Blue Water Sailing Summer, 2023

BLUE WATER SAILING

14 NEW CRUISING MONOHULLS 2023 FALL BOAT SHOW PREVIEW

RIDING OUT HURRICANE MITCH IN GUATEMALA NAVIGATION SYSTEMS FOR CRUISERS BEST CHARTER DESTINATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Photo by L.Fruchaud

ANNUAL BOAT SHOW PREVIEW

IN THIS ISSUE WE ARE HAPPY TO BRING YOU highlights of 14 new cruising monohulls that will be making waves at the fall boat shows in the U.S. and Europe. As we were putting the section together, we noticed several trends emerging in cruising boat design.

First, there seems to be a new emphasis on boats in the 40-foot size range. This is a change from all of the activity in the 50-plus range that has been so dominant of late. A 40-foot cruising sloop is a great size for a couple and perfectly capable of carrying them safely across oceans. And, the cost to buy and own a 40-footer is significantly less than cruising boats over 50 feet.

More and more designers are going with self-tacking jibs or with Solent rigs. Self-tacking jibs are great for close-hauled sailing and reaching but are less effective downwind, hence the need to rig a reacher that flies forward of the jib – that’s the Solent configuration. It’s a good system that can be easily managed from the cockpit by a lone watch stander.

Twin rudders are here to stay and are used on more of our modern cruisers. The reason is simple. Many new designs have very broad beams aft and fairly flat underbodies. When the boat heels to 15 degrees or more, a single rudder will cavitate and lose its connection with the water, causing the boat to broach. Two rudders mean you always have one rudder fully immersed and engaged. The downside is that twin rudders are not protected by the keel.

Hardtop Biminis are appearing on new designs as well as Targa-type arches. Often these two are combined. The protection from sun and rain these hard tops provide is great. Plus, they get the mainsheet tackle out of the cockpit. Several boats with hard tops have roll-away sun roofs that will give the helmsperson a good view of the mainsail. And, hardtop Biminis are a good place to mount solar panels.

Lastly, T-bulb keels are now appearing on designs that we would consider to be racer-cruisers. While T-bulbs enhance stability and windward sailing performance, they also have the bad habit of snagging crab and lobster pot lines and seaweed. But, it seems the performance trade-off of a T-bulb is gaining a following so builders are offering them.

Have fun at the boat shows this fall.

BLUE WATER SAILING

summer 2023

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Bob Gleason

Derek Escher

George Day

On Thursday, Sept 14th join three multihull experts to learn how to buy, equip and master multihull cruising. We’ll take you through the decision process on what multihulls to buy, how to evaluate the available design styles and brands, how to equip and fit out a cruising multihull for safety and comfort, and how to gain the skills you need to really enjoy the multihull cruising life. Plus, we’ll answer all your multihull questions and steer you to boats, charter companies and sailing schools that fit your personal requirements.

Pricing:

$50 per person / $90 per couple

Location of Seminar:

Seamen’s Church Institute located within the Show at 15 Market Square, Newport, RI

Date/Time:

September 14th from 9am to noon

Note: Admission ticket to the Newport International Boat Show is not included in the above seminar. Purchase admission to the show here. Limited Seating, Recommending to purchase in advance.

Click here to sign up.

The Presenters

Bob Gleason

Bob Gleason started sailing on monohulls of all types. During high school, he was captain of the sailing team and in college sailed with the national Championship team at of the Tufts University Jumbos. Bob raced both monohulls and multihulls to a number of national championships.

After more than 10 years representing Hobie Cat and Windsurfing International, including a stint as the chairman to the Olympic Windsurfing Exhibition event at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Bob found his focus with Corsair Trimarans. After four years working for the Corsair Marine Bob launched The Multihull Source in 1995.

His emphasis on performance did not waiver as he went on to win nearly a dozen Corsair National Championships. In 40 years, Bob has owned and

campaigned more than 30 different catamarans and trimarans. Bob and The Multihull Source promote performance multihull sailing: Bob started Gunboat Multihulls, Inc. in 2003, has represented, Windrider, Weta, Prout, Gemini, Catana, and HH, and now represents Corsair, Seawind, and the exciting latest addition, Rapido trimarans. He is currently campaigning the latest Tri Me, a Rapido 40.

Derek Escher is a lifelong sailor. He resides in Barrington, Rhode Island. He has been active in the catamaran business since 1994, and has been a broker since 1999, also representing Outremer, HH, Catana, Gunboat and other brands.

Derek owned and operated Katimavik Adventures, a charter catamaran, from 1995-2000 in the Grenadines (Caribbean). He is currently a broker with Just Catamarans based in Ft Lauderdale Florida. Derek has extensive experience teaching, and in racing sailboats. Derek has a lot of offshore miles, having sailed between New England and the Caribbean more than 20 times, and he has taught offshore passagemaking.

While Derek’s passion is high performance sailing multihulls, he is equally adept at discussing luxury cruising cats and even performance monohulls.

George Day, who lives in Middletown, RI, is the founder, publisher and editor of Day Communications, Inc., which publishes the magazines Blue Water Sailing and Multihulls Today and the weekly e-newsletters Cruising Compass and Cruising Odyssey (edited by Peter Janssen). In the 1980s, at the start of his career, he was the second editor of Cruising World magazine. In the 1990s, George, with his wife Rosa and their two sons Simon and Tim, spent five years circumnavigating the world westabout via the Panama and Suez Canals aboard their 43-foot ketch Clover.

George has sailed many thousands of miles on modern cruising catamarans and trimarans, including an offshore passage on the first Gunboat, Tribe, from Charleston to Newport through a Cape Hatteras gale and from Virginia to the BVI on the Outremer 51 Archer.

George is a member of the Cruising Club of America, the Ocean Cruising Club, the Seven Seas Cruising Club and Ida Lewis Yacht Club. He is the author of three sailing books: Out There (with Herb McCormick), Safety at Sea and The Well Managed Sailboat.

Derek Escher

George Day

Salty Dawg’s Caribbean Rally

November 1, 2023 departure

Hampton, VA and October 28, Newport, RI (weather permitting)

THE LARGEST RALLY LEAVING THE U.S. EAST Coast each fall is the Caribbean Rally hosted by the Salty Dawg Sailing Association, the fleet departs from Hampton VA or Newport RI, to head offshore to points south. Read more about the Newport departure.

It is not only the largest organized flotilla of cruisers leaving the U.S. East Coast for the Caribbean—but the most fun. The Caribbean Rally helps sailors arrive safely in the Caribbean and opens the door to new lifelong friends and experiences while cruising.

Where will you head this fall? The Caribbean Rally provides you a choice of destinations. While the bulk of the fleet heads to Antigua, some choose to make landfall in the Abacos in the Bahamas.

Whatever your destination, you will have the full support of SDSA either way. If you’re considering cruising the Caribbean, read this article by Bob Osborn, Rally Director, A Case for Making Landfall in Antigua.

www.leopardcatamarans.com I info@leopardcatamarans.com

The modest rally fee includes weather routing by Chris Parker of the Marine Weather Center, position tracking by PredictWind, and an extensive level of coordination and support from our shoreside team during the offshore passage. Once accepted into the rally and rally fees are paid, you will have access to extensive information to help you prepare for a safe passage, including information about your destination and arrival plans.

Questions? Need more information?

Reach out to Bob Osborn, Rally Director, at bob@saltydawgsailing.org or for Bahamas specific questions contact Allen Roberts, Bahamas Port Captain, at bahamas@saltydawgsailing.org.

Events begin about a week prior in Hampton, VA and boats gather for final

boat and crew preparation, seminars, social events and weather briefings. A highlight of these events will be a live Search and Rescue (SAR) with a USCG J-Hawk helicopter, right out in front of the Marina where our events are to be held. It is an amazing experience to see and hear this display, a spectacle that you will not soon forget.

Departure is scheduled for November 1 from Hampton and Newport, weather permitting. Each Captain is expected to make the best decision for his crew and boat when picking a departure date. Passage time for boats headed from Hampton to the Bahamas averages 4-6 days, and the boats traveling the 1,400 NM to Antigua generally arrive in 10-14 days.

Both VHF radio and offshore communications equipment are required.

Months of preparation, full days of sailing, star-filled nights. Does it get any better thanthis?

Whether it’s racing or cruising, family boat or mega-yacht, sailors the world over trust Sea Frost to keep the ice cream solid and the cold drinks coming all along the way.

Sea Frost, 148 Old Concord Tpke. Barrington, NH 03825

Sea Frost — Chill Out with a Winner.

Don’t forget to stay in touch with the Salty Dawgs on Facebook; Salty Dawg Sailing and Friends

Rally participants, both skippers and crew will also have the opportunity to participate in a dedicated rally forum where questions and plans can be shared with other rally participants and experts. Details are available to registered boats and crew.

The SDSA unites experienced ocean

sailors with developing cruisers to broaden their blue water horizons. All Salty Dawg rallies and events are led by seasoned sailors who volunteer their time and knowledge to help cruisers realize their dreams

Check our the Caibbean Rally here. Visit the Salty Dawg’s website here.

Sign to be a member of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association here.

Manta 42 Project

Our

Photo: Billy Black

Hurricane Mitch

Riding out the storm in Guatemala

by Susan Cole

I FIRST HEARD ABOUT HURRICANE

Mitch at dinner with our friends Julien and Charlotte in the thatched-roofed marina restaurant on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. John had been gone about a week on a business trip to New York. Eating at the awful marina restaurant, our conversation revolved around fabulous meals we had enjoyed elsewhere, in contrast to the rubbery steak and tasteless bread we now consumed. The children played tag under the empty tables. Some boaters focused on a TV at the bar where a weatherman pointed to a cloudy mass drifting around the Western Caribbean.

“A hurricane, but it doesn’t look like it is headed our direction. And Category 1 is not bad,” Julien said after wandering over to the TV to check it out.

I trusted Julien’s judgment. Julien

and Charlotte had sailed across the Atlantic and raced in world-class sailing races. I wasn’t sure, though, whether he would play it down to keep me from worrying. The pit of my stomach tingled. The others who had listened to the weather milled around, ordering more watery Gallo beer, yawning, and playing cards. A couple of people leafed through the used books, looking for something to read before bed. It was the end of October, late in the season for a hurricane. It didn’t feel like a crisis. Still, I wanted John around if something major was happening.

The next morning, I dropped Kate off at her friend Riley’s boat, Big Easy, and went to Felipe’s Internet café in Fronteras to write John and see what information Felipe had about Hurricane Mitch. Before this voyage, I associated the dinghy with summer weekends in

Connecticut harbors when we would pass other sailors heading into shore to quaint seaside restaurants—a man running the dinghy, a woman and children alongside. Since John left, Kate and I had been bombing around the river together and on our own, like teenagers with new licenses. But we were not on a summer vacation; the dinghy was our lifeline.

Felipe sat before his computer with a small crowd of locals and cruisers around him. He was in his thirties, mustachioed, and six feet tall, an unusual height here. He had lived in the States before returning to his native country.

The satellite picture on Felipe’s screen showed a fiery mass covering most of the Western Caribbean. Mitch was huge. Winds had strengthened to Category 5. At two hundred miles per hour, it was the largest and strongest hurricane on record. It had strengthened rapidly from the evening before. There was talk of evacuation. We gawked at each other.

“I’ll keep track of it and broadcast over the radio. Check channel 67,” Felipe said in Spanish, then in English. He printed out a copy of the satellite map and scotchtaped it to the window in his door. In a daze, I headed for a computer to check email. I would have to handle a Category 5 storm without John. John and I had weathered a couple of weak hurricanes when we lived in Connecticut on Phaedrus. This was not the first time John was away during a storm, either. He had been

away for the storm in Beaufort, North Carolina, earlier in the voyage. Now, I was in a poor foreign country in what was shaping up as a major disaster. A cold shiver wriggled through my gut.

John had just heard about Mitch—his email had yesterday’s date when Mitch was not yet very powerful. He wished he could be with us. Just hearing his

words in my head calmed me. I looked around to see people shouting anxiously into Felipe’s long-distance phones and frantically typing on keyboards.

Got your message. You sound better by a lot. Why is it every time I do this, you find a storm? Looks like it will hit Cancun…you’ll only be on the edge… If the wind starts getting much higher than 30-40 just worry that the dinghy is well-secured, you’ve got extra lines out, and the sail cover has been lashed. If it looks like a lot over 50-60, get the jib and main off, and anything that could blow away lashed down. But I doubt that will happen, you’re in an incredibly well-protected lagoon. So, I’m not worrying about you. And if it looks REALLY bad, I assume you’ll get the hell out. I do, however, wish I was there.

Talk to you later. Vaya con Dios.

“Vaya con Dios.” Go with God. John wasn’t a religious person. Was that a joke? The little phrase eased into my psyche as my anxiety rose. Evacuation scenarios rattled through my mind. The only way out of Fronteras was on a “chicken” bus to Guatemala City crowded with villagers bringing produce to city markets. I imagined waiting on

the road in Fronteras, rain pelting down, Kate and I huddled together in foul weather jackets, our dog Elmo’s curly hair flattened and ears drooping.

I headed back to the marina in the dinghy. On a broad open stretch of the river, the sun shone in a clear sky, but the color was strange, light gray, and flat-looking: a greeting from Mitch, still hundreds of miles out.

As my sense of urgency mounted, all was as usual at Susanna’s Lagoon. People languidly moved around the docks or the boats. True, any weather coming in from the Caribbean would travel a long way up the river, hopefully wearing itself out before reaching us. But I figured the other boaters simply hadn’t heard the latest. I would pass along what I knew.

I tied the dinghy up at our dock and surveyed the boat. I grabbed loose pails and cushions and stashed them below. I lashed the mainsail to the boom, winding a couple of extra lines around it with narrow loops and strong knots, as John had advised. The heavy Dacron mainsail weighed about eighty pounds. If Mitch stayed at full strength, I would have to wrestle it below myself. I hoped that Mitch’s winds would die down and that a tight lashing would be enough. It felt good to take action.

I wished Kate were with me. It made me smile to imagine her worried, determined little face. I could have assured her that I knew what to do, prompting a skeptical glance. There was still plenty of time to pick her up before the storm. Elmo watched quietly

from the cockpit.

I jumped down on the dock to figure out where to tie extra dock lines. The cleats at Susanna’s were small wood stubs barely screwed in, fine for normal conditions—no wind—but not for anything stronger. The loose swaying pilings were not reassuring.

“It’s a bitch, ain’t it?” said George, our neighbor across the dock. His sharp Texas twang burst through the soft Spanish of marina workers and guests in the background.

George was in his sixties with a weatherbeaten face and gray hair cut military style. He had worked oil rigs out of Galveston, then retired and sailed his old sloop to the Rio Dulce. The boat had a large cockpit where George and his Guatemalan girlfriend hung out— although girlfriend was not quite the right term. George and a few other oil rig retirees with boats at Susanna’s had made arrangements with Guatemalan families. In exchange for money, their teenaged daughters cooked, cleaned, and washed down the boats. Sex was part of the bargain.

I was appalled at these arrangements. The men were old, on the rough side, and in the States, would be marginal characters. The girls should have been in school, not forced to take care of the men. Every Sunday, the families picnicked on the decks of the boats, and received their weekly take. I ranted about it to John, who told me to stay out of it.

George suggested tying the extra lines around the entire dock and jumped down to help. I passed him the line, and he wound it under his

side and passed it back for me to tie the knot. We did that with two more lines. As dilapidated as the docks were, the dock as a whole would have greater strength than one barely attached piece. This was the most extensive conversation I’d had with George since I usually avoided him in distaste, which he had most likely noticed. Nonethe-less, I was grateful for George’s neighborly aid.

I jogged to the restaurant for lunch. The TV at the bar showed a map of the Bay Islands of Honduras. Mitch had stalled over the tiny island of Guanaja, a center for the shrimping business, and pounded it at 180 miles an hour for twenty-four hours. One of the boaters, a ham radio operator, reported total devastation. The weatherman on TV mentioned terrible flooding in other parts of Honduras and Nicaragua, and loss of life in the thousands. Boaters crowded around the TV and, aware that we were next, gawked at the destruction.

The good news was that winds had backed down to Category 1, seventyfive to ninety-five miles an hour, but now, Mitch was turning westward— toward us—rather than following a

northward path predicted earlier. Mitch was still a gigantic storm. We were not in the strike zone, but we were slated for severe weather. Flooding would be horrendous.

The air quality had changed. Whitishgray clouds filled the sky. In the eerily still air, no birds sang, no animals cried. In a thick gray silence, we waited for Mitch.

Over lunch with Julien and Charlotte, I joked about John’s well-timed absence while my heart raced. The ordinariness of eating another poorly prepared meal belied my rising panic. Among the other diners, concern was etched in lines on foreheads or tightly set lips. No one knew what was coming or what would be standing afterward. We could be in the same dreadful predicament as Honduras and Nicaragua.

Mitch edged closer, and the thick gray, silent sky closed in. By late afternoon, the first raindrops fell. I reached Big Easy on the radio. Kate and Riley were playing Monopoly. It was too late to retrieve her. Kate would stay with them overnight.

At dinner in the restaurant that evening with Julien and Charlotte, we ate amid a torrential downpour while dodging leaks in the roof. Dense curtains of rain enveloped us. The rain relentlessly increased and the wind built.

I stared into the blackness and wondered how I would get back to the boat. Hunched against the downpour, I picked my way back to the boat in the dark and called Kate. She was still playing Monopoly with Riley’s family. The girls had been taking breaks to run out on deck into the rain until Riley’s mom stopped them, fearing they might slip into the deluge.

The ferocity of the storm thrilled Kate and Riley. Most days on the Rio Dulce, the rain came and went uneventfully. Unlike the anxious adults, the children couldn’t wait for the devastation to come.

Days later, after the rain stopped, Kate, Riley, and I toured the lagoon in the dinghy. The contours of the flooded restaurant and bar had shifted. Mesmerized, we drifted nearby. It was too dangerous to tie up at the restaurant’s submerged dock. Sharp protrusions might pierce the dinghy or our feet.

I hadn’t seen the restaurant since the rain started. Water had risen to the tops of the bar stools. The bartender sloshed around the back of the bar in water up to his chest, serving drinks to two grizzled old men, probably my neighbor George’s cohorts. As I gazed at the silent drinking men, I imagined them riding out the hurricane there, through the deluge that overwhelmed three countries. Warm dirty water would have reached their waists as they sat unperturbed, and the bartender attentively refilled their glasses.

Estimates were that Mitch left 11,000 dead, mostly in Honduras and Nicaragua, and many more thousands throughout Central America homeless.

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO WE WERE struck by lightning just as we were leaving West End, the Bahamas on our way north to our home port in Newport, RI. The storm was a monster thunder and lightning show in the Gulf Stream that went on for six hours. We didn’t actually feel the strike and we didn’t lose our electronics all at once as you might expect from a direct hit.

But, over the next few days as we sailed north towards Hatteras, gremlins started to appear in the electronics. The autopilot developed a mind of its own and would suddenly shift 20 degrees to port. The chartplotter (MFD) would lose the GPS position and would need to be rebooted to reacquire it. Even the radar would shut itself off without warning and need to be rebooted to start it up again. Something was definitely wrong.

We had a great trip north despite the gremlins and were able to work around the issues with a little extra diligence. When we got home, we got the system checked by our pals at Cay Electronics and they couldn’t put their finger on the exact problem but they could see that things were amiss. We contacted our insurance company who sent a surveyor to check out the system.

Navigation Systems for Cruisers

Here’s how we replaced our entire array of marine electronics

by George Day

The conclusion was that the lightning strike had fatally damaged the entire electronics package so our system was condemned and the insurance company agreed to replace it with all new gear. That meant we had to start from scratch and design for ourselves, with the help of the experts at Cay, an entirely new and modern navigation system for the boat.

THE BASICS

Our boat, a Jeanneau 45.2, has a big, useful chart table with ample room for mounting radios and screens and a large cockpit table where a chartplotter was mounted in a NavPod. With redundancy being the heart of good seamanship, we made the executive decision at the outset to replace the chartplotter (MFD) on the cockpit table with a new one and to add a second MFD at the chart table. The unit down below has a touch screen while we chose not to use a touch screen in the cockpit because it is too susceptible to random touches that could create navigation problems.

The latest developments in MFDs have made these all purpose navigation tools easy to use and very sophisticated. On some models on the market, such as

the B&G MFDs, you will find that a lot of functions specific to sailing have been included in the software so you can generate your best sailing angles, the right times to tack and how to interface your sailing data with current and tide information.

We use Navionics digital charts on the chartplotters so these had to be reloaded and then updated via a laptop and the online updates. Navionics has a crowd-sourcing online function that allows users to submit chart updates for review and possible posting.

Because of the ability to share data from instruments and sensors across the network we felt it was important to go with a single manufacturer so we would be confident that each unit would talk seamlessly with the whole network. In our case, we had Raymarine on the boat when lightning struck so the insurance company replaced it with the same brand and similar but newer models. The MFDs we installed were the 12inch eSeries models that can display and control all instrument functions with the exception of the autopilot. The processors in these units are so fast these days that screens refresh almost instantaneously. We have used the B&G, Simrad and Furuno MFDs which have similar refresh rates and the full range of functions.

The GPS antenna had to be replaced so the entire old network was removed and new cables run to the radar pole that we had installed at the stern. This tower is where most of the antennas for the boat are mounted. GPS, of course, is the key to the whole navigation system. It is hard to believe that GPS has only been around for 30 years since it plays such a big role in our everyday lives. The U.S. government which

maintains the fleet of satellites offers worldwide coverage and when at least four satellite are in an antenna’s view will render an accurate position to within a guaranteed minimum of 25 feet and often much better than that. In fact, modern GPS receivers and satellites often team up to place you within three feet of your actual position.

From our point of view, the MFDs and GPS are the basic navigation system but to get the data you need to allow the software to do its job – in our case Lighthouse 1 – we needed to include a depth sounder, speedo-log and wind instruments and individual multifunction displays where the data can be viewed right at each of the twin helms. We chose the i50 displays with one each for speed, depth and other functions and one each for wind speed and true and apparent wind direction. With boat speed, course, chart, wind speed and direction and GPS data flowing to the MFD, the software can calculate true wind speed, apparent wind speed, true and apparent wind angles, speed through the water, velocity made good, current or tide direction and speed and laylines for favored tacks.

With this navigation system you could

sail safely anywhere in the world, although you might find that the digital charts for some remote areas have not been updated with GPS based geo surveys. Once when anchored in the middle of the large harbor at Nuku Hiva, The Marquesas, French Polynesia, the GPS showed us positioned a mile inland on top of a 3,000 foot mountain.

THE FULL SYSTEM

In addition to the navigational basics, our boat also had radar and an autopilot, so these had to be replaced after the lightning strike. The autopilot was still acting peculiar and would turn suddenly for no reason and the radar would shut down at the worst possible moments.

The autopilot replacement involved a new cockpit mounted control head (p70), a new computer and sensor and a new drive unit. The latest systems from Raymarine and their competitors are so sophisticated that they appear to be very simple. With multi-directional sensors and digital compass input, the new autopilots can calculate sea states, yaw rates, pitch rates and adjust the speed and force of the helm corrections accordingly. We often use the wind instrument interface to set the pilot to steer to the apparent wind – much as a mechanical windvane does – and the new autopilot, after installation and tuning, drove the boat like a veteran helmsman.

The new digital radars, like the 48-mile unit we installed, have a lot of cool features. They turn on and off more quickly than our old analog radar, have a much sharper image, easy to use gain and filter functions and are excellent at focusing on objects close to the boat, an area that often was a dead zone for earlier radars. Plus the scanner is smaller and lighter (only 21 pounds) than the radar it replaced.

There are a few ways to use radar on the MFD. You can show the digital chart in one screen with the radar image in a second screen next to it; this gives you the real world that the radar is actually seeing with the digital world in the chart next to it with both screens being clear and easy to read.

Or, you can overlay the radar images right on top of the digital chart so the real world and the digital world can be viewed together. If the digital chart is not completely accurate, the difference between the overlay and the chart can be alarming.

The last item we installed in the new navigation system was new to us and not covered by the insurance. But, it is one of the most valuable new electronic tools to be developed in recently years and that is an automatic identification system transceiver (AIS). The AIS operates on the VHF bandwidths so the signal it receives from other vessels and the signal that you broadcast from your boat are line-of-sight. Depending on the height of your antenna, the range can be from 10 to 40 miles.

The AIS we installed shows its contacts on the MFD screen as an overlay that can be switched off when not in use or tuned with a set of filters to show all vessels, only the vessels near you,

only the vessels that pose a threat of collision and so forth. Standing night watches in busy shipping lanes can be a nerve-racking experience as you scan the horizon for ships and try to match what you see with images on your radar.

AIS gives you the data you need; scroll over the image on the MFD of a ship that is heading toward you and you will get the ship’s name, home port, speed, course, destination and the time to possible collision. With this information, you can call the ship by name on the VHF radio with the high likelihood of getting a reply…because the ship sees you on their MFD and knows who you are and the likelihood of a collision.

An added attraction to the AIS technology lies in the development in the last few years of personal locator beacons that transmit an AIS signal. If a person falls overboard, the PLB sends a signal that gives the precise location of the victim to any AIS equipped vessel nearby, particularly your own. This data reduces rescue times significantly and has and will continue to save lives. AIS transceiver technology is such a valuable safety tool, I would never go to sea again without it.

THE WISH LIST

Our boat was amazingly well tricked out with the latest marine electronics when all was said and done. We had everything we needed and more. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pine a bit for the latest and greatest new thing. What’s on the wish list?

First, a Starlink satellite internet connection so we can communicate easily and thus work from the boat.

Second, is a second autopilot for redundancy. This would be mounted so we could change from one to the other with the flip of a switch.

Lastly, we’d add a FLIR thermal imaging camera mounted up the mast, probably on a spreader, that can pan around in a circle and up and down remotely. These cameras show their thermal images on the MFD screen and give amazing clear images; they allow you to actually see in the dark and can be incredibly useful in a man overboard emergency or just when trying to find and pick up a mooring in total darkness.

I would never want to be struck by lightning again, and we know a few skippers who have been struck more than once, but going through the process of refitting our boat with an all new electronic navigation system was an eye-opener.

AS SUMMER DRAWS TO AN END,

many of us are beginning to make our winter sailing and cruising plans. We know we want to escape the winter, wherever we live, and heading off on a charter in some exotic and warm area certainly is appealing. Or, we may want to take a winter break to spend a week or more building sailing and cruising skills or learning how to sail and handle a big cruising catamaran. Or, we might even be game for setting off on an oceanic expedition to learn passagemaking and blue water cruising skills from seasoned pros.

There’s a lot on offer for sailing in the fall, winter and spring seasons, so you just have to wrap your mind around what appeals to you and your family and then book your trip. Remember, the earlier you book, the more choices you have. And, if you book during a boat show, you are bound to get the

best “boat show” rates.

SAILING AMERICA

In fall and spring, there are great charter opportunities around the watery coastlines of America that will allow you to stay in your home country and keep travel costs under control. The Chesapeake Bay has several charter companies that can get you out for a week or 10 days so you can explore the country’s largest and most diverse estuary. From Annapolis, MD, where most of the charter bases are located, you can sail north to Baltimore for an urban experience or head south to St. Michaels, Oxford and Solomon’s Island for a taste of the old waterman’s Chesapeake. Washington, DC is also a favorite stopover for those who want to explore our capital.

The Pacific Northwest in fall and spring offers a wide range of charter

options from bases in Tacoma, Seattle, Bellingham and beyond. The beautiful San Juan Islands are a favorite charter area where you will find plenty of moorings available and wonderful nature walks ashore. You will see eagles and osprey, and you might get a glimpse of a bear or two. You can sail across the border into Canada, too, if you feel like a wilder experience and the fun of going foreign.

California has several options for chartering. In the fall and spring, San Francisco Bay can offer brisk sailing and cool nights, but the breeze will be steady and you don’t have to contend with the fog that makes summer cruising in the Bay problematical. Fall is a great time to cruise inland to wine country and you can get right up stream to Napa for the fall harvest season.

Southern California has good sailing conditions all year round so you can get out to Catalina or cruise from harbor to harbor along the coastline in any season. For a long weekend or a weeklong cruise, Catalina is a good option with several good harbors to visit and the fun of a visit to Avalon Harbor. The

Channel Islands off Santa Barbara are a more challenging destination since both the weather and the prevailing currents – and cold water temperatures – can change quickly and storms are frequent. A crewed charter may well be the best option for most folks who want to charter in the area.

BAHAMAS BOUND

The island nation of the Bahamas lies just across the Gulf Stream from Florida but even though it is only 60 miles away, it offers charterers a whole new world of cruising to discover. Bahamians are laid back, friendly and always welcoming to sailors so everywhere you go you will be welcomed with open arms.

The northern Abaco islands have long been home to charter companies that mainly operate out of Marsh Harbour where you can fly direct from the U.S. The cruising area is varied but destinations are all close by so you don’t have to make long daily runs between anchorages. Plus, there are stopovers like Hope Town that will be fun for a couple of days.

The sailing in the Abacos can get boisterous in the winter months when northerly fronts, known as “rages”, descend upon the islands from the continental U.S. You can get pinned down for a couple of days when such a system blows through making sailing and anchoring in exposed harbors unpleasant. But, if you are chartering in winter, you will always have safe havens in Marsh Harbour and

Hope Town where there is plenty to keep you and your crew occupied.

Fall, spring and summer are great seasons for exploring the Abacos. The winds tend to be moderate easterlies and both air and sea temperatures rise to comfortable levels. The diving in the islands is always fun and there are abundant reefs to explore and a wide variety of fish to watch flitting among the corals.

South of Nassau lies the Exuma chain of islands that many veteran cruisers consider one of the finest cruising grounds, and least spoiled, in the world. The hundreds of islands that run from Allens Cay in the north to Stocking Island and George Town in the south offer many interesting and attractive anchorages that often you will share with only one or two other boats.

The Land and Sea Park based on Warderick Wells is a group of islands in

the north-central part of the Exumas that has been set aside as a nature preserve. To protect corals and underwater flora, moorings have been placed in several safe harbors that are close to the best snorkeling and hiking areas. You could spend a month exploring the park without spending more than a couple of days in one place.

For charterers sailing from the bases in Nassau, a weekly itinerary could take you to the park and then on to Staniel Cay and the famous Pigs Bay nearby where wild pigs greet you on the beach. If you charter for 10 days or two weeks, you could get all the way south to George Town to be part of the huge cruising community that gathers there every winter.

VIRGIN ISLANDS

The British Virgin Islands are still the center of the charter universe with the most boats available and the best

sailing and cruising grounds for a week of safe and casual sailing. The several charter fleets, including The Moorings, Sunsail, Dream Yachts Charter, TMM, Horizaon, Conch and more, are based in Tortola and there you will find good hotels, restaurants and provisioning.

From Tortola, a typical week-long charter will take you in a clockwise or counterclockwise circle with stops at Normans, Peter Island, Virgin Gorda, Anagada and Yost Van Dyke. The sailing is easy in mostly protected waters and there are moorings everywhere.

Highlights of any charter in the BVI will be snorkeling to the caves at Normans, diving on the wreck of the Rhone near Salt Island, swimming a the Baths at Virgin Gorda, sharing sundowners at Leverick Bay with singer Michael Beans, and a lobster dinner at Anagada. Foxy’s at Yost is a must stop and the food, and music will have you smiling.

The US Virgins are also a great starting point for a charter and there are several local charter companies in St. Thomas that and can get you started, including Island Yacht Charters and Waypoints. From St. Thomas, you can head east

to St. John, which has several good anchorages and plenty to do ashore. Or you can head west to the Spanish Virgins where you can enjoy the lovely islands of Vieques and Culebra.

DOWN ISLAND CARIBBEAN

While the BVI is the charter capital of the Caribbean, there are great charter destinations all through the West Indies from Puerto Rico to Grenada. If you have sailed the BVI and USVI and want a different experience, then chartering down island has a lot of options.

St. Martin, St. Barths and Anguilla are easy to get to and for a week of sailing, snorkeling, dining ashore and mingling with the jet set, these three islands have a lot to offer.

Antigua is still the sailing capital of the Eastern Caribbean and a great place to charter a sailboat. With charter bases in Jolly Harbour and English Harbour, you can choose to spend a week exploring the many anchorages around Antigua, or you can sail north to Barbuda which has some of the best beaches in the Caribbean and great snorkeling and diving.

North Americans don’t tend to charter in the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, but these islands are among the best in the whole Caribbean. As departments (states) of France, they have very modern facilities, great food and wine, excellent pastry shops and plenty of wonderful places to explore by boat. From Guadeloupe, you can explore Montserrat and St. Kitts to the north or Dominica to the south. Or, you can just explore the Isles des Saints right nearby. From Martinique, you can head north to Dominica or south to St. Lucia. The islands are tall and lush and have great hiking trails that lead to mountain tops and to waterfalls where the swimming is perfect. For a more sophisticated charter vacation, try the French islands. You won’t be disappointed.

THE GRENADINES

St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the island nation of Grenada form the southern end of the Eastern Caribbean island chain and offer some of the

world’s finest cruising and chartering grounds. From the charter bases at The Blue Lagoon in St. Vincent, you can head south to Bequia, Mustique and Canouan to enjoy safe harbors, amazing reefs and laid back Caribbean beach bars.

From Grenada you can head around the island coast, which is fun to explore, and then sail north by Kick ‘m Jenny to Carriacou and the southern islands of the Grenadines. Grenada is still one of the most pleasant and safest islands in the Caribbean, while St. Vincent has developed a reputation for thievery and muggings. The Grenadines themselves are totally safe and offer a unique “old Caribbean” ambience.

SOUTH PACIFIC

The hurricane season in the South Pacific runs from November through May but most tropical storm activity takes place in the far western side of the giant ocean, so French Polynesia and Tonga – two favorite charter areas

– are open for business all year round. In our winter months – the southern summer – the weather can be muggy and it will rain more often but for the most part the weather with be tropical, sunny and perfect.

The charter bases in French Polynesia are on the island of Raiatea in the Iles sous les Vents, a hundred miles west of Tahiti. Since it is a long way to fly from the U.S., many charterers will choose to spend a day or two on Tahiti before flying out the Raiatea to pick up their boats. There are a lot of things to do in Tahiti so time spent there will be fun for all. Once on a charter boat, the usual cruising routes will take you to anchorages around Raiatea and Tahaa, which share a giant lagoon. Then you can head to Huahine for a day or two before making the passage to Bora Bora. Huahine is a laid back, natural Polynesian island without a lot of tourism. It’s a great place to meet locals and enjoy their hospitality.

Bora Bora is everyone’s idea of the quintessential Polynesian island with its tall spire mountain in the middle, a large protected lagoon all around it and many little islets or motus with perfect sand beaches and great snorkeling. Bora Bora is a tourist island and can be overrun with visitors. But, it is still lovely and lots of fun.

A day-sail west of Bora Bora is the island of Maupiti, which resembles Bora Bora but is unspoiled by the tourist trade. The island is an all-natural Polynesian island that will take you back in time to the age before 747s. The weather has to be calm for a visit to Maupiti since a strong southerly swell can make the pass into the lagoon untenable. But, if you can make it, a visit will be the highlight of any Polynesian charter.

The best time to charter in French Polynesia is in June and early July when the villages all throughout the country are preparing for the annual festival called Hieva, which culminates on July 14. It is fullon party time and the locals make it really fun for visitors.

TONGA

The Vava’u Group of islands in northern Tonga is the charter destination in this remote but beautiful island kingdom. A collection of hundreds of small islands all crammed into a region that is 20 miles by 20 miles,

the group offers many anchorages, villages to visit, great beaches, caves to explore and amazingly settled weather.

The Vava’u group has not been developed for the tourist trade. There are hotels but the travelers who find the islands tend to be adventurers, scuba divers, back packers and charter groups. The locals are rustic and fairly poor, although year by year their economy gets stronger. The locals welcome sailors and often a village or a large family will offer, for a fee, to put on a traditional Tongan feast with roast pork, vegetables and music. For an offthe-beaten-track charter, Tonga offers a real adventure.

NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIA

These two countries are truly home to some of the world’s best sailors and to some of the best cruising grounds in which to charter. Both are safe to cruise in the southern summer (hurricane season) so they make great winter escapes for sailors from the Northern Hemisphere.

New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf is a huge and lovely place to sail with many anchorages, islands to explore and towns to visit. You can sail out of Auckland, the main city, or from charter bases in the Bay of Islands 100 miles to the north. You can spend a week in the Bay of Islands alone but then you would miss out on Great Barrier Island, the Coromandel Peninsula and islands like Waiheki where rustic life meets the prosperous set from the big city.

A charter in New Zealand should also be matched by a week of exploring the amazingly beautiful South Island.

Across the Tasman Sea, the huge island nation of Australia has one favorite charter region that is known worldwide. The Whitsunday Islands are home to several charter bases and the region offers sailors a combination of amazing white beaches, snug anchorages, great reef diving and plenty of fun ashore at the resorts and beach bars. The Aussies know a thing or two about having a good time, and sailing in the Whitsundays is certainly one of them. Like a visit to New Zealand, it makes a lot of sense to combine a land cruise with sailing vacation. Or, perhaps book a week of scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

SEYCHELLES

For North Americans, there is no more remote a charter area than the Seychelles in the middle of the Indian Ocean. This disparate group of rocky islands with vast coral formations and amazing white sand beaches is one of the most exotic places to sail in the world. Yet, it is today one of the most popular charter areas as well, particularly for Europeans.

Just getting to the Seychelles is an adventure in traveling, which for North Americans involves flying halfway around the world. But, once you get there, you will know that the effort was worthwhile because you are in a place like no other. The sailing is mild, the sun reliable and scenery second to none.

The islands are off the east coast of Africa so if you have in mind a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro or a safari on the Serengeti, then a charter in the Seychelles can be one exotic part of the vacation.

THE MED EXPERIENCE

For a mixture of ancient cultures, great food, wonderful wine and beauty, cruising the Mediterranean Sea has no equal. There are three basic regions to charter and explore: the Aegean Sea, the Adriatic and Ionian Seas and the west coast of Italy, Corsica and Sardinia and the Balearic Islands of Spain.

The Aegean is home to most of the famous Greek Islands and the west coast and Turquiose Coast of Turkey. Combined, there are thousands of islands, harbors, villages and towns to explore, thousands of beach bars in which to sip retsina or ouzo, thousands of beaches to stroll and ancient ruins to wander through.

In summer, the Aegean is a hot and stark region with blazing whitewashed buildings, many with blue roofs, and sparkling seascapes that are often torn up by the strong winds of the Meltemi. The best times to charter in the Aegean will be in spring and fall. The crowds are smaller, the Meltemi blows less frequently and the days and evenings will be cooler while the water temperature remains warm enough for long swims.

The Ionian and Adriatic Seas that lie between Greece and Italy and run up

to Croatia and Venice, form one of the prime charter areas of the Med. Thousands of rocky islands, often caped with ancient castles, forts and towers, offer endless opportunities for quiet anchorages, secluded bays and fun hikes inland. Then, there are the amazing, ancient coastal towns, with their crenelated castle walls, winding streets, busy waterfronts and excellent seafood bistros.

Italy offers an amazing selection of places to charter from the Bay of Naples, Capri and the Amalfi Coast in Italy’s southern region, to Elba and Corsica to the north. There are small charter fleets all along the Italian west coast and in Bonifacio, Corsica. Sardinia to the south

is an experience all on its own and you can spend as much time ashore as you do afloat when you charter there.

The most popular islands for chartering in the western Med are the Balearics off Spain’s east coast. The islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza are perfect for a mixture of fun sailing, interesting harbors, fun towns with vibrant night lives and great hiking and touring ashore. Strolling by the beautifully illuminated 13th century cathedral in Palma, Mallorca on a balmy summer night on the way back to the boat after a fine dinner ashore ranks as a memory not soon forgotten. You could spend a month exploring these islands and still not see all that you want to see.

2023 Fall Boat Show Preview

14 New Cruising Monohulls

The boat show season is ahead and builders from around the world are prepping their boats for the curtains to rise and the customers to walk in. Here are 14 new boats to look for.

BAVARIA C46

The all-new C 46 from the German builder is a pure cruising design with all the amenities you could need. The hull has a large beam and tons of interior volume, making the cabins –three, four or five cabin versions-- and saloon

extra spacious. The cockpit is huge and has a built-in barbeque and a wide folding swim platform. The new design has the Bavaria V-bow and hard chines for enhanced sailing performance. Bavaria has created a boat that is truly a comfortable second home with great water views. Read more.

BENETEAU OCEANIS YACHT 60

Beneteau’s new flagship is a stunning design from Roberto Biscontini and Lorenzo Argento that has a stylish, streamlined silhouette, a low cabin top and a semi-hard top Bimini over the cockpit with a roll-away sunroof. With 17’6” of beam, the hull is massive so the interior –with either three or four cabins—is incredibly spacious. The new 60-footer is a true blue water cruiser. Read more.

BENETEAU FIRST 36

For 40 years, the Beneteau First series has hit the sweet spot between all out performance and cruising comfort. The new First 36, designed in collaboration with Kritian Hajnsek, the chief designer at Beneteau subsidiary Seascape Yachts, has a hull that will plane in the right conditions. With a T-bulb keel and a powerful rig, the boat will claw to windward and show her stern to the competition. But, below you will find three comfortable cabins and a spacious saloon. The 36 is a fast, fun racer-cruiser for the whole family. Read more.

DEHLER 46 SQ

Famous in Europe for performance racer-cruisers, this year Dehler, which is a subsidiary of Hanse, will introduce flagship to the line. The 46 SQ was designed to be a performance cruiser that may never see a race course. The hull has a fairly narrow beam

BAVARIA C46

BENETEAU OCEANIS YACHT 60 BENETEAU FIRST 36

DEHLER 46 SQ

for enhanced upwind sailing and a minimum of wetted surface. The rig is powerful but manageable by a cruising couple. The interior provides three sleeping cabins, two heads and a roomy saloon that is full of natural light. This is cruiser for couples who love to sail. Read more.

cabin layout. In the latter, the 41 can sleep up to 10 souls. Dufour is known for innovation and the 41 is leading the way. A pure family cruiser, the 41 packs a lot in a relatively small envelope. Read more.

This 46-foot Rob Humphries design, introduced in 2022, is a sleek performance cruiser that can be handled by an experienced couple or manned by a full racing crew. It won the Design of the Year Award in Slovenia, where it is built, and was nominated for European Boat of the Year. Elan’s E series boats are built with high tech composites for stiffness and weight

DUFOUR 41

The new 41 follows in the wake of the 37 that was launched last year and shows a similar hull form. These boats are the future of Dufour, a venerable French brand. Emphasizing outdoor living, the 41’s cockpit is huge and with the stern folded down you have an extra patio with a built-in grill. The hull has a huge amount of volume so you can have either a three-cabin or four-

savings. With twin rudders and a T-bulb keel, it will perform like a spirited sports car. The E6 comes with either a three or four cabin layout. A true performer, the E6

ELAN E6

DUFOUR 41

ELAN E6

HALLBERG-RASSY 40C

will be a thrill to cruise and race. Read more

HALLBERG-RASSY 40C

The new HR 40C that was introduced last winter manages to pack all of the accommodations of the HR 44 into this smaller package. It is almost a magic trick. But, the Frers-designed hull has plenty of volume and HR knows how to make the most of it. The center cockpit is fairly large and can be protected with a hard dodger. Below, the aft cabin can have two berths or a single double. There is only one head. The galley and dinette are pure HR and will be excellent while on passage. This new HR will be many a couples ultimate cruising boat. Read more.

HYLAS 57

The Hylas brand has long been associated with fine blue water sailing yachts and hundreds of them are out there exploring the world. The new Hylas 57, designed by Bill Dixon, brings that concept to new level. Innovations in the boat include the hybrid cockpit, with sail handling separated from lounging, the large hard top over the twin helms, twin rudders and a Solentstyle sailing rig. Below, Hylas has gone with mega-yacht style and quality. It is a three-cabin boat with a huge saloon and chef’s galley. And, with very advanced systems throughout, this may be the smartest cruising boat in the fleet. Read more.

ISLAND PACKET 439

After more than 35 years in production, the Full Foil Keel designs that make Island Packet’s unique still stir the

summer, 2023

passions of many cruising sailors. The 439, introduced a couple of years ago, sticks with that proven concept. The rigs uses a Hoyt jibboom for the jib and a reacher is flown from the bow sprit. The cockpit is deep and secure and will be comfortable and safe at sea. The 439 is a twocabin boat with double berths fore and aft. The

HYLAS 57

ISLAND PACKET 439

saloon has two easy chairs, an L-shaped dinette with a fold down table and an excellent seagoing galley. If you’re looking for a traditional blue water cruiser, the 439 has your name on it. Read more.

J/BOATS J/45

As every sailor knows, J/Boats designs and builds performance sailing craft from the hugely popular J/80 to the J/60. The new J/45 was introduced in 2022 and has made a real splash in Europe and North America. The hull has a fairly narrow beam and a plumb bow and square stern. The rig is large and powerful with a big main, a selftacking jib and downwind sails flown from the bow sprit. The cockpit is large and uncluttered. Down below you’ll find double cabins fore and aft while a third cabin with bunk beds can be added to the starboard quarter cabin. The dinette will seat six and can be converted into a double berth. The U-shaped galley

will be secure at sea. If you are looking for performance with J/Boats inimitable style, the 45 is it. Read more.

JEANNEAU YACHTS 55

Once again the designers and engineers at Jeanneau have thrown convention to the wind and come up with a truly innovative new design in the new 55. They threw out a conventional cockpit and put the fold-out lounging areas all the way aft and the helms and sail trim functions forward. They installed a Targa arch over the helms to keep the main sheet out of the way and as an anchor for the large dodger. Access to the two very private quarter cabins is from the cockpit not the saloon, which makes all the space forward of the companion way, including the dinette and galley, part of the large owner’s suite in the bow. Wow. This is design innovation on the part of Philippe Briand and the Jeanneau team on an epic scale. Read more.

JEANNEAU YACHTS 55

NAUTOR SWAN 48 MKII

Forty eight feet is a magic number for Swan, the Finnish boat builder of luxury performance cruising yachts. The first 48 design was launched in 1971, the second in 1995, the third in 2019 and now, in 2023, a completely new Frers designed 48 MkII makes its debut. The new design is a thoroughly modern performance cruiser with that unique Swan aura of quality, excellence and timelessness. The MkII has sleek lines, a low profile cabin top and squared off ends, with a bow sprit. The rig is powerful but manageable by a couple from the cockpit. Below, three double cabins are standard with a large airy saloon and galley. The quality of the build, the systems installations and fit and finish are second to none. Read more.

many years. It is a classic couple’s cruiser with all of the Oyster heritage, quality and blue water capabilities in it’s DNA. A center-cockpit, raised deck saloon design, the 495 can be managed by a couple but will be comfortable for a crew of six accommodated in the master suite aft and the two guest cabins forward. Oysters are built to cross oceans and sail around the world. If that is on your bucket list and you need the right boat for the job, an Oyster 495 would be perfect. Read more.

TARTAN 455 MOTORSAILER

A motorsailer with an outside cockpit and standard helms and an inside steering station in the raised dog house appeals to a lot of sailors who want to remain comfortable in bad weather, extend their sailing seasons and motor a good speeds when necessary. Welcome to the Tartan 445 Motorsailer. This Tim Jackett design has a stylish cabin that

OYSTER 495

Celebrating 50 years in business, Oyster went out and made real waves in 2022 by launching the new 495 that immediately won the 2023 European Yacht of the Year award. It is easy to see why. The 495 is the first Oyster under 50 feet that the builder has launched in

NAUTOR SWAN 48 MKII

OYSTER 495

fits the hulls neatly. Built in the U.S. by Tartan Yachts, it comes with an epoxy hull, a carbon Cruise Control Rig (selftacking jib and reacher), and a very finely finished interior. Accommodations are either in two or three cabins, with two heads and a roomy saloon with a large dinette. A unique, practical and handsome addition to the Tartan line, the 455 does its job very well. Read more.

X-YACHTS X 4.3

Last year, X-Yachts of Denmark did something unique. They replaced a very successful 43-foot model with a completely new 43-footer. The result has been excellent as the new model has sold out for more than two years. X-Yachts are prized in Europe and worldwide as ultra-high quality, Scandinavian performance cruisers that are built in three categories, the X racer-cruiser models, the XC cruisers, and the XP competitive performance cruisers. The builder is unique in that it uses only the most advanced materials and build techniques and creates yachts that should be considered heirlooms to be handed down to the grandchildren. And, they sail exceptionally well. The X 4.3 can have either two or three cabins and heads and offers an airy, bright saloon with lots of hatches and ports and good ventilation. If you are looking for a superb sailing yacht with many custom options from a world-class builder, an X4.3 is a great choice. Read more.

X-YACHTS X 4.3

TARTAN 455 MOTORSAILER

The freedom of a sailing vacation remains unparalleled, and Sunsail is here to help you make the most of every moment on the water. Comprised of passionate sailors from all over the world, our team of charter experts can help craft the perfect sailing getaway for you, your friends, and your family.

Select your charter destination from our extensive list of worldfamous cruising grounds, choose the ideal yacht for your crew, and let us help take care of all the details that make a yacht charter among the most unique, and memorable vacation experiences available today.

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Walking a beach where the only footprints in the sand, are your own. Enjoying a refreshing drink from an island bar only accessible by boat. Waking up each morning with the flexibility to sail anywhere you wish. These experiences redefine luxury -- and are the hallmark of any yacht charter vacation.

This year, we invite you to discover unbridled freedom and authentic travel experiences with The Moorings. Unforgettable moments await.

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