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Yacht chartering is the practice of renting, or chartering, a sailboat or motor yacht and traveling to various coastal or island destinations. This is usually a vacation activity, but it also can be a corporate event. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with rental agreement. ...
Diagram of Sailboat, in this case a typical monohull sloop with a bermuda or marconi rig. ...
There are two main kinds of charter: bareboat and crewed.
Bareboat charters involve a person renting a boat and skippering it themselves. Most bareboat companies also offer courses to teach basic seamanship and prepare people for bareboat chartering. These companies also sometimes provide skippered charters, meaning your boat comes with a skipper but no additional crew.
Crewed charter means the yacht comes with a crew. This can be anything from a 35-foot boat with a husband-and-wife team serving as captain and chef to a 300-foot boat with a squad of 30 or more crew members including stewardesses, engineers, mates, deckhands, scuba dive masters, and the like.
Several factors determine the cost of a charter. These include the size of the yacht, its age, its pedigree, the number of crew, and the destination. There are thousands of yachts available for charter all over the world, ranging in price from less than $1,000 per person, per week, to well more than $25,000 per person, per week.
While travel agents often offer charter-booking services, your best bet is to work with a reputable charter broker who specializes in this type of personalized travel. You can find reputable charter brokers through professional organizations including the American Yacht Charter Association, the Charter Yacht Broker Association, the Florida Yacht Broker Association, and the Mediterannean Yacht Broker Association.
Some boating magazines write editorial reviews about yacht charter on an occasional basis. These magazines include Power & Motoryacht, Boat International, Yachting, Showboats, Cruising World, Yachts International, and International Yachtsman.
There are two online sources of high-quality editorial information about chartering. CharterWave.com [1] covers everything from bareboats to crewed yachts, with a heavy focus on educating people who want to try charter as a vacation for the first time. SailOnline.com [2] also offers some crewed yacht information, but its content is geared more toward experienced bareboaters and people interested in owning a bareboat.
There also are two books available about charter written by reputable marine journalists. "Chartering A Boat" by Chris Caswell of Yachting magazine has a lot of good bareboat information, while "Have the Whole Boat: The Insider's Guide to Private Yacht Charter Vacations" by Kim Kavin of Power & Motoryacht magazine has information about bareboats, crewed yachts, reputable brokers and the history of the worldwide charter industry.
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