How a Lost Card Mid-Charter Led to a Smarter Way to Manage Superyacht Expenses

When you’re provisioning in Palma and fueling in Fort Lauderdale, you expect your yacht’s payment systems to just work—worldwide cards, instant approvals, and no delays caused by missed emails. That’s the baseline in modern yachting. But on one small sailing yacht, mid-charter, that expectation quietly unraveled.

The yacht was spotless. The crew were sharp, experienced, and tuned in to every guest request before it was spoken. From the outside, it looked like the perfect charter.

Beneath the surface, though, something was off – the kind of tension you recognize after enough seasons at sea. Quick, hushed conversations. Slight hesitations before decisions. A missing link in the smooth operation. The source? They’d lost the yacht’s payment card.

No backup, no shared access, no clear system in place. The card was simply gone.

And while the owner was ashore, the crew still had fuel, provisions, and berthing fees to cover. They paid out of pocket, calmly and professionally, but the situation was entirely avoidable.

That experience sparked the creation of Starboard Card.

Designed for Life Onboard

Starboard combines a Visa Infinite Debit Card with advanced expense management tools, tailored for superyacht operations. Multi-currency accounts, real-time spend tracking, intuitive reporting, and APA management. It’s accessible via web and mobile and can be used offline, syncing automatically when reconnected.

Lose a card? Freeze it in seconds. Need a new one? We’ll ship, track, or hand-deliver it anywhere in the world.

This is onboard expenses, redefined.

Not Just Another Boat Card

While Visa Infinite provides the global payment infrastructure, Starboard Card delivers the tailored service yachting demands. Starboard’s customer team is made up of ex-yacht crew and private banking professionals who understand the pressures of life at sea.

“Our customers provide the absolute highest levels of service to yacht owners and their guests, so it’s only right that we commit significant resources to providing our customers with the absolute best service, not just best in class, but the best anywhere,” says Dan Lane, Starboard Card Founder and CEO. “That’s why our customer relations team hires exclusively from high-end private banking and ex-yacht crew, and why we partnered with Visa to bring Visa Infinite Debit Cards to the industry.”

With Starboard Card, even the unexpected—like a lost card mid-charter—doesn’t turn into a crisis. Just secure, seamless payments with full visibility, wherever you are.

Find out more at starboardcard.com