Crossing Atlantic on charter boat

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by jackdale

You have not told us what experience you have.

Whether or not this dream is feasible will likely depends on the willingness of an insurance company to cover you.

You and Lizzy Belle have made the most sense. It sounds like a pipe dream.

[Natali]

Sorry, I didn't tell you my experience. It is quite reasonably to ask. We are a group of 3 persons. A highly experienced skipper, who made boat deliveries before. I crossed Atlantic and Pacific. And the other one, less expirienced sailor. Probably, the 4-th person will join us, but he is making up his mind. It depends on his job. It is a recreational cruise. We are not going to participate in ARC race.

[Lizzy Belle]

That still doesn't answer the question, tbh.

What kind of deliveries has the skipper done? What boats, what routes etc.? What papers does he have?
What were your crossings like? As part of a team, solo, ..?

Since the skipper is a very experienced delivery skipper: why not join him on another delivery? He should know chartering a boat for an ocean crossing isn't exactly easy, nor cheap. Is there a reason he can't take you guys on as crew on a delivery?

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

That still doesn't answer the question, tbh.

What kind of deliveries has the skipper done? What boats, what routes etc.? What papers does he have?
What were your crossings like? As part of a team, solo, ..?

Since the skipper is a very experienced delivery skipper: why not join him on another delivery? He should know chartering a boat for an ocean crossing isn't exactly easy, nor cheap. Is there a reason he can't take you guys on as crew on a delivery?

Gooding thinking! That may depend on the skippers experience as you pointed out.

[Natali]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

That still doesn't answer the question, tbh.

What kind of deliveries has the skipper done? What boats, what routes etc.? What papers does he have?
What were your crossings like? As part of a team, solo, ..?

Since the skipper is a very experienced delivery skipper: why not join him on another delivery? He should know chartering a boat for an ocean crossing isn't exactly easy, nor cheap. Is there a reason he can't take you guys on as crew on a delivery?

I'm sure that my English isn't good. The skipper did it before. Not now.

[Natali]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

That still doesn't answer the question, tbh.

He should know chartering a boat for an ocean crossing isn't exactly easy, nor cheap.

This part I KNOW exactly.

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Natali

I'm sure that my English isn't good. The skipper did it before. Not now.

Your English is fine But you seem to be avoiding answering simple questions.

You don't have to answer if you don't want to, of course, but anyone providing a boat for a crossing will want details (and proof).

[Natali]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

Is there a reason he can't take you guys on as crew on a delivery?

Why is it always suspecting that something wrong?

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Natali

I'm sure that my English isn't good. The skipper did it before. Not now.

Nothing wrong with your English. LizzyBelle , I believe made a damn good suggestion about a delivery not a charter. Get paid, don't pay. It again may depend on the skipper's ability to get a charter.

Good luck and be safe.

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Natali

Why is it always suspecting that something wrong?

I wasn't suspecting, I was wondering.

See Cadence's post as to why: usually skippers have all the needed contacts, and it would be a great solution.

[Polux]

If you have the experience of delivery skipper maybe you can find some European charter company interested in you bringing a boat from the med to the Caribbean.

If not other option is to rent a whole boat on the ARC. Many do that, particularly on the racing division. The expression whole boat is a bit misleading because the ones I know have always a representative of the owner aboard, most of the times the skipper, other times not. As other had said this option is going to be expensive.

A third option is to buy a boat in Europe, sail it to the US and sell it there. With the dollar high it is probably a good business to buy a relatively new boat in Europe and sell it on the US.

[Svanen]

Originally Posted by GordMay

William F. Buckley Jr’s “Atlantic High” tells about a 30-day trip in June 1980 from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, via Bermuda and the Azores, to Marbella in southern Spain…. Buckley was to be in charge during the passage, save in any dangerous circumstances at which time the captain, Allan Jouing, would take command, if he disagreed with the writer's actions. This contingency never arose.

Good summary, Gord.

WFB (as he styled himself) made similar arrangements for a subsequent Pacific voyage, as discussed in Racing Through Paradise (1987), p.97:

The next priority was to line up Allan Jouning. We had sailed with Allan when he was the skipper of the Sealestial, in the Caribbean at Christmastime. And when I thought to cross the Atlantic in a chartered vessel, I wanted a captain I liked and admired who was accustomed to my own ways aboard ship, and who acknowledged me as the skipper, save (here insurance policies dominate) in any situation (none ever arose) in which I stipulated one course of action, he another expressly invoking the safety of the vessel: in which event, he becomes the commanding officer.

And again, on a later transatlantic passage described in WindFall (1992), p.14:

[F]or this trip, Allan Journing had been brought in by me. To serve as captain? Not quite: I was captain. But Allan was senior among the paid crew. Moreover, by arrangement with the owner, if I should decree a course of action which Captain Jouning thought imperilled the vessel, he would have the right to override me. If, for instance, I were to say "I think we can ignore the Selvagens Shoal light and head one hundred forty degrees, never mind leaving it to port", Captain Jouning could say "Er Bill, I don't think we'd better risk that". And we would proceed to leave it to port. In three ocean passages together this kind of thing has never once happened, though from time to time I have left it to his initiative to suggest which combination of sails he thought would be best: his knowledge of Sealestial (and its eccentric inventory of sails) exceeds my own. As a matter of fact, he's a better sailor that I am.

It seems evident that he insisted on being in charge (cf. Airborne (1970), p. 27: "I have had the unusual background of sailing since I was thirteen, yet sailing other than as captain of the vessel I was on a total of only four times"), but lacked adequate (any?) qualifications.

Originally Posted by MarkJ

[U]mmmmm, one is either the skipper or they are not the skipper.

Agreed. Sounds like a very awkward position to be in: Mr. Amateur is the pretend skipper until something starts to go wrong, then it's "over to you, save me!" time. And in the case of significant damage or injury, we can bet the authorities would hold the real master accountable, regardless of whatever private arrangements the owner might have made with the charterer.

I hope Mr. Buckley was a very handsome tipper.