Dauntless, our sleek sailing catamaran, docked at The Moorings’ Marina in Road Town, Tortola, BVI, ready for another unforgettable journey
When you bareboat charter in the Caribbean or anywhere else, remember these are boats … and they’re in saltwater 🌊 – if you haven’t found something broken yet, you probably just haven’t noticed it. Saltwater is tough on vessels, and maintenance is a continuous part of the sailing experience. So how do you improve your charter experience?
I get it, we all want to leave the dock and get started with enjoying paradise. 🏝️ My suggestion is not to cut corners during the boat briefing. It’s a lot easier to correct issues at your charter company’s home base than somewhere else. Run and check every system important to you. Go through the entire checklist in your briefing packet. ✅
Sleep aboard your charter boat the night before you plan to begin your vacation. It will give you time to familiarize yourself with her. For example, when you board, the air conditioning, if supplied, should be blasting and should continue to run properly all night. If not, you’ll know the following morning as opposed to the start of your vacation. Check the standing and running rigging. Check everything as you would your own boat. 🛥️
This will not guarantee a trouble-free charter, but it will tilt the odds in your favor. People telling you they’ve never had issues with their charter vessel remind me of scuba divers who tell me they’ve never urinated in their wetsuit. 🤿 Also, you will hear more complaints about a company with 300 boats vs. a company with a tenth of the fleet. It’s just pure math.
The best way to improve your charter experience is to have a positive mental attitude. Just tell yourself every morning that you feel healthy, you feel happy, and you feel terrific. 😊 I don’t ever reply with definite answers because just like everything else in life, the answer is usually “it depends” and rarely do things go perfectly well 100% of the time.