Dream Yacht Charter Owners/Charterers Experience

I am broadening my horizons and looking into another guaranteed income charter company...Dream Yacht Charters. Any owners or charterers have experience they want to share? Would also love to hear what you think about the Fontaine Pajots and the Balis.

We've chartered from DYC twice. The last time was Dec 2018. During our charter they moved from their old spot (destroyed by Irma and not being rebuilt fast enough) to Scrub. They are always extremely pleasant, helpful and responsive. We had dingy motor issues on our last charter (who doesn't?). They first sent some guys over when we stopped at VG, but they could not get the motor running properly. They then met us at our next stop (can't remember where it was) and swapped out the motor.

Personally, we think it's a great company and should we ever move to buying and placing in charter, we would probably consider them tops on our list. Having a ton of other places to use is valuable.

We have no financial interest in any boat or charter company.

Can't speak to owner ship but have sailed on DYC boats twice (once on a sail course and once a charter) in Grenada. The first trip (ASA Sail Course) was on an older 44' monohull that was well past its prime with a number of issues. I think they had an arrangement with Nautilus sailing school and am sure they got the cheapest boat available so don't judge my opinion on DYC based off of that trip and experience. The second time (Charter) was on a brand new FP Saona 47. What a nice boat! Sailed really well even into the wind. Could tack it fairly easily (which was not my experience with the moorings 4000s!)

I like DYC now more than moorings because of the variety of cats. The service was more than adequate. They have Lagoons, FPs, Balis, etc. Moorings just has the Leopards and we wanted to try different boats.

We have just booked a DYC charter in May out of Tortola and selected a Bali 4.3. This will be our first time on a Bali and our first time with DYC in the BVIs. The Bali 4.3 looks more like a floating hotel, so have very little expectations on sailing abilities. Having said that they are made by Catana which make some real screamers so maybe pleasantly surprised. Also the extra spaces, lounging areas and open concept was more appealing that a smaller more traditional cat with less space and that could sail better. We will be sailing for 2-4 hours and then chilling the rest with drinks in hand so sailing qualities took a back seat. The location of the DYC base at Scrub island was also appealing as I have never been and it looks like a great place to start and end a charter!

I am not in the market for a charter yacht yet as My kids are still in High school and there is no way that I could take advantage of the 8 weeks of sailing.... but someday!

I am unable to help with the ownership side of things but have chartered several times with different companies. We chartered with DYC last June. Our first time with them. The boat was well maintained and the only problem we had in two weeks on the boat was with the water maker,and as it turned out was operator error (me) not mechanical. All of the staff were great to work with. From the beginning of the charter process talking on the phone, to the office and dock at the base everyone was helpful and good at their jobs. Spending a day or two at the dock we watched as they cleaned and prepped boats. All very detailed in their maintenance. Sorry can't help with the FP or Bali, we were on a Lagoon.

DYC/Moorings definitely has advantage for multiple locations. However , I think there are more advantageous programs elsewhere.
I understand the desire "no risk". Would be happy to hear from others who HAD a boat in program and recently completed. Pros? Cons?

I have had boats with 4 different charter companies. The only boats I have made money on were the guaranteed revenue programs. One boat in a shared revenue program produced only 9% of the charter revenue back to me despite exceeding their performa gross revenue which promised 25% to 30% to the owner.
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We do not do guaranteed revenue on cats at CYOA. But I would be happy to talk to you about Fountaine Pajot and the charter business. One of the things I ask anyone interested in a boat. What is your plan in five years when you get the boat back? Sell it? Keep it? Move aboard? What are your goals? How are you handling the remaining mortgage if there is one? There are a lot of reasons to buy a boat and a lot of reasons not to. I know that sounds like a Chinese fortune cookie. If the ultimate goal is to own the boat go cruising and reduce the cost of ownership then it may be a good fit. If you are looking for free boats then don't do it.

As for the "big guys" and trading weeks at other bases, it is a great benefit. Maybe the only real one they have to offer. Personalized, professional care on one of if not the most expensive items you will ever own is more important. The condition of your vessel post charter can make a huge difference in its value for resale. It also makes a huge difference if you plan to cruise or retire onboard.

If you want more information feel free to email me at jay@cyoacharters.com

I would say that is extremely sage advice from Capt Jay. I have witnessed both sides of this although not bought a boat myself. I think Mike and Jean Beswick had the perfect idea. Mike bought " Jeannius" I believe in 2003 and sailed it to Tortola. It was bareboated for 5 years by TMM and then Mike and Jean Capt and Cook'd it for two. Then they took her round the world and up and down the East Coast of the US before selling her in St Augustine for a very good price. That was their plan all along and it seemed to work perfectly. Mike may well chime in here!

Thanks everyone for your input. Jay, I will be emailing you, thank you for being willing to be a resource. To answer some of your questions, the purpose is this...

I am retiring next year from teaching. I am only 53 (almost) years old so will be working something part time but my schedule will be flexible. My husband is 5 years younger and works for the forest service here in Colorado so he has some time to still put in before retirement. I was brought up in the Caribbean and have a longing to come "home" although I have lived in Colorado for 28 years. Our hope is that a job would open up for my husband in Puerto Rico or any of the USVIs (he could transfer over from forest to park service and still keep all his benefits) but that hasn't happened yet. My brother has a 444 that will be coming out of Sunsail charter in June/July. I have owner privileges on that boat but in order for both our families to do the sailing that we want to do (especially once I retire) I need my own boat. Plus it looks like he will most likely put that in private charter based out of St. Thomas so anytime I would want to use it he would be losing money. I want a Catamaran and can't afford to buy it out right at this time. Putting it in charter would allow our mortgage to be paid (guaranteed) for 5-6 years. Our hope is to be down there in 5-6 years as the boat comes out of charter and we would either move aboard or keep her for our personal use. At this point we would be able to comfortably afford her mortgage because we will be selling stuff here in Colorado. I also like the fact that with Sunsail/Moorings or Dream Yacht we can also sail in other places in the world. In fact we are excited to go with my brother to Tahiti in April.

That being said, I am willing to look at all options. We are going to the Miami Boat Show in April which we are looking forward to.

Off topic but is there a boat show in Miami in April? The Miami boat show that I know about is in Feb. ??

Manpot is exactly correct with my chartering story with Jeannius. We did very well at TMM partly because they are a great company, partly because I arranged quite a lot of charters myself and partly because I chose the right boat. A Privilege 435 was never a common charter boat so she was always very popular with charterers. Only time my revenue dipped was when a previous charterer went and bought his own identical boat and put it in charter with TMM. So Jeannius was then the older boat and naturally was chosen less often. I took up the slack though and organised more charters myself.

I only made one mistake... At the end of the time at TMM I had enough charter revenue in the bank I could probably have sold Jeannius and purchased a new 435 without having to put any extra cash in. I didn't do that but chose to spend the money paying off the loan, replacing stuff and upgrading. Should have bought the new boat because over the next 6 years I spent a lot more money replacing and fixing an old boat than I would have spent on a new boat.

It all worked out very well in the end as after a circumnavigation, I still sold for more than 2/3 rd of the original purchase price.

Revenue sharing worked for me, doesn't work for everyone as GeorgeC1 has shown.

Revenue sharing if you have a popular boat and a solid company can work great. Mike put a lot of work into the Jeannius and might well have been one of the most successful examples. He also benefitted from having a unique boat and he caught the Catamaran boom at the right time. A lack of cats and everyone wanting one with his being one of the best available. Some Moorings owners with boats in their crewed fleets on shared revenue programs did extremely well also in that time frame.
The one big downside to shared revenue is if something happens to the boat that requires a extended down time for the boat. My boat was down 9 months for Irma and every check arrived on time every month. In addition the Moorings rebooked two weeks of sold owners time to other bases so we did not lose any revenue.
The big downside to guaranteed income is maintenance. A company paying all the bills is not going to do as good a job as when the owner pays the bills. I can’t comment on how much the paid overhual in the Moorings contract offsets that because I sold or traded both boats on the exit day.
One last thing to keep in mind. Insurance costs are going nowhere good!

Oops, meant February.

The last time we chartered was in October 2019. I remember them as a very kind, helpful, and responsive company. I mean, any time we had a question or an issue, they would answer and try to find the best solution. Since we moved to Miami, we didn't have the opportunity to sail with their boats.

We have sailed on quite a few different cats. We prefer Lagoons (and chose that for our personal purchase), but also like FP's (except for the split helm models). Our time in the Grenadines on an FP sold us on cat sailing and the desire to spent our early retirement years on a boat. We have friends (who own said cat) that are circumnavigating. A long time captain, he said the FP is the only boat he would take on this journey. We plan to join them in the future for a month in the Lau Islands and then Maldives, COVID permitting.

Bali - well, if you are looking for a floating hotel room and a full size fridge then that is the boat for you. Enough said IMHO.

DYC - if you spend any amount of time in the US Virgin Islands Cruisers group (Facebook) you will see what a bad wrap they have there. I witnessed poor behavior and skill display too many times in the USVI early this year by DYC boats to think they are screening charterers or providing any kind of decent briefings. We looked at a boat coming out of their fleet (Bahamas) for purchase once upon a time. Silly move, yes I know. It was in dubious shape.

Captain Jay is a great resource and CYOA is hands down the best op in the USVI. We might have considered placing a boat with them but they didn't want an owner's version at the time we inquired. I am spoiled and like the extra room when I am in the islands for 2-4 weeks at a time and definitely want it in a boat I intend to "live" aboard. Our boat is with TMM and we couldn't be more pleased.

Wow, it was a blast from the past to see this thread come back up. My original post was pre-Covid. We did end up going to the boat show and ended up really liking the Leopard 40 for both price, layout and for how she sails. We then found out that Moorings/Sunsail were discontinuing the Leopard 40 and had sold their last one so we were basically out of luck. Their replacement boat was a new (not even heard of at that time) Leopard 42 with a flybridge. Since the 42 was just in the beginning stages we knew it would be awhile before we would be able to get the boat and weren't even sure it was in the budget. We were pretty bummed. After the boat show we went to the USVI and looked at condos in St. Thomas and St. John. We quickly realized that we were not going to be able to afford something in St. John so narrowed places down in St. Thomas.

In March 2020, literally hours after my father had passed away from a long battle with COPD, I got an email from Moorings that they had a Leopard 40 become available in Martinique. They had been marketing it to their French clientele but couldn't sell it so were opening up the pool. I felt that it was a sign and we ended up buying the boat after some negotiations with Moorings. Then COVID hit and the boat has been rarely chartered and I still get paid each month. We were super glad we went with Moorings/Sunsail as to my knowledge they were only company who continued to pay their owners through COVID. After spending about 4 weeks sailing in the USVI this past year we are also super glad we didn't go with Dream Yachts. MIDiver, we saw everything you mentioned and more in that time!

We ended up also buying a condo in St. Thomas as, due to COVID, we sold our Denver condo because my husband now works from home and doesn't have to commute to Denver for work anymore. So, thanks everyone for the information!

Hahaha - I didn’t even look at the original dates on the thread. For some reason all the comments came up as “new” on the thread today. Bizarre. So glad everything worked out for you!

The last time we chartered was in October 2019. I remember them as a very kind, helpful, and responsive company. I mean, any time we had a question or an issue, they would answer and try to find the best solution. Since we moved to Miami, we didn't have the opportunity to sail with their boats. However, I found a great yacht rentals on https://www.vistayachts.com/. They have an insane variety of yachts, and most of them are available for a fair price. Besides that, their staff is also very kind and helpful. The best part is that their office is right next to my house.

I believe Vista Yachts is totally different than Dream Yacht Charters.

caribbeangirl13, I know your original question is two years old now, but I have some experience I can share that may be helpful (if it's not moot by now).

I chartered from DYC Scrub Island in April 2019 and had a good experience with the company, as a charterer - I can't comment on the ownership perspective. We had a very new Bali 4.5 for nine nights; I think we were the third party to take it out. There's been some comparison of catamarans in this thread. We liked the Bali for the purpose of cruising in the Virgin Islands, but I can't comment on its suitability for other purposes e.g. offshore passagemaking. We liked the open space concept, the forward seating area and large opening window from the salon to it, the full-size refrigerator, etc. It sailed well enough for me at the time but I never could get the helm perfectly balanced; there was always some rudder angle.

Then in November 2021 I crewed the delivery of an FP Saona 47 from Jamestown RI to the USVI for New England Sailing Center / Swain Sailing School and Yacht Charters. There was a DYC Astrea 42 at Jamestown in bad shape, and I heard some stories from NESC/Swain people about DYC opening a base on St. Thomas and another up in Jamestown, and that both were more or less disasters - not up to the standard of their BVI base at Scrub Island. Obviously that's second-hand hearsay, but maybe there is corroboration of it on this forum or others (e.g. USVI Cruisers and Boaters Facebook group). The Saona 47 was up to the task of a 12-day, 1800-mile passage with some weather and seas. But personally I'm not crazy about the off-center helm station.

I just got back from ten nights on a Lagoon 46 from CYOA. The CYOA people were good to work with and their base is in a great location from a logistical perspective. They have a variety of cats in their fleet from FP, Lagoon, and Nautitech.

Since we're in the same state, if we're ever up Vail way, or you're ever down Denver way, it would be great to get together for a coffee or beer or lunch and compare notes. I sure would like to hear your perspective on owning a boat in charter.

carribeangirl13, Im an owner with Dream in the Dream Easy program, have some candid thoughts on the subject, email me at jwalker3194@msn.com