I think there are two events going on here which may be intertwined which may be resulting in vast differences of opinion.

I have not sailed with Moorings but I believe it's the same set up as I've experienced at Sunsail - the boat briefing and the chart briefing are individual events. The chart briefing is in a room with some powerpoint slides and all the charter guests leaving that day are herded in for the same presentation. It's dull and not very informative IMHO but I would certainly not blow it off especially since I think it takes about 20 minutes. I wonder about the liability of damaging the boat (or heaven forbid a person) due to lacking some key piece of information that was presented at the chart briefing. I just seem to recall a statement in one of the forms that says something like you're not insured if you do something stupid. Is lack of attendance at the chart briefing one of these exclusionary events? The second briefing is the boat briefing which is on your boat. I would definitely not skip that.

I have also chartered at CYOA where the boat briefing and chart briefing are bundled together into a single personalized event on the boat you are taking out. CYOA will not allow you to miss this nor should you want to. The chart briefing on this combined event is very much personalized. If they have not seen you before you will get the full and detailed brief. After sailing a few times with them you will get the same briefing but a little quicker with perhaps less detail (you nod your head a lot and mumble affirmative sounds to speed up the person giving your brief). Independent of how many times you have chartered with them, this is your opportunity to ask about things that might have changed and suck out whatever local knowledge you are smart enough to ask about.

I now own a boat managed by CYOA. And guess what? I will have both a boat and chart briefing before leaving the dock. I suppose I could insist and blow this off but why would I? It's my opportunity to spend a few minutes with the people that know both the boat and the area a whole lot better than I do. What a treasure trove of information, wisdom, and knowledge. Maybe I can sign up for two briefings <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />