Anyone Have Experience with windward-islands.net

[berntsen]

I am looking at the possibility of chartering an oceanis 411 from Windward Islands : yacht charter Caribbean, Mediterranean and Yacht brokerage. Their prices are very very good.

When something is too good to be true, most often they are, so a quick check here - anyone who has had experience with renting a boat from that company.

It is especially how they want the payment - a bank transfer. I would probably have to insist on using a credit card, to have an ensurance that the "goods" I pay for exit. This is also noted here: Charter Companies - Cruising World Forums & Community

Looking for references to the company using simple google searches means searching for "windward islands" which returns an immensity of other sites, or searching for WWI, their initials, which returns a lot of world war I sites. Only a link:Windward Islands : yacht charter Caribbean, Mediterranean and Yacht brokerage works, and return very few sites, only one with interesting content (the one on cruisingworld above).

I am beginning to smell something here: why choose a name that is so difficult to google? Why so few real links to them?

So anyone, ever heard of them? (and yeah, it's probably good to have posted more than once on this forum to sway me).

Cheers,
/\/ikolaj

[Vasco]

Check them out on Traveltalk.
Traveltalkonline: Viewing forum: Charter Boat Reviews and Questions

[berntsen]

many stars, I am paying travel talk a visit. Thanks for the tip. (Not sure they are known, google should have found them, but nevertheless worth a few minutes). Probably a better place to search for feedback, since people here tend to have boats

/\/

[Pete7]

Tread carefully, Yell the on line yellow pages gives the UK address which when Googled suggests it's a Timber Merchant

Yacht Brokers in Catford - Find local results on Yell.com

134 Lots Road Partnership, London (Lots Road)

Interesting item on their website:

Personal data transmitted on this website are processed by The Windward Islands Cruising Compagny (also denominated Windward Islands) in compliance with the law of 6 January 1978

Since when did we process information in the late 70s? and why no busines address on the website?

However they do have a facebook page which 833 people liked?

http://www.facebook.com/pages/windwa...3640199?v=wall

Pete

[colemj]

There are a lot of their boats around down here in the Windwards. There are three of their catamarans next to me right now in Bequia.

Since arriving in the Leewards and Windwards, we have seen a lot of charter companies that are completely unknown in the US. Some of them very large and with brand new boats. I have walked around their marinas and they have racks of spare parts and crews crawling over the boats. Maintenance seems very good. Many of them are French and don't bother at all with other languages or advertising them multinationally. The ones I have looked up on the internet give me websites that have a lot of "lost in translation" language.

Also, most of them have names that are not Google-friendly. Cultural or language difference? I don't know.

It is not unusual for foreign companies to operate with bank transfers. Our insurance company does that.

Please note I was just providing perspective and don't know anything specific about the company you ask about.

Mark

[berntsen]

Very nice to know that they have boats out there.

Regardless of whether they are legit or not I have decided to not go with them because of their lack of visa payment possibility.

It could be interesting to dig deeper, but I think I will reserve my time for preparing for they journey I am going to book with another dealer with safer payment channels. Actually it's I could get the same price range and they can even book flights for me with a very reasonable surcharge, so absolutely no reason to risk the money on this company for me. (actually I replaced hours of surfing the net with a single phone call while driving - it's so easy to forget the old ways in this speedy internet time).

Thanks for your time, and I hope that people can find this thread via google and contribute info to it, so we can build a knowledge base on them (positive or negative).

To be fair, I will add that I have been in contact with them many times and they have been polite and respondent, so actually I would have liked to use them, but there's simply too strong arguments not to at this stage.

Cheers,
/\/ikolaj

[labourgade]

I'm one of their "fans" on facebook along with one of my colleagues who chartered with them in Croatia (was going to go too). they do accept credit card payments!

[chrismcc1]

I had a very unfortunate experience with this company.

I recently rented a 40 foot catamaran from Windward Islands for ten days in Saint Marteen. The boat I initially rented was replaced 24 hours before the starting date of the contract with a boat that they had never used before Here are pictures of the boat they rented to me.

Windward are refusing to offer me a 25% refund plus cleaning costs that I proposed as a settlement to avoid litigation. Future customers of this company please judge for yourselves.

Should Windward island finally agree to compensate I will be happy to revert. In the meantime I recommend to all new clients to stir clear of this company.

The starboard engine could only be started from inside the engine compartment outside the boat's security lines and using a taped switch. The electric wire caught fire on the second day of the cruise. The engine could only be switched off by leaning inside the engine compartment during navigation to activate the carburetor throttle!

The oars of the annex were unusable and fell apart when used.

The water heater caused an overall blowout in the fuse box when connecting the boat to power at the marina. Hot water could only be obtained by powering the engine for an hour in the Marina!

The annex was a mess, improperly inflated, with broken handles and an engine that stalled regularly, with no working oars to compensate! The pump provided to inflate the annex was not compatible with the mode of the annex!

The pillows provided were filthy with mildew marks and the cushions and mattresses stained with zippers broken...

The front port mooring line was made of three lines pieced together with knots and could not slip or slide through a mooring ring.

All of the above was consigned in the inventory at the start of the cruise and Windward Islands representatives committed to compensate me over the phone before I took the boat, after the cruise as they had no other boat to offer me when I complained. I am waiting for an acceptable compensation and proposed a 25% refund of the rental cost plus the cost of cleaning that was charged to me at the onset.

I have photos of the dismal condition the boat was in and of the engine switch. When I tried to post my negative impressions on their Facebook page, my post was immediately removed. They only allow positive criticism on their Facebook page which is not very reflective of the real customer satisfaction this company deserves.

I have created a Facebook page on the subject with photos here:

http://www.facebook.com/WinwardIslandsRentals

[Dockhead]

I chartered through them some years ago. It was the worst charter experience of my life.

I had only two bad experiences chartering over many years. One was with Windward Islands, where the problem was that there was simply zero service of any kind. They simply brokered a charter deal with an unknown Turkish charter base with horrendously clapped out boats with mis-matched sails. I paid Windward for a bunch of extras -- rental of dinghy outboard, cruising permit, spinnaker -- and when I arrived at the charter base, the owner had never heard of my having paid any of that, and I had to pay it all over again. I never got a refund from Windward; they were totally unresponsive. The boat was a disaster.

The other bad experience I had chartering was in the actual Windward Islands, at St. Vincent. The charter company was fine -- a small family owned company who were extremely helpful. The bad thing was the boat -- a Norseman catamaran, which was in very bad condition (a prop fell off; Morse linkage failed; charging system failed; host of other things over just a two week charter).

Other than that, all of my charters were fine. Best of all was from Aura Yachting in Yalikavac, Turkey -- great people, and a superb brand-new Beneteau which sailed like a bat out of hell. We had an fantastic time.

Another memorably good charter was from Yacht Base in Split, Croatia. We chartered a Salona 45 racer-cruiser which was a terrific boat, in very good condition. Had a great time.

[chrismcc1]

Wow! Did'nt expect such a quick answer and such a strong confirmation that Windward Islands are not a reliable company. I am looking forward to other people's experiences! Ity is good that we have such websites to get the word out so that other fellow sailors can stay away from companies such as this one.

[chrismcc1]

I am happy to report that the company has now taken the necessary steps to resolve the issue raised in my previous mails in a manner that is satisfactory.

[mariaengell]

Originally Posted by chrismcc1

I am happy to report that the company has now taken the necessary steps to resolve the issue raised in my previous mails in a manner that is satisfactory.

I am having some trouble processing my credit card payment with Windward-Islands.net

I'm being asked for a bank transfer but I don't know if this is a safe thing to do. The prices does sound too good to be true and I'm afraid this could be some kind of scam.

Is Windward-Islands.net is a legitimate charter company? I'd really love some of your help.

Thank you very much!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, mariaengell.

[AlBens]

Originally Posted by mariaengell

I am having some trouble processing my credit card payment with Windward-Islands.net

I'm being asked for a bank transfer but I don't know if this is a safe thing to do. The prices does sound too good to be true and I'm afraid this could be some kind of scam.

Is Windward-Islands.net is a legitimate charter company? I'd really love some of your help.

Thank you very much!

Hi @mariaengell ,
windward-islands.net is one of the market leaders, especially in luxury yacht charters. And definitely it is a "legitimate charter company"!
You can always contact them via : info@windward-islands.net
They are also very active on social media, they have +8k fans on facebook ( www.facebook.com/windward.islands ) & Twitter

Cheers

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by AlBens

Hi @mariaengell ,
windward-islands.net is one of the market leaders, especially in luxury yacht charters. And definitely it is a "legitimate charter company"!
You can always contact them via : info@windward-islands.net
They are also very active on social media, they have +8k fans on facebook ( www.facebook.com/windward.islands ) & Twitter

Cheers

What via an on line form and no postal address on the web site I don't think so.

Peter