Who pays if the weather cancels the trip?

Usually you carry most of it, and what you get back is more often a credit than cash. This is the single most important clause in a charter contract and the one least often read.

Operators cancel or curtail for weather because they have to. A vessel's Survey: see glossary">Certificate of Survey sets its operating area, and a Class 4 hire and drive operator can refuse handover if conditions or your competence make the trip unsafe. A Class 1 skippered operation makes that call through the master. Neither decision is negotiable at the dock.

The three situations

• Operator cancels before departure. Most terms offer a date change or a credit, sometimes a partial refund. Cash refunds are not standard.
• Operator keeps you in a sheltered area instead of the planned itinerary. Usually no refund. The boat was supplied.
• Charter is cut short after you leave. Often pro-rata credit for unused nights, sometimes nothing.

What to ask before paying

• Who decides, and on what trigger. A named wind or warning threshold is better than operator discretion.
• Credit or refund, and how long a credit stays valid.
• Whether a shortened charter is refunded pro-rata.
• Whether a cyclone warning is treated differently from strong wind.

Reduce the exposure

Travel insurance is the main lever. Check the policy actually covers weather at the destination, since some exclude it. The other lever is timing: the official cyclone season runs 1 November to 30 April in the tropics, and cyclones can occur outside it. Booking the tropical dry season, roughly May to October, removes most of this risk in the north. Southern waters run roughly November to April. Weather and seasons has the regional detail, and when is cyclone season covers the tropics specifically.

Australian Consumer Law still applies to the service, so a blanket no-liability term is not the end of the conversation. Put the clause you were quoted in writing using the booking and contract checklist.