Part II: the float plan, the boat and DYC. I want to stress again, as I stated in the quick thoughts post I made earlier, that the ideal itinerary for the BVI is one that lists things you want to do or see and work them in as your trip unfolds. After doing this a couple of times, I like this approach a whole lot more than a rigidly planned itinerary but your mileage will vary.

I'd offer that the less familiar you are with the area, the tighter your plan might want to be. This affords some chart and anchorage study before your charter using the BVI Cruising Guide along with the VI Anchorages book. I'm not sure I would have wanted to not have a plan on my first charter but still, you could look at the charts in a big picture sort of way then do more detailed chart and anchorages study based on what you want to do on any given day. Work out a way to do this/plan that suits the lowest common denominator among your crew. Everyone is happier that way.

DYC and check out: after a sleep aboard, the next morning JO Oliver, the dock master, came to our boat right at 8am as we had discussed the day before. He saw we were still enjoying breakfast so asked if we wanted him to come back. We said sure, give us about an hour. He returned then, we went through the inventory, equipment check out and chart briefing in about 45 minutes. I have my own check list and went through it before JO arrived. The dingy OB and the dingy itself was pretty ruff. JO replaced both quickly. Everything else was fine.

DYC is a small operation nested with two other companies in Hodges Creek - Marine Max and the Catamaran Company. There is a nice motel and restaurant at the marina. There is a smaller version Riteway in East End, maybe a five minute drive away. It's walkable in about 15 I suspect. Went there twice, once for a bag of ice and once for some supplies. The place is Ok.

I have a personal bias toward the smaller companies. It's just my preference but I like being treated like a sailor and not a contract number. 1 year ago it was Horizon, also a small company. I liked both equally in terms of customer service and accessibility. On the day we checked out, it was very relaxed and calm.

The boat, Nautilust, a Beneteau 41 is brand new. It was commissioned and put into charter service in November of 2014. This one is the 3 cabin/2h version. It does not have AC or a genset. My view is that if you're going to charter in July/August, you have to either pick your anchorages carefully for a nice breeze and hope you get one or get a boat with at least dockside AC. The one thing this does aside from allowing for maybe a couple of nights in a slip with cool AC for sleeping, is dry stuff out a little when you are on a dock fueling, having lunch, whatever. Without AC you're in a constant state of dampness. Entirely workable for some, not for others. Just be aware.

The layout on these boats is super for chartering. They are very popular with both moorings and sunsail in their versions of it. It has an aft, L shaped galley with a big top loading freezer and front loading fridge. Both were very efficient although the freezer is a big power drain and the stock alternator and regulator on this boat isn't powerful enough to get that important last 10% of battery charge. It works though. We just ran the motor a lot. Dock side power got the batteries well charged which led us to the conclusion that the alternator/regulator combo is a little undersized. The Yanmar diesel is very efficient and powers this boat well. I think it's a 50, maybe 60hp. Very fuel efficient. Over 14d we burned 22 gallons while running the motor a lot to keep the battery bank up.

Cabinet and storage space in the galley is good. It was well equipped. The only thing we needed that wasn't there was a potato peeler. We used a French Press for coffee. There is a percolator aboard. Never used it. There is a microwave. We used it three times for reheating some meats and doing microwave bacon. Worked great as long as you ran the engine. It might be fine on just the batteries but you'll flat line them with repeated use leading to decreased battery life for lead acid batteries.

The aft head is spacious and has a separate shower area. Electric flush toilets. Good storage under and over the sink. The forward head is smaller with the usual plastic curtain thing to cover the sink and cabinets. Up here, you can pull the sink faucet out of its spot and mount it up higher as a shower. That works.

There is plenty of head room. One of our crew is 6'5". He had no problems getting around below although he did sleep in the cockpit as he felt a little claustrophobic in the aft cabin. The forward cabin is set up well with lots of storage space. My wife and I are smallish. We fit in there fine. There is nice big hatch above the forward berth. Good for cooling as long as there is a steady breeze. There is a small hatch in the starboard head and one next to it on the port side in the standing area of the forward cabin. Ventilation is ok and great if you leave the forward cabin door open. The saloon is spacious enough. The previous charterer broke the hinge on the table so there was no piece to allow the table to be dropped down to form a berth. Not a big deal except there is a big hatch center in the saloon and when you attach a breeze catcher at anchor the wind pipes through the whole boat nicely. I would have slept there if we could have made up the saloon berth.

The best part about this boat is the cockpit. It's huge. It's equipped with a electrically operated swim platform that's nice but probably won't last. There's a nice fold out table, lots of storage underneath it (don't use it for ice though - good for cans), huge lazeretts port and starboard and two large access hatches to storage lockers aft for bumpers and such. Stored all our canned bevs in the lazeretts and stocked the polar bear cooler from it each morning. Don't dump cold water out of the cooler. Leave a couple of inches of it in there when you put a new bag of ice in (in the plastic bag) as it helps to cool down warm cans

Sails like a dream but it's tender; you put a reef in at 17 true, a second at 22. It's a fractional rig with a larger main and a slightly smaller jib. The deck is very well laid out for sail handling. We experienced both those wind conditions and loved how it sailed with one reef, not with two. I didn't think it was the best boat hard on the wind. It seemed to like 35-40 degrees apparent a lot but not much closer to the wind. That's probably due to the shoal draft keel. A deep draft would be a better performer but at 7' your not going to Anegada. The boat sailed well off the wind, especially on a reach/broad reach with just the jib in 17+, the boat flew on those points of sail with both the main and the jib up. Overall this is a great boat for up to 6 folks.