Which charter company to go with?

[Walt Allensworth]

OK, so you've decided to buy a boat through a charter company and put it in service for 5-years. Target location is USVI/BVI, but exchange-sailing other places is a nice thought. You expect to sail 3 weeks a year, maybe 4 if you're lucky. Maybe taking delivery at the end, maybe not.Which charter company do you go with? I know this is a financial as well as life-stye based decision.The biggie's are the Moorings and Sunsail. Any others?Is it a "better financial deal" to go with a smaller (one-location) charter company and forego access to all the bases the biggies have?I'm hoping for your thoughts in general, and also would love to get specific feedback on any charter companies, particularly if you've bought a boat and chartered it through them.Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob F]

Tortola/BVI

Just got back from a 7 day trip. We used TMM and had a great boat & great service. I'll use them again. Check sailtmm.com.Good Luck.

 

[Joe Barrett]

Article

In this month or last months Cruising World or Sail Magazine there was a large article about the tradeoffs of diferent Charter Companies, what they pay, how much use ect. I think if you can find it you will have good answers to your question.

 

[Walt Allensworth]

It was OK...

Thanks Joe. The wife & I just read it last night. We get Sail and Cruising World. The article was OK, but not great. I was hoping for a greater concentration of useful tidbits, if you catch my drift.Also, they tend to be pretty danged neutral about the stuff that REALLY matters - like which company offers the BEST deal. It would be very un-PC for them to do that, and they would certainly lose advertising revenue if they dared take a stand.What I'm hoping is that someone will stand-up and say something like: Ya' know, I put together a cost/benefit spreadsheet on companys X,Y, and Z, and company Y won hands-down for the following reasons...You won't see a magazine EVER do that.

 

[Charterer Owner]

Gee, Walt

'''What I'm hoping is that someone will stand-up and say something like: Ya' know, I put together a cost/benefit spreadsheet on companys X,Y, and Z, and company Y won hands-down for the following reasons...'''WHY DON'T YOU DO IT? For yourself.''What I'm hoping is that someone will stand-up and say something like: Ya' know...''It seems that many people do this kind of thing, but it's like the stock market, ''What's the best stock to buy?''Do you really expect an answer? Ya' know.........Gee, where do I send my spreadsheet?

 

[Walt Allensworth]

Leverage the web

Charterer Owner - I'm doing it.But, you know what they say...Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it.I was hoping somebody would "remember" doing this, so I didn't have to "repeat" it.SO YES... Given that 5000+ boats are in charter service, and people that can afford yachts are *probably* smarter than the average bear, I REALLY DID think that somebody might actually have done this. I can't believe that I'm the ONLY person in the WHOLE world who's thought about doing a cost/benefit trade-off analysis on charter companies before plunking down a pile of hard-earned cash.Is it THAT unreasonable to attempt to leverage the power of the web in this case? It's not that I'm a lazy slob. I'm just trying to learn from others.

 

[Charter Owner]

Walt, back

Boats are different things to different people, and everyone has a different goal.Short term, long term, fin keel, shallow draft.Could go on for numerous varieties.Gaff, split rig, ketch, sloop, cutter, yawl.Get the drift?Who the heck knows what your goals are?And confusing it (sailing vs. investment) with financial nonsense is even more difficult.I was tempted to say, simply, ''Go ask your accountant;'' but that's not fair or right.Go sailing, find your own wind, leave the laptop at home, and figure it out for yourself.