The Charter Connection Blog

ANAHITA:

For those guests looking to charter in the Western Mediterranean, but concerned about the value of the dollar vs. the Euro, Anahita (a 62′ Dynamique) is an excellent value. She will be offering charters for $12,100 USD per week, plus expenses. Captain Bijan and Chef Carmen look forward to welcoming you aboard.

MADIBA:

David and Glywnnis will be arriving in Turkey in August with their 45′ Leopard Catamaran ‘Madiba’ and are thrilled to be able to offer charters in this location. Her reasonable rates of Euros 11090/ 6 (high season) and Euros 9980/6 (low season) include breakfast, lunch and two evening meals. Additional evening meals can be taken onboard at a cost of 35 Euros per person.

Additional costs for this charter would be bar/beverages (not water), harbour or marina fees, cruising taxes, taxi transfers, fuel for water sports and gratuity. This crew has an wonderful reputation for their charters in the Caribbean and we are happy to be able to offer them in a new and exciting destination.

TWO IF BY SEA:

Stu and Fran are offering a $500 discount off their rates for charters through the end of July in the Virgin Islands aboard the 45′ Leopard Cat, ‘Two if by Sea’. In addition to this special they will also be offering free diving for all certified divers. If you are not already certified, Stu and Fran are both PADI Dive Instructors, and can have you exploring the underwater world with a Discover Scuba course in no time!

PRIORITIES:

Also in the Virgin Islands, Chef Richard Cassarino and yacht Priorities are pleased to offer a 3 night charter package that pairs a taste of sailing, with a taste of fine cuisine and wines from 3 different locales. California is the theme for the first night, with Beringer wines and American dishes. The second evening features Italian wine and fare. The final night’s offerings are from France. The charter fee for this cruise is $5450 for 2 guests, $6150 for 4 and $6850 for 6 guests.

Here we are in late February, with spring a mere 3 weeks away, and as the days grow longer thoughts inevitably start turning to warm weather plans, it reminds me of a common misconception about sailing the Caribbean: the best time to sail is the winter.

The truth is that it’s not that the Caribbean sailing weather is particularly perfect in winter, it’s just that winter happens to be a great time to evacuate the upper half of North America whenever and however possible! The Caribbean is truly a year-round sailing destination. There are certainly better and worse times to go, but since the summers of 2004 and 2005, with their very active hurricane seasons, the perception that one should not go to the Caribbean in the summer has become more entrenched.

Yes, that’s right, the “H” word - I said it. You don’t often encounter the word hurricane in charter operators’ marketing material. Unfortunately, the risk associated with tropical storm systems has been greatly hyped by the media outlets who are given incentive to do so by way of ratings; and major networks have far, far more penetration into consumers’ attention span than do charter companies, and therefore the bareboat charter companies and those who operate crewed yacht charters safest strategy is to hope to avoid the subject altogether.

Hurricane season technically runs June 1 - November 30. So this means don’t book a Caribbean yacht charter then, right? I don’t think so. In fact, if I could pick any time to sail, (notwithstanding any desire I have to escape snow and ice), it would be April - June. While the Hurricane Season is technically on, a quick look at statistics shows you that early season storms typically form in the Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico. Tropical storm systems almost always move east to west, (with the exception of Lenny the contrary, who moved west to east in the late ’90s); thus early season storms stand a very, very slim chance of impacting the majority of the Caribbean cruising grounds. It’s not until mid to late August that sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic rise high enough to be conducive to tropical storm formation.

So why would I choose April to June? Well, in the winter months it’s firstly much windier. Sure, 25 knots is a blast for an afternoon’s sail, but for for a whole week of bouncing around? That starts to become work, and isn’t why I go on vacation. Also, by April the North Atlantic storm activity is greatly reduced, and with it the likelihood of the ground swell it produces which makes north-facing anchorages uncomfortable at best and untenable at worst. The other big benefit? Spring and summer can often be notably less expensive than winter.

So by spring, you have more sunny days than Winter, 12-15 knots instead of 18-25, calmer seas and more anchorages to explore. I often like to charter from late April to the first week in June, as you get all of the aforementioned benefits, plus you’re between seasons so you’ll also find the cruising areas to be far less crowded.

By pointing these features of summer Caribbean sailing out, do I worry that less people might ultimately sail in the winter? Nope. A check of the weather tells me it’s 16 degrees out, and up to a foot of snow predicted for the weekend. The reasons vary, but sailing the Caribbean sounds good to me pretty much any time.

The Catamaran Company has joined ranks with Sunsail and The Moorings in offering discounts instead of free days this summer in the British Virgin Islands. When sailing from June 7 - October 31, charters of 7 - 13 days are 10% off and 14 days or more get 20% off.

Footloose Charters, on the other hand, has broken ranks with its bigger sisters and has actually gone back to offering free days on summer bareboat charters from Tortola. From June 1 - October 31, you can add 1 free day when you book a charter of 6 - 8 days, 2 free days to 9 - 12 day charters, and 3 free days to charters of 13 days or more. It’s a bit confusing in its presentation, but in short it’s 7 days for the price of 6, 11 for 9, and 16 for 13.

Horizon Yacht Charters is offering 10 days for the price of 7 from July 10 - October 31 on their lovely Bavaria yachts. Horizon’s Virgin Islands yacht charter fleet also includes Jeanneau’s, Beneteau’s and Lagoon cats, including the new Lagoon 420.

TMM is also firmly in the free day camp, offering 10 for 7 from August 1 - October 28.

Along the lines of Sunsail’s traditional “Reef Weeks” which you may have seen before, Voyage Charters are now offering “Red Hot” and “White Hot” sail weeks at 20% and 25% off respectively for specific weeks March through November on their fleet of Voyage catamarans.

One of the most common requests I get from customers regarding their yacht charters is help deciding their itinerary. Of course it’s human nature for all of us to want to know where we’re going; however, my first line of advice to this request is to specifically avoid having an itinerary. Not that you shouldn’t have an idea where you’ll be sailing, but a point to point itinerary, as they’re usually presented, truly steals from one of the great benefits of sailing - freedom.

One of my favorite things about private yacht charters is that I have almost complete freedom and range of choice, I’m on no one’s schedule but my own, no one is telling me where I’m going, it’s completely up to me; I can even decide not to go anywhere. In the morning the crew will gather in the cockpit, obligatory coffees in hand, and we’ll look at the weather, pull out the charts, and get a consensus on where we’re headed for the day. I find that my sailing vacation is most relaxing when I not only fulfill the need to sail, explore new anchorages, but also to do it all on pretty much the whim of the moment.

Of course, it’s most effective if everyone does have a general idea of the what the cruising ground has to offer. I usually recommend to do this, read through your cruising guide before you go, (Ed Hamilton & Co supplies you with one), and make a priority list of the places you’d like to explore. Then, once on charter, you can try to link them together as the urge strikes and the wind blows. For me, this is much more fun than knowing what time I’m going to be where.

Due to an owner cancellation, Argonauta V is available from today until March 9th. If you’re considering a large, luxury crewed catamaran charter, take a look at her. She’s available in The British Virgin Islands, The Leeward Islands (St. Martin, Antigua) and The Grenadines. In the summer she heads for The Western Mediterranean (Balearics, Corsica, French Riviera and Italy).

We’re well into the season, and we have already had many guests starting their charter at the new Moorings, Sunsail and Footloose, marina in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. These three major bareboat charter companies moved in together last Fall, so we were particularly interested to hear how everything was running. This was an enormous undertaking, made harder by the merger of the companies’ booking offices. Sunsail moved from Annapolis to Florida so many of the booking staff are new. There have, quite naturally, been problems and growing pains, but in many ways, we feel there could have been far more. I visited the base in November and was concerned by the shear size, knowing how many hundreds of people would shortly be descending on these docks.

We would like to hear what you think about the advantages of having these large companies in one location, particularly if you have started a charter at the new facility. Someday we will do a larger article in the newsletter, but in the meantime, we’d love to hear your comments.