Dream Yacht Charter Phase out

[Islander59]

I am looking into joining the DYC purchase and charter program. I am looking for anyone who has had experience, good or bad, with DYC and would like to share their information with me.

I spoke with DYC at the Annapolis Show 2019... got some good information but would like to hear from anyone who has recently gone through their Phase-Out program.

I am also interested in anyone who has elected to do owner skippered charters in their program... they said I would be able to do so and IMHO it would allow me to maintain the boat better and may deter charter folks from abusing the boat knowing the owner is on board.

I am retired and it is my hope to order the owner version (3 cabin 2 bath) of the BALI 4.3 and cater more exclusively to couples and small families. I would also impose some of my own marketing to assure full charter seasons. My plan is to charter the Caribbean to begin with.

Thanks in advance for any constructive input. Cheers!

[bstreep]

Whoever you decide to go with: Be sure and make a visit to their base in the location you are putting a boat. Some bases have pretty good maintenance. Others, horrible or worse. We've done 16 charters. There is absolutely no excuse for using an entire roll of duct tape in 40 different places, instead of real maintenance, on a 9 month old boat in a charter fleet. Conversely, we had a charter boat that was 5-6 years old that had just 4 minor items on our checklist when we returned it. I'm just sayin'...

[Islander59]

Thank you for your input. ��

[HiAndDri]

Pretty limited experience of DYC but I delivered a Cat to their BVI base with the owner on board and I was pretty shocked at how dismissive the company were towards the owner, taking little notice of his concerns and not giving any information on charter dates etc.

[Islander59]

Do you happen to know if the owner was going to do owner skippered charters? I’m thinking of hiring a first mate who can skipper the boat when I’m not able to be on it. I essentially would be living aboard the boat... they indicated that would be okay... but too early to talk terms of those conditions. Thanks for the feedback.

[Valmika]

Where would your boat be located? There are other companies that you can do captained charters with but you cover all expense and work from your own location. Getmyboat.com is one of those. Airbnb has and experience arm of their company that does unique experiences for the area. I have had good luck with both of those.

[Sailingveterinarian]

I watched them in operation and talked to people doing maintenance work on the Dream Yacht boats. They were very frustrated because Dream Yachts was cutting corners on everything. Dream Yachts is in this business to make money, of course, but seemed to be doing that at the expense of the owners and charterers.

[jim King]

I debated long and hard about Dream Yachts before going with Sunsail/Moorings. I have chartered from over 15 of the Sunsail/Moorings bases and it seems Dreamyachts has bases at all of these sights. So I compared the base at all the various locations they had in common and found that, while Sunsail/Moorings set the gold standard, Dreamyachts was the flimsy duct tape standard. At some of their bases I couldn't even find staff to ask questions. Their fleet of boats was less than half of S/M and the conditions were deplorable. I don't know if either gives you the choice of being your own charter captain on a full time basis. You might be money ahead going with a second tier charter company of which there are hundreds throughout the sailing world.
As for me, after ten years with S/M, I enjoy being skipper and chartering with friends and family about eight times a year on a boat I know will be in top shape when I arrive at the base with S/M.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Islander.

[Islander59]

I’d locate in various places in the Caribbean to begin with. Thanks for the insight, I’ll check them out.

[Islander59]

Thank you for your perspective... part of the research phase. Too bad DYC are substandard. ⛵️

[Islander59]

Sad to hear... I will definitely keep that in mind. Thanks for the input! ⛵️

[Symphony]

I delivered a new Bali 41 to Dream Yacht in Antigua two years ago. I thought the staff were superb. The boat had come from France and they jumped onboard immediately, cleaning and fixing the various bugs of a new boat. The other boats there looked good to me although I didn’t sail them.

A year before that I brought a used Lipari to Marsh Harbour for DYC and thought the dockmaster and his crew were excellent- super experienced. I looked at 4 big cats there before i left and all were in like new condition.

But that was then. Who knows now without visiting?
I think you want to meet the charter boss and dockmaster where you would be hail from.

[robinm]

We have bareboated with Sunsail 10 times and have been happy. We just chartered with DYC and it wasn’t a great experience. “Nickel and dimed.”. Other than the person who helped with our booking and one staff in the dock, they were not as good as sunsail/mooring. This last charter was in Grenada and we noted similar apathy in St. Vincent.

IMHO DYC are growing too fast. Sadly, their fleets are bigger now than Sunsail but, service, quality just isn’t the same. All of this said, we only experienced DYC in Grenada and St Vincent. We have had great experiences with Sunsail our of BVI, St Martin, whitsundays, Tahiti, and St. Vincent (long ago). We have noted the quality of maintenance does vary by base even with Sunsail. Good luck!

[CaptainMCT]

Agreed, I've had very bad experiences driving boats for them as a commercial boat capt.

I felt that on all levels they missed the mark.

The boat wasn't ready or what the guests had expected. They wanted the crew to share the bathroom with the guests. They were very dismissive about the guests/crew concerns. However, I will say the maintenence and housekeeping staffs were both hard at work every time I lifted my head up from my own tasks. This was in the BVI. The program in the USVI is brand new and laughable at best. St. Maartin left a lot to be desired too but I didnt have any real interactionw with staff there. I would go with VIYC or Moorings. I heard CYOA isn't bad either in USVI.