marquises 56 takes 30 and costs ฿39,100 against ฿65,300. The Lagoon 540 runs to 16.5 metres and carries 10, two fewer than the 12-metre Lagoon 400 S2. Why the gap? The Marquises 56 and the Fountaine Pajot Bahia 46 (14 metres, 30 guests) are day-trip boats, while the Lagoon 620 has 8 cabins for sleeping aboard. Six of the 59 boats show no guest number at all — the Voyage 500 and the Leopard 39 among them. Book by the guest figure, and treat the length in a model name as a description of the hull, not of your group.

Splitting the day rate between guests

Divided by its guest number, a full day on the Fountaine Pajot Marquises 56 comes to about ฿1,300 per person, the lowest share among the boats with a stated capacity. The Island Spirit 410 (about ฿1,430 each for 10), the Lagoon 40 (about ฿1,480 for 12) and the Fountaine Pajot Bahia 46 (about ฿1,570 for 30) follow closely. The cheapest boat overall is not the cheapest per head: the Catathai 34 Open works out at about ฿1,870 per guest because it takes only 6. At the top, a private catamaran in Phuket such as the Sunreef 60 Eco comes to about ฿28,300 per guest for 8 people. These shares assume a full boat, so a half-empty deck doubles them. If your group sits between two sizes, price the larger boat too — the extra places can cost less than they seem once split.

Cabins for nights on board

Four cabins is the common layout: 25 of the 48 catamarans with a cabin count have exactly four. Three boats go up to eight — the Lagoon 52 F, the Fountaine Pajot Saba 50 and the Lagoon 620 — and the Fountaine Pajot 40 Power Catamaran has two. Cabins matter only when the group sleeps aboard; for an outing, the guest number is the figure to read. The two counts can differ widely: the Fountaine Pajot Bahia 46 takes 30 guests with 3 cabins, and the Mumby 48 takes 25 with 4. For a multi-day charter, split your group into cabin pairs before choosing, because 10 guests in 4 cabins means sharing — or a bigger boat.

Sail, motor or electric

The hull drives the price more than any other single factor. Sailing catamarans make up most of the choice, power catamarans sit at the top of the range, and one boat runs on electric drive.

Sailing catamarans and the common makes

Sailing catamarans account for 52 of the 59 boats, and their daily prices start at ฿11,200 and climb to ฿226,400, with half of them at ฿26,100 or less. Four makes dominate: Lagoon with 13 models, Fountaine Pajot with 12, Leopard with 8 and Catana, mostly its Bali line, with 7. Island Spirit adds 3, Nautitech and Mumby 2 each, and twelve other makes appear once, from the Catathai 34 Open to the Mazarin 55 and the Jeantot Marine Privilege 51. The same make spans a wide price range — Lagoon alone runs from ฿17,800 for its 40 to ฿98,900 for its 560 — so the badge tells you little. Compare two boats of similar length and cabin count rather than two of the same make; that is where the price difference becomes meaningful.

Power catamarans by the day

Electric drive and equipment on board

The Island Spirit 525 Electric is the one electric catamaran on offer, at ฿42,000 for 10 guests with 5 cabins — about 44% of the cheapest power catamaran's daily rate. Equipment differs from boat to boat rather than by type. The Fountaine Pajot Saba 50 (฿32,300, 14 guests, 8 cabins) is offered with a watermaker and air conditioning, and one Catana Bali 4.1 with a watermaker. And the gap between sail and engine is wide: the cheapest power catamaran costs about 3.7 times the typical sailing day. Is the engine worth it? For a group that wants speed over a short day, perhaps — but ask for the equipment list of the exact boat, since two hulls of one model can be fitted out quite differently.

Skipper on board or bareboat

Who takes the helm is settled before price. Many boats come with a skipper as a condition, and sailing yourself requires a logged record.

When the skipper comes with the boat

On many catamarans around the island the skipper is not an option but a condition: offers carry the line "Skipper mandatory", which means the boat leaves only with its own skipper at the helm. It changes how you read a price, too. A daily figure on such a boat is the price of a crewed outing, not of the hull alone. Whether the skipper's pay sits inside that figure or comes on top is not stated in the prices shown here, so it is the first thing to settle. Ask the same question of every boat on your shortlist — "is the skipper included?" — and compare only the answers that say yes, or add the skipper's fee to the others.

The experience a bareboat charter asks for

A bareboat charter in Phuket — sailing the catamaran yourself, without a crew — requires Level 2 experience: 10 days or 200 miles as skipper on a yacht of equivalent size. Time spent as crew does not count, and neither does skippering a much smaller boat, because the record has to be as skipper and on a comparable hull. The bareboat base at Ao Po Grand Marina applies this rule before it hands over a yacht. Bareboat is one of the five formats offered on the island, next to skippered, hourly, daily and weekly or monthly hire. Gather your logbook entries in days and in miles before you enquire: the requirement is stated in those two units, so a record kept in either one answers the question at once.

Boats offered without a skipper

Departure marinas around the island

Catamarans are spread over six departure points around the island. The marina decides your transfer time and sometimes which boats you can choose.

Where the boats are based

Yacht Haven Marina and Ao Po Grand Marina

Yacht Haven Marina is the largest base for catamarans on the island, with 17 boats, from the ฿11,200 Catathai 34 Open to the Lagoon 51 and the Island Spirit 525 Electric. Most of the Catana Bali line — the 4.1, 4.2, 4.4 and 4.8 — leaves from there as well. Ao Po Grand Marina, also known by the name of Pa Klok, follows with 8 boats, including the Lagoon 560, the Leopard 45 and the Leopard 50, and it is home to the bareboat base where the Level 2 rule applies. Check the drive from your hotel to the marina before you choose between them: on a boat priced per day, a late arrival at the pier is time already paid for.

Chalong Pier and the smaller points

Chalong Pier serves 9 boats, among them the hourly Lagoon 440 for 30 guests, the Silkline 510, the Mumby 47 and the Fountaine Pajot Taiti 75. Six boats are based in Thalang District, including the Lagoon 52 F and the 19-metre Lagoon 620. Two points serve a single boat each: Royal Phuket Marina for the Sunreef 60 Eco and Panwa Pier for the Lagoon 42. A few boats appear at two points — the Fountaine Pajot Saba 50 at both Thalang and Ao Po, the Catana Bali 4.1 at both Thalang and Yacht Haven — because more than one boat of that model is offered. So a model name is not an address. Ask for the exact pier together with the price, and treat an offer that names only the island as incomplete.

Season and how long to book

The calendar and the length of the charter are the last two choices before a request. One has a clear window, the other five formats.

November to April as the sailing window

November to April is the optimal season for sailing around the island, and it is the window to aim a catamaran charter in Phuket at first. The daily prices in this guide carry no season label, so a figure seen today describes the boat, not your dates. The bareboat base at Ao Po Grand Marina names the same November–April period for its own sailing. If your trip falls close to either end of that window, ask for quotes on both sides of the boundary rather than one. Ask, too, how long a quote holds, because a price given for a date outside the season may not apply once your plans shift into it.

Matching the format to the plan

Five checks before you send a request

Five questions turn a list of boats into a fair comparison of like with like. Each one comes straight from the figures above.

Checklist for any catamaran quote

• Unit: confirm whether the price is per hour, per day, per night or per trip, and how many hours a trip or day covers.
• Guests: filter by the stated guest number — 6 on the smallest boats, 30 on the Marquises 56, Bahia 46 and Lagoon 440.
• Skipper: ask whether the skipper is included; sailing without one needs 10 days or 200 miles as skipper.
• Hull: a power catamaran starts at ฿95,900 a day, about 3.7 times the typical sailing day.
• Pier and dates: get the exact departure point and a quote for your dates, ideally within November to April.