Yacht charter holidays are gaining popularity among tourists looking for thrill and adventure during vacations. However, sailing could perfectly blend the adventure with relaxation, comfort, and pampering on a holiday, topped with safety. Yacht charter holidays are gaining popularity among tourists looking for thrill and adventure during vacations. However, sailing could perfectly blend the adventure with relaxation, comfort, and pampering on a holiday, topped with safety. Various companies offer yachts for charter across the world to access coasts and island. Many companies also offer to train people for bareboat chartering by teaching a course in basic seamanship. Companies also provide skippered charters that mean the boat shall have a skipper/captain and, if requested, a professional crew to aid the skipper and carrying out onboard duties . Tourists can choose boat charters according to their sailing abilities, comfort need, privacy requirements, or adventurous spirit.
Bareboat charters involve chartering the boat and skippering it too. It is always better if a group charters a bareboat among themselves so that the sailing and other onboard duties can be divided. Bareboat charters come with a lot of responsibilities though as the sailor has to take on a lot of responsibilities such as following the flag etiquettes, knowledge about the port duties while spending time offshore, a knack of weather forecasting to decide on the favourable time to sail. Tourists enthused about the bareboat charters must follow the regulation laid down by individual countries for sailing in their waters. Most countries allow the sailors in the sea with International Certificate of Competence (ICC) British RYA practical day skipper too are accepted. The non-tidal version of the same is also enough for the eastern Mediterranean Basin because of rare tidal influences. The Greek port authorities sometimes require two sailing licenses. Crewmember apart from the skipper also need a license but the "level of competent crew" or up is sufficient.
Other option to enjoy your holidays in privacy and with safety of a guided tour is to choose flotilla charter. In a flotilla, the sailor shall skipper his own boat but shall follow the lead boat along with a group of (often 4 to 8) other boats. The flotilla leader is an experienced skipper who guides the flotilla fleet throughout the scheduled tour of various ports. Flotilla leader helps the following skippers regarding mooring, anchoring, weather forecasts and even possible lunchtime. The downside of flotilla charters include not being able to sail freely and decide your own route. In addition, the smaller ports, which sometimes hold more attraction, are not accessible with the group of boats.
There is possibility of renting a Yacht as a crewed charter, with an instructor/ captain only or fully crewed including deckhands, hosts, cook. Luxury motor yachts, the sailing yachts that are above 56 feet, mega yachts, and gulets are always crewed. Such cruises though expensive than flotillas or bareboat charters allow tourists to discover turquoise bays, little fishing ports, and secluded islands. They are not crowded unlike cruise liners, you can have friends and family aboard and decide your own itinerary.
