Skippered charters

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Hire a skipper

You decided to Hire a skipper

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You have decided to hire a skipper for your sailing holidays . You don’t know what to expect and it seems a difficult task in your mind . Especially if its the fist time you do that , even more complicated . 

Let us make it simple and enjoyful for you , in order to enjoy your holidays and not have to worry the factor of the skipper . 

4 simple things to Remember

When you hire a skipper

Skipper Potis on the helm

Planning a route Together

Of the common issues in a skippered charter is the different opinions between the skipper and the crew about the planning of the trip . Our advise is to try to understand the nature of the sailing yacht and its limitations . For instance the speed of a sailing yacht for charter , using the engine is 6 knots . So you would need 5.5 hrs to leave Gouvia marina and go to Paxos . Imagine , some people asking , to leave Gouvia marina and go to Ithaka , where they need to do 13 hrs . The skipper must make them understand , that they cannot make this trip in a day 13 hrs straigt and they need to split it . This means that in a weekly charter , they will loose two days to just go in a destination . A lot of effort , fuel and time , not to mention the stress to cover all these miles on their way back . 

On the other hand , if you listen to the skipper’s proposals , he will tell you the most , realistic route for your trip . Depending on the length of your , sailing holidays , 1 week or 2 weeks . At this point , we would like to point out two examples of an easy going and a more demanding trip on a week of sailing holidays , starting  from Corfu , Gouvia marina .

Easygoing

week

1 week - 80 NM - 14 hrs - 40 L of Diesel

  • All stops are night stops . During the day you don’t make more than 5 miles of an average distance in between your stops. 

Demanding

week

1 week - 171.5 NM - 1day 4 hrs - 85.4 L of Diesel

  • All stops are night stops . During the day you don’t make more than 5 miles of an average distance in between your stops , except from day 2 and day 4 where you spend the half day to reach your destination covering an average of 47,05 NM per day which is almost 8 hrs per day.

Have a clear picture of how skippered charters work .

Most of the people who hire a skipper aren’t aware of the responsibilities of the skipper to them and on the other hand , their obligations to the skipper as well . When this happens , some situations can have an unpleasant tone to the whole trip . 

The first thing you need to know is that the skipper ought to have its own cabin and his/her meals arranged by the guests . There are many misunderstandings around these factors . 

Regarding the cabin , as you understand , after a long day under the hot sun with many different situations to handle , when the time to rest comes , the skipper needs a cosy bed to rest and some privacy . 

Regarding its meals you can made the following arrangements:

  • Prepare a proper meal on board  . Especially if its going to be the main cource of the day . Light snacks are not considered to be , proper meals .  
  • Invite the skipper to join you in your planned meal , for exampe when you arrive in a port . Ask for their advise where to eat  . Usually they know in every place the best spots for every cousine . In this way you earn from their , knowledge and you also create the necessary bonding for the trip. 
  • Offer him the chance to give him/her money for her daily expenses if you don’t plan , cooking on board or you don’t feel like inviting him to join you in your meals . Something between 20-25 € , will be enough .

Sailing or motoring ?

The common question among the guests that hire a skipper is , when he will open the sails so they can take photos or even participate in sailing. Some they are keen to help and they really enjoy it and some , they sit relaxed in their couch , reading , while the skipper , remains on the helm without really knowing if the guests will eventually , want to sail or not. 

Sailing means teamwork and appropriate sailing conditions . 
Means that everybody should have a role in the genoa or the main sail winches to get prepared for tacking. The skipper gives all the signals to make people , motivated and co-ordinated . Wind also plays a major role in sailing . If we really need to move with the sails from one destination to the other , we should have at least 12-13 knots of wind . In the Ionian this is not an every day case . Most of the times we need to use the engine . 

How we organise our Provisions ?

Organising the provisions , means that we should decide , how many meals are we going to have , every day and which of these meals are we going to have them on board or perhaps in a nice taverna when we have the chance to be in a port or marina . 

In our experience as skippers , a breakfast and a lunch usually are on-board meals and the dinner is somewhere , outside  . Whether we are in a nice port or a marina or in a nice bay (which means we need to use the inflatable dinghy) we can always choose a nice taverna to have our dinner . 

All ports and marinas have super markets , bakeries for our everyday provisioning . We also have a lot of bays that we can anhor and go ashore in a tiny dock , where we can also visit a place that might have a small grocery store or a kiosk (kiosks in Greece have sometimes all the basics that a grocery store has)

Best tips for a relaxed and a well planned sailing holiday

  • Distances on board during the day shouldn’t be more than 3 hours per day , on a daily basis
  • Ports get very busy during the summer from a very early stage of the day . If we really need to be in a port for provisiongs , Fuel or Water we must sacrifice our noon long swimm to get a place there
  • Sailing needs time to experiment , especially if the wind is very low for sailing  . Also most of the times , the winds picks by the time , we need to be in a port , early noon . Generally , its a good plan to spend the night in a bay if we want to sail or we must be prepared to sacrifice sailing and motor if we need to get a spot in the port . If we do sacrifice sailing we can still relaxe and have a nice swimm instead . 
  • The best time to book your holidays is between early June and early October . The weather isn’t hot , not too many yachts around , you can swimm in warm waters and the tavernas are still open to welcome you !

our skippers

Experienced , Motivated , Driven and Positive minded

Let us introduce you our skippers that will make , you have a memorable , sailing holiday !

Potis

Patient and Calm

Potis took his first offshore sailing license back in 2000 , before he gets his driving license . He loves monohull yachts and likes to cover long distances . He is 42 yrs old a non – smokker and he usually skippers for families with kids or couples  . 

Tasos

Confident and Joyfull

Tasos has a long time , experience around the sea , started from large fish trawlers when they were sailing in the Aegean sea , with his father . Owner of Paxos our Bavaria 46 Cruiser , loves to sail and share this experience with his guests . He is 52 yrs old , a non – smoker and he usually skippers , groups of friends and couples . 

Get In Touch

Head office
Multibuilding office , 41 - Agiou Dimitriou str, Piraeus , 18546 , Greece
Branch and Charter base
Kontokali, Gouvia marina, Corfu , Greece
PHONE NUMBERS
Landline Head office (voicemail) : +30 210 3000649 Landline Branch office : +30 2661 0 58981 Mobile +30 6987418374
EMAIL
potis@sailorsbreeze.com
contact@sailorsbreeze.com
WORKING DAYS/HOURS
Mon - Sat / 11:00AM - 18:00PM

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