6-8 week charter

[rpoint16]

I am looking to do a 6-8 week charter out of Tortola on a 35’ (ish) monohull for my wife & myself. We are planning on heading down thru Guadeloupe at a leisurely pace making lots of stops here & there. We are thinking about starting in mid-April 2014 (our 2013 schedule is full).

I think my best financial chartering options are:
1) Contacting a Charter company & working a long term deal.
2) Contacting a Charter company & seeing if they have any owners considering pulling their boats out of a Charter fleet for sale. Maybe they would want an additional cash flow bump before selling.

So my questions is, am I on the right track? Are there any other options I should be looking at? Should I get a broker involved?

[wcapital]

If you were going in April 2013, and were interested in a multihull, I'd offer our St. Francis 44 (now in St. Vincent). We 're spending 3 months aboard ending early April...but will likely get serious about selling her and planning for the next boat later in the year. Most likely it will have a new home by 2014...

I'd suggest pursuing all of the above; and have a couple of suggestions:

Though they're in St. Vincent, contact Seth at Barefoot Marine (charter, brokerage, sail loft ....where our boat is) - at barebum@vincysurf.com. He might be able to arrange something with one of their boats, or the many private charter boat owners he knows.

For a charter of that length, it may be worthwhile considering a one-way trip going either north or south; the return delivery might be something an owner or charter company would "throw in" to get a long late-season booking. [In general, after Easter in the E. Caribbean, things slow down so you should find lots of options and be able to have some negotiating power].

I also would talk to brokers; before becoming an owner I had booked a few charters through Tom DiMartine at VI Sailing (in BVI and Florida: info@visailing.com) - and was very happy. I'm not sure how fees are shared, but the end result was better pricing on our bookings than I was offered directly by the charter companies, and a wide choice of options.

I hope that helps...

Kevin

[jchapdelaine]

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for the reply, as I too am looking for a charter for July-August 2013 for my family, wife and two daughters. Need it far enough south to avoid severe weather though. I will try the person you recommend and if you hear of anything, please let me know.

John

[wcapital]

John,

For July/Aug, remember that you'll be getting into the first part of the hurricane season - anywhere from the southern Windwards (Grenada/Grenadines) to Florida. Far enough south to avoid that means Trinidad-Venezula-Colombia-Panama; I'm not sure that's what you meant, though...

In general, where our boat has been - Grenadines - weather that time of year is usually good, with winds a bit lighter and seas calmer, except when tropical waves come through (increasingly common as the summer goes on). But, we've had guests even in September, at the peak of the season, have great weather. It does tend to be a bit hotter and more humid, though. I think the same can be said for most of the Caribbean and Bahamas, as well. If you're going for several weeks you should have mostly good weather but just need to pay attention to the weather patterns....(others in the forum might weigh in more on this if you're not really familiar already).

As we expect to be finishing up several months of cruising ourselves around the beginning of June, our boat could be be available and perhaps an option for you to consider, as well. Our tentative plan is to end our cruising and leaver somewhere in the Bahamas - Abacos or Exumas for awhile but that's not set in stone. While I've not spent much time there that time of year, Jun-Jul I'm told is usually great in the Bahamas. For a lengthy enough charter we also could consider other locations. Let me know if you would like to discuss, and we can connect off-line.

Kevin

[maytrix]

Check out these guys

Seabbatical Long Term Bareboat Yacht Charter - Bareboat Charters BVI

[rpoint16]

Thanks for the info.