Sailing vacation options
What
is the difference between a bareboat skippered charter and a crewed
vessel of the same size?
A crewed vessel employees it's crew (or at least a number of
them) on an annual base, when on a bareboat charter the skipper is your
employee. Both categories have their advantages and disadvantages.
They also use different type of charter contract.
- Crewed vessels are
more expensive to charter. On the other hand you may book a crewed vessel
for any number of days, when on bareboat a weekly turn round
-especially for the peak season- is required.
- On crewed boats the
crew is fully responsible for vessel's condition and therefore there
is no refundable deposit required from you. On bareboat the
skipper is your employee (your agency only suggests a skipper) and
therefore you are responsible for vessel's condition, even for
skipper's actions. The need to leave a refundable deposit is
required...
- Crewed vessels in
general offer more facilities and equipment. The nature of
bareboat charters requires from yachts to be as simple as possible,
for an easy demonstration to you and minimizing the chances for
problems occurring during your holidays.
To finalize my answer to this question, I must say that the above distinction is rather
academic, since the size of vessels in
bareboat is limited up to 55 feet for yachts and 40-50 feet for power
boats. The service of permanent crew at such a size vessel will
deduct an unreasonable charter price. In general, crewed vessel's
size starts were the bareboat ends (55 feet for yachts and 40-50 feet
for power boats), and the only range were both categories meet is yachts
from 50 to 60 feet. The crewed yacht
Summer
Love is a perfect example of such a case. Although she is
based on the bareboat model
Atlantic 55', the crewed vessel offers a lot
more than her ancestor.
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