Bareboat charters in Maine

[Christiansailin]

The wife and I are heading to Camden, Portland, Bar Harbor, etc in a couple of weeks and would like to do some sailing. However I’m struggling to find any charters whereas I can just rent the boat like we typically do. Any guidance?
Thanks

[GerryL]

I don't have any suggestions, but I am watching this with interest. I recently read Maine surely has some beautiful beautiful cruising grounds, and that charter companies aren't interested because of all the lobster pot buoys, rocks, and fog. I forgot where I read that, maybe here on CF? Or maybe it was a recent verbal conversation?
Anyway, I can confirm the beauty, buoys, and rocks; my wife and I just returned from a 6 day sail with MorseAlpha out of Rockland, Maine. We are fairly new to sailing; 1-2 years, restored a Montgomery 17, sailed inland/fresh water only. We enjoyed it enough that we wanted to see if we would enjoy coastal sailing; MorseAlpha seemed to have a program that looked like a good intro to us. We went with the hope it was geared to what we were looking for. Well, we lucked out because it was all that and more. We had a great time, and found it well worth it. I'm also glad we did an intro in Maine rather than with one of the companies in easier-to-sail waters. We spent 6 days on the boat, anchored in a different spot every night based on decisions by the students WRT wx, tide, current. We did sail through the night one night on 3 hour watches to get 20+ miles out. An interesting thing that I loved about our course was that the only electronic instrument we used was for depth reading. It was all chart work, binocs and hand bearing compass. At night when we went out it was dead reckoning, we even calculated our speed by tossing orange peels or apple cores and timing them going by the length of the boat. We learned a sheet-ton in a week (that's a lot for those of you unfamiliar with the unit of measure).
I guess I got off topic there, huh? Sorry, I'm still stoked about that trip. LOL

[Christiansailin]

Wow Gerry. That sounds fantastic. We looked at a crewed charter but really just want to be out for a day sail.

[daveandsara2016]

I hope you were able to find a charter on your trip. On your next visit check out Sail Maine (sailmaine.org) in Portland. The rent J-22's. I think they require you to do a one hour skipper certification.

Dave

[Christiansailin]

Thanks Dave. I checked and Covid had stopped them from doing it. We ended up on an 1899 Friendship in Southwest Harbor for a couple of hours. Better than nothing.

[Maldwin]

Buck’s Harbor Marine in Buck’s Harbor does bareboat charters.
Best,
Maldwin