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Can anyone recommend a sailboat charter in Vancouver, BC, CA?
We'll be in Vancouver this August and we'd like to find a boat and skipper (36' of larger) that is available for charter for 3-5 days. We plan to sail the waters around Vancouver and explore some of the islands inside of Vancouver Island. Please reply to captdowner at gmail dot com.
I would recommend Cooper boating, I used to instruct and skipper for them so might have a slight bias, I used to charter from them as well.
Blue pacific are very good. Never worked for them but we'll run with nice boats.
Both are based on Grenville island which is a great starting point for sailing.
Depending how long a short charter will limit your options on places to go though 3. Or 4 day trips to Gulf islands. Are quite possible from there you are looking at an early start and time very dependent on the direction of tide at passes.
Cooper have a base in Sydney BC. Esay to do the gulf islands from there in a 3 day trip. You might be able to do a one way.
Or Naniamo.
If you want more scenery and a bit more remote try desolation sound charters
Would you or some other qualified captain be availabe to join us for 5 days in August cruising Desolation Sound? I'd like to find a local skipper with local knowledge, as it always makes for a better charter. If so, please let me know your daily rate for such a trip. I would be provisioning for all (food, fuel and grog).
5 days starting in Vancouver and returning Vancouver would leave very little time for being in Desolation Sound. You might want to look at options starting farther north (like Lund) or consider exploring the Gulf Islands instead.
No companies operate out of Lund. One has a base in Powell River, but it is hard to get to: car involves a couple of ferries.
The Gulf Islands are great as well. Desolation does offer warm water for swimming. The summer winds are light in both areas, although there are some locals where sailing is possible.
We must have gotten lucky there last year, we spent about 10 days in the Desolation Sound region in early July and only motored for 1 or 2 of those days. My favorite day of sailing was waking up late in Isabel Cove and short tacking out of Malaspana Inlet then riding a nice reach over to Prideaux Haven on the asym spinnaker.
In Comox a (good) grocery store is a short walk from the marinas. Liquor sales in the same complex. It's a short, inexpensive cab ride if you can't carry/drag it all.
Refuge Cove, Squirrel Cove, and Heriot Bay are reasonable provisioning stops once in Desolation. Moorage is usually plentiful during the day at Refuge, not so much necessarily at the other two.
Coming out of Comox one of our usual 'first stops' is amongst the Copeland Islands, it's an easy daysail from Comox and gets you on the doorstep of Desolation even if you leave later in the day. Crossing the Comox Bar is usually fine as long as you follow the markers, unless very low tide and rough conditions together. If heading for the Copelands pay close attention to reefs and shoals in the Savary Island area.
Alternatively once over the Bar you can head more directly to Cortez Island, typically that's a more 'upwind' trek unless you luck into some SE winds.
You could anchor in the Copelands (Raggeds to the locals) and skiff to town Or have the hired skipper stand off while you visit the pub and /or Nancys.
I have seen a lot of the big boats with the hired skippers do just that...well worth it...
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