Yacht charter involves renting or hiring a yacht or sailboat. Very often yachts are chartered for holidays or vacations although it can be for practical sailing experience or mile building. Yacht charters can often be tailored to a specific activity such as diving or fishing.
Popular charter destinations include Croatia, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and North America.
There are three main types yacht charter, bareboat charter, skippered charter and crewed charter.
Bareboat – here a yacht is chartered and is skippered and crewed by the people hiring the yacht. Often yacht charter companies will give some basic seamanship tutition. It is however desirable to have some sailing exprience and may be indeed necessary if the charter is not in a flotilla.
Crewed – here a yacht is chartered comes with a crew who handle the sailing of the boat. They may even prepare meals etc. This type of charter is ideal for newcomers to sailing but is more expensive.
Skippered – in this type of yacht charter, the boat comes with a skipper but no crew. Ideal for inexperienced sailors who want to get some hands on sailing experience.
We will soon be adding a new yacht charter section to Go Sail. To add your company to the yacht charter section Click here.
Sailing Holidays
Sailing holidays are gaining in popularity for people looking to do something different for their holiday or to gain more practical sailing experience. The most popular type of sailing holiday is the flotilla holiday.
So what is a flotilla holiday ? A folitlla holiday usually consists of a number of boats ranging from 4-10. One boat is designated as the lead boat and this carries an experienced skipper, a hostess and an engineer. Of course the skipper may also cover any engineering tasks etc etc.
At the beginning of a flotilla holiday everyone is taught the basic skills necessary to handle a yacht. These include navigation and seamanship skills. Every morning the skipper of the lead boat will brief all members on the day’s sail. This briefing includes the destination, tidal consideration and navigational information.
All boats in the flotilla sail independently to the destination where they will be met by the lead boat. If any help is required en route the lead boat is only a radio call away. The hostess is responsible for meals, social events etc.
Flotilla holidays are very popular in the Mediterranean due to the lack of tides making it much easier for beginners.
We will soon be adding a new sailing holiday section to Go Sail. Until then it wil be free for all yacht charter / sailing companies to add their details to the Go Sail chartering section. Click here to add your company.