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The title of this post , has the purpose to get the answer from the story i am going to tell you , about the critical , necessity of assisted , charters .

When the customer , booked through our partner , agent ,
he made the request for  assistance from a skipper for the first days of his charter , so he could, refresh his skills , and then continue on his own , for the rest of the duration of his charter . I remember , specifically , that the comment from the agent , was that the customer , was really , serious about it .

When i received the agent’s request ,  I said to the agent , how responsible , of him to request this and insist as well . I wish that all customers , would think , like , that .

Now , the real part of the story . When the customer , arrived for the check-in , in our base , I welcomed him . I remind him that he has requested , assistance for his charter . He was skippering the first time a yacht as a renter . He said to me , no , we have already , done this . I said , are you , sure ? You have specifically , asked for that , during you booking , process . He said , no I am ok .

Although he told me that , i wasn’t convinced , because , previously , he mentioned that he rents for the first time as a skipper . So , having this in mind , and that , also , the space in the berth is very tight , for maneuvers  i specifically , told him , that if for any reason , wasn’t feeling , sure about , how to maneuver , the yacht , he should call me , to bring the yacht from the fuel , station , to the berth . I told him that  its all about , safety . No one has to prove anything . So he doesn’t need to try anything , wrong and dangerous .

Despite my warning , when the customer , came back for the check-out , he never informed me , that he was coming and although i warning him , he tried to dock the yacht on his own way .

The yacht was a Sun Odyssey 479 , with a bow – thruster .

The space was for 40ft yacht and , the best and easier , way was to come to the berth , with his stern first not with the bow .

I saw him coming , and i told him , that he should , go back and come , with the stern .

He didn’t listen to me and , he continued , forward with the bow . His plan , was to , reverse , and try to put the yacht , in the berth . The wind was coming , from his port side and the berth was on his starboard , side .

The propeller turns to the port side as the boats is reversing , meaning that , he goes towards to the boats , opposite of his berth and not towards his berth . To the direction of his , wind . The wind is pushing him and turns his bow , to his starboard so the boat , is going , 90 degrees to the wind and is going very close to the lazy lines . I quickly , jumped into the the other yacht , and i went on board of Amfitriti , Sun Odyssey 479 . He was very close to the mooring lines and there was no time to think . I saw that the keel was still , behind the lazy lines and
that , i could reverse the yacht with no , problem.

So I did it . I quickly reversed the yacht and , then docked with the stern and with the use of bow – thruster .

I asked him , why he tried something , which he couldn’t  do , and despite my warning  , created all this mess . He said that he was , frustrated , with himself .  

If he would stick to his original plan , and used the skipper assistance , he would have saved the situation cause he would knew , what to do and how to do it .

So that’s why , we need the assisted charters , and why we insist on customers using them .

Below , there is another video , this time on anchoring , proving again the necessity of assisted charters .