Charter Companies

[Soggy Dollars]

I am looking into purchasing a New Fountaine Pajo My44 and charter the boat thru a charter company. I want to register the boat in the BVI's and liveaboard for 4 moths out of the year. I'm not of retirement age but want to enjoy the water until I can live aboard full time. Do you all know any companies in the States that can help set up a company to purchase my boat, register it in the BVI's and any charter companies that allow me to set the terms that my asset is in their fleet?
Soggy Dollars

[mbuckely]

We have had a good experience working with Stephen and Estelle at the Catamaran Guru. https://catamaranguru.com They work through Dream Yacht Charters. We have had our FP Lipari with them since 2012.

[contrail]

I think you might find BVI Yacht Charters helpful with all aspects of this.

[CharlieGee]

You may be considering Dream Yacht Charters (DYC) for a charter. No matter how good DYC sounds, YOU CANNOT TRUST THEM. Their Terms and Conditions (T&C Contract) for their charters, apparently only applies if it is in their favor. We did a ‘Cabin Charter’ from Nassau to the Exumas (Bahamas). The booking agents and charter operators disregarded their own policies that trashed our trip.

The worst part of our cruise was a screaming 2.5 year old brat that threw screaming tantrums several times a day. The DYC descriptive information suggested it was an ‘Adults Only’ cruise. DYC even admitted they discouraged booking young children. However, the agent who booked the screaming-kid-family said it was a “Family Friendly” cruise. The tantrums disrupted the peace desired when sailing completely. DYC has a written policy in their T&C Contract (Clause 8.5: “The Captain will disembark any Passenger whose behavior could endanger or seriously inconvenience other Passengers…”). Even though the Captain was completely aware of the negative impact of the child’s disruptive behavior, he took no action (likely because they would have had to reimburse the charter fee) and all of the other passengers were seriously impacted by the child’s behavior. You may think you can ask the agent if there are any kids onboard, but their answer means nothing because of the potential for late bookings and they can move you to a different boat as they desire and without asking you.

DYC is supposed to provision adequately to accommodate any dietary needs of their passengers… which they did not do. At our first stop, the crew had the opportunity to supplement the provisions, but chose not to do so (likely because of cost $$$). As a result, 2 non-meat eaters were given a majority of the fish rations intended for everyone else. The non-meat eaters ate well and the rest of us did not.

There were several other issues that contributed to the bad experience, but in summary, the DYC policies are easily disregarded by them and apparently only apply if it is their interest to enforce them. Their “Customer Service” exists to defend their actions and not to provide any actual service.