Experience with Seabatical?

[JonResnick]

Greetings cruisers,
My wife and I are interested in exploring the cat liveaboard lifestyle. We've done both bareboat monos and crewed cat charters and now want to see if it's really right for us. Not looking at full-time, we're more thinking 4-5 months a year. We'd like to do a month long test run on 40-45 cat and we're willing to go mid-season (thinking April). 4 weeks is exceptionally pricey with most of the operators as they price the boats based on filling all the cabins. I've found a company called Seabatical that specializes in longer term charters. Does anyone have any experience with the this company? Are they reputable? Any insights appreciated.
Jon Resnick

[Jeannius]

Don't have personal experience but a friend of mine, an experienced boat owner, used Seabbatical a couple of times a while back in the BVI. He said it worked well and the boats he had were well maintained.

If you charter for a month it is likely some things will go wrong so expect to spend time hanging around waiting for a fix. So almost like being a boat owner but at least you'll have someone else to find the parts and do the fix

Thanks for reminding me about them. I was thinking of a week charter in the Med next year and now I see I can get a month for not much more than the price of a week with other companies.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Jon.

[kcj]

Chartered a cat for a month from them 7 years ago out of BVIs…very good experience, would recommend them , subject to I have no idea what has transpired since then…

[ol1970]

We have a month booked starting at Christmas time this year so I’ll let you know how it shakes out. So far dealing with them has been totally normal. This is our first multi-week adventure since we did something similar in French Polynesia in 2019, can’t wait! Honestly the boat could be crap, and people horrible and my wife and I will still find a way to have a spectacular time.

[Rcevans100]

We have a month charter in November. This has been rescheduled twice due to COVID. Good interaction and communication.

We had planned to sail to St John and then SVI .. but of course now will circle BVI several times !!

Will let you know how things go

Bob

[Rcevans100]

We chartered this November for a month.
Boat was in excellent condition when we picked it up.
We had to be careful not to be carried away with the dinghy since it had a 25hp motor…certainly moves!! Always started first time after the initial start in the am.

Over the month we had no issues with the boat, engines, pumps etc. etc

Would certainly use them again

Cheers
Bob

[bstreep]

We chartered with the company in question in FP 2 years ago. They were absolutely horrible. And so was the boat. Do a search on here with the company name. You will be shocked at how they have treated people, in particular their owners.



Conversely, we just got back from a 2 week charter in French Polynesia (a repeat, because I didn't want the crappy boat and charter company to cloud our fond memories) and used Tahiti Yacht Charters. What a fantastic company. Everything that the other company did wrong, these folks did right. Delightful experience.