Bareboat charter companies

Please tell me which companies are best for a bareboat monohull charter without their captain. Looking for nice boats about 50 plus feet, good people to work with especially if problems arise. Thanks!

Highly recommend CYOA out of St. Thomas. What kind of problems you expecting?

ProValor without doubt.

BVI Yacht Charters has a couple of monos that are very nice in that size range...and we love them. Going into our 6th charter with them in a month.

CYOA has a nice new Beneteau 48 with gen/air and water maker. We've chartered with them five times in the last three years and were very happy. Its nice to be able to visit the pristine bays of St. John on the first and last nights.

Cheers, RickG

That Bene 48 is a VERY nice boat and you can sail out of STT which is a big bonus too!

FairWind II

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Moorings / Sunsail (sister companies) are good choices too. Recent boats, huge choice, nice base in Road Town, 4 hour guarantee if problems arise, and on-line quotes.

I don't think out of any that you'll see mentioned that there's a bad choice. They all have their pros/cons.

We've used Moorings exclusively since we bought in their program after our 2nd charter. We've been happy every trip. Our boat will be moving to ProValor so I can recommend them as well, just don't have first hand experience chartering with them, but know those that have.

The Admiral and I were talking last night about the best charter companies we’ve dealt with in the many many years of chartering. The quick answer was CYOA.
They treat you like family first but are all business.
Their boats are not just clean, they’re CLEAN and everything works.
We’ve been from the Bahamas to the Grenadines and they’re the best we have experienced.
Did I mention everything works?

I think most people would be happy with any of the charter companies - it is that competitive. A lot of us have our favorites (ours is BVI Yacht Charters) but often it comes down to personal preferences and nuances. Things like having the particular boat you want being available, equipment, base location, small/large company, sailing restrictions or price. I don't think there is any "one size fits all" charter company but they all do a pretty good job. The few times we've had boat issues they've all been pretty responsive to getting the issue fixed. In other words, no one is on our "black list".

I second salica's vote: Pro Valor. While a tier-two charter company, Jim and Cecilia Donagan and their quality marina hands are the most down-to-earth, easy-going, but thorough charter company we've dealt with. A far cry from the larger charter companies; Pro Valor is a dream to deal with. Cecilia has provided rapid responses to my communications and never seems to let me (or my crew) down. Great people, good boats; Love me some Pro Valor! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

For us it always came down to who had the boat we wanted with the equipment we wanted. At the time it was almost always Horizon, but I have no idea what their inventory looks like now.

All of the companies are pretty decent, just depends on what you're looking for.

BVIYC has been out company of choice for the last 7 of our 14 BVI charters. They have several boats that will fit your needs and they are great to work with. Bonus: Riteway is just across the street for provisioning. Easy in and out of the harbor. Heading back with them next year

Agreed. We have chartered a bunch of times and have used Horizon all but once. It is all about equipment for us too and we even used a broker on our last charter just in case there was something out there that would better suit our needs. Funny thing was we ended up with Horizon again. Decide what you want/need and find a boat that will fill those desires and you will not be disappointed.

So what is the equipment that some of you mention that you must have?

Totally agree with FatDaddy 're ProValor. Small (but growing) company, boats always seem to be in good shape, great rates, even greater people to work with.

Answering what equipment we are looking for...
We are looking for a different boat each time depending on how many of us there are. We have normally had 2-3 cabins/heads, 46-52 foot monohulls. With Horizon we found there was a good variety of boats in that size range. I also like that you can look at the exact boat you are chartering. Which I imagine you can with any of the smaller companies as well. Another reason to choose Horizon is Nanny Cay. We have stayed at the hotel after charters and have stayed on the boat before and have enjoyed all that the resort has to offer.