Very thin charter contract for upcoming trip (Annapolis)?

[djtopper]

Hi folks,

I've been planning a charter in Annapolis for the last month or so. It's coming down to the wire. For that same amount of time, I've been dealing with the nice, friendly folks at Lets Go Cruising (www.letsgocruising.com).

Apparently, and to my surprise, they were bought out by Annapolis Bay Charters / Dream Yacht Charters just last week. I found this out when I called on the phone to finalize the deal.

I like the idea of dealing with a charter company that has boat options all over the world. Yet, I am running into some issues and I'm not sure if they are standard procedure or not. I've only dealt with charter groups here in Annapolis so do not have another point of reference.

1. The contract I received is basically an invoice (along with color shaded sections and subtotals) with some very loose legal wording and a signature line. It's one page long and does not mention anything specific other than the price.

I am used to things that read more like this:

Sample Yacht Charter Agreement / Contract

and in fact much more detailed than the above.

But I have nothing of the sort and am expected to provide full payment at this point since we're inside the 14 day window. Plus the company address on the document isn't even here in the USA.

2. Related to that, the new company has no inclement weather policy. Instead, they suggest purchasing travel insurance ... but have offered no details about what that is or what it includes.

The previous group (LGC) had a very nice policy which would let you cancel and reschedule in the case of a named storm or 40% chance of rain (or greater) 24hrs before you depart.

I don't like the idea of being forced into a weekend charter when the forecast is potentially rainy for the entire trip.


So I'm writing here to get some outside input as to how much of this is standard practice and/or how concerned should I be.

The lack of a real "contract" just seems quite odd.

Then again, all this could just be some growing pains related to the big guy swallowing up the little guy. But don't the big guys normally have contracts and all other manner of crossed t's and dotted i's?