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Buying A Cat To Charter Part 1: Bareboat VS. Crewed

November 30, 2017 2:28 pm

I have been involved in the yachting industry since graduating high school. My first internship was in the corporate office for the world’s largest charter company, and since then I’ve worked in the charter industry as everything from a rigger, diesel mechanic, customer service rep, charter captain, fleet manager, operations manager, commissioning and de-commissioning charter catamarans.

A little over five years ago I made the transition from operations to the sales side of the industry. Naturally, since I moved into sales I’ve become very involved in helping clients buy catamarans to place in charter. I thought it would be a good idea to write a series of posts about my experience with helping clients buy catamarans to place them into charter. This first post focuses on deciding between bareboat or crewed charters.

Bareboat vs. Crewed Yacht Catamarans

The two main segments of the catamaran charter market are bareboat and crewed yacht catamarans.

When a client wants to place their yacht into charter without a full-time crew onboard and make the boat available for charter to the public without a captain, it is known as bareboat chartering.

Necker Belle Yacht For Sale

For crewed yacht charter catamarans, the owner either operates the boat as an “owner-operator” or they hire a crew to run the charters for them.

Over the last five years I have placed my focus on helping clients go the crewed yacht catamaran route versus the bareboat route. There have been a couple of reason for that.

With a bareboat, it is hard to know how your guest will treat your yacht while on charter. I can think of several occasions over the years when managing bareboat fleets where the charter guest abused and beat up the boats. The term coined for bareboat captains is “credit card captains” because of the lack of professional training.

With a crewed yacht catamaran, there is the security for the owners of knowing that every time your catamaran leaves the dock, there is a licensed and professional captain/crew behind the helm.

Privilege catamarans hybrid deal Torqueedo

At the end of every bareboat charter the guests fill in a “debrief” where they list any issues that come up during the charter. Oftentimes through lack of experience or fear of being blamed for the issue, issues aren’t reported to the charter company. In turn this can cause larger maintenance issues with the yacht since deficiencies might not be picked up by the charter company with their pre-charter checks.

With a crewed yacht, the captain is aware of all issues the moment they arise and can deal with them in a timely manner. On a catamaran, the sooner an issue is recognized and dealt with, the less costly the repair.

As someone who has personally managed fleets of 40+ bareboats, I know that the big charter companies have great maintenance programs in place for preventive maintenance. That being said, during the peak season/weeks, there isn’t always time to follow the company’s scheduled maintenance policy due to manpower and turnaround constraints.

With a crewed yacht catamaran the crew is responsible for routine maintenance and upkeep on one boat, and not a fleet of boats. The standard turnaround time on a crewed yacht charter is 24+ hours, giving the crew plenty of time to address not only items that come up, but also stay on top of the routine maintenance.

Another big reason I personally feel boats are better off with crewed yacht charter versus bareboat is the actual care of the boat while on charter.

In bareboat charters, the guests receive an hour-long charter briefing and a short boat briefing. Once that is completed the keys to the boat are theirs, and they are out of sight for the duration of the charter.

As an owner you have NO IDEA what happens on your boat for the entire week. Did the guest run aground? Run the motors at wide open throttle? Did they spill red wine all over your new cushions?

With a crewed yacht charter, not only is the client’s interaction significantly better since their crew acts as a tour guide for the trip. With their client’s input they coordinate all meals activities, destinations. The catamaran is being properly “babysat.”

Charter - Arion Catamaran by Lagoon Yacht

As an owner you don’t have to worry about engines being run too hard, running aground, or guest “trashing” the boat since the crew is there to make sure everyone respects the boat.

Here are some examples of catamarans recently sold that are doing crewed yacht charters:

And here are some examples of catamaran listings that would make good charter yachts:

I LOVE what I do. Over the last five years I have helped countless catamaran owners buy yachts and many times successfully place them in crewed yacht charter. If you have ever considered buying a yacht to place in charter, I would love to have a conversation. With 15 years of being involved in the charter industry under my belt, I’d love to share what has worked, what hasn’t and what we’ve learned from those mistakes.

Stay tuned for the next post in the series about what makes a great crewed yacht charter catamaran!

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