Chartering in Greece

[avanti]

If you are thinking about chartering in Greece, my advice is to stay away from GPSC, a chartering company based in Philadelphia.

We chartered with GPSc last year and were very disapointed. GPCS/US sells the packages and are very liberal with their promises. GPSC/Greece tries to deliver on the promises.

There were 12 in our group on two boats. The boats were dirty and not well equiped. We did not go to many of the Islands outlined in the package. We did not have tour quides as promised. Everyone in our group, plus another goup that we met, gave GPSC a poor rating in our evaluation.

In our first meeting with the GPSC/Greece representative, even before we got to the boats, we were told that regardless of what GPSC/US had in their brochure, only they would control what we would do and if we didn''t like it we were free to go back home. GPSC Philadelphia really did not care about our complaints.

Greece was wonderful! There are a number of Charter companies in Greeece including The Moorings. The best way to see Greece iis to take the ferry system from Island to Island which gives you more time to spend enjoying Greece. If you want to sail - stay away from GPSC

[Wensum]

We chartered from GPSC last week, out of Kalamaki. The boat was a mess, tattered sails, unsafe (domestic ungauged) wiring, top not attached to body of cooker, non-working outboard, dinghy leaked air out and water in. A genoa winch was seized, old charts, old, almost unreadable Heikel Pilot, standing rigging not properly set up, autopilot not working, heads backed up on port tack, boat stank. GPSC uninterested. Flashy web site but no substance. They seem much more interested in elaborate paperwork than in checking the boats.
We did a lot of repairs and left the boat in better shape than we found it, but this is not what charterers expect.
We''ve chartered in the Med for over 20 years and this is the worst experience by far... ah well, back to Vernicos/Cosmos/Kiriacoulis/Sunsail etc, people who know how it should be done.

[sailor37]

We also had a very disappointing charter with GPSC. Boat was in very poor condition. By all means do not charter from GPSC. Suggest the Moorings.

[rrbryce]

we chartered in Greece in the summer of 2000.
we used sunsail for two weeks.

i did a day by day at http://www.bryceandpalazzola.com/archtours/arch_tours.htm

scroll down to greece 2000

I had no complaints with sunsail. I thought the boats were fine, the staff really excelled and the people we met that also had sunsail boats were pleased and we still get together with some of them and email others.

august in greece was the wrong time to go, too hot, and greece on the Ionia side was not as pretty as we expected, but I would absolutely recommend sunsail.

bob

[Wensum]

Hi Sailor37, I was interested to see that you too had a bad experience with GPSC. Our boat was a shambles (it was the Custom Skipper 700, supposedly their top boat, called ''Bloom'') And they still haven''t returned our security deposit 9 weeks after the end of our charter. I feel inclined to put up a web site about our experiences to warn people who, like us, were misled by GPSC''s ''Award-Winning Web Site. Wensum

[gtsirikos]

HELLO.......I AM VERY DISMAYED TO READ WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT GPSC CHARTERS. I WOULD LOVE TO FURTHER DISCUSS THIS WITH YOU AND CHECK THE FACTS MYSELF. OVER 50% OF OUR BUSINESS COMES FROM EITHER WORD OF MOUTH OR REPEAT BUSINESS. PLEASE CONTACT ME SO WE CAN DISCUSS WHAT WENT WRONG WITH YOUR CHARTER..........GEORGE @ GPSC CHARTERS

[robert789]

I''m very surprised to read complaints about about GPSC. I just returned from my 2nd trip with them in Greece. Personally, I think they are excellent (or i would not have chosen them 2 times already). My last charter just ended this August and I have nothing but praise for them here in the States and in Greece. They were referred to me by my friends who used them 2 years ago and were also happy. The boats were excellent both times as were the staff and the knowledge of the staff. I am so satisfied with them, that I am going to sail with them again next year in Italy. Ask for Costas if you can for your skipper and his mate is Linda (the gal who used to work for Cruising World magazine). They were excellent and really showed us a great time. GPSC has not let us down in 2 charters that my family took, and the charter my friends who referred me to them took.

[Wensum]

George,
Thank you for your interest in our problems with GPSC. We believe our complaints about the boat both on safety and comfort grounds, were valid. We went through them with a member of the Greek staff in the company of the owner on our return.
We then wrote to GPSC Philadelphia detailing the boat''s faults and were told it was not their concern and to take up the matter with the GPSC Greece office. This we did in full.
In his reply Alex Kapsabelis said in effect that we had chartered an old boat and what did we expect. He addressed none of the problems we raised. But he made clear one thing:
"Please understand that we act as agents between you and the owner of the boat".
In other words GPSC accepts no responsibility for the boats it charters out. Unlike other charter companies it does not give the Year of Build of boats, but in a sense this is immaterial if the boats have been properly maintained and inspected. Clearly this does not happen with GPSC.
On reflection perhaps our problem lay in taking a bareboat charter for some sailing in the Cyclades. It seems GPSC are not comfortable with this and the paperwork hurdles were considerable. The company is perhaps more geared to skippered charters pottering round the Saronic Gulf?

[allen19644]

Hi there,

I chartered the " Bloom " this year with GPSC and had George as our skipper. We had the time of our life and found the service provided by GPSC staff in Greece to be excellent. I am sorry to hear that your experience was so bad but I need to let everybody know that I would definitely use GPSC again and have many friends who have used them before and highly recommend them.

[North Sea]

Hi Allen 19644,

I sailed with Wensum and can confirm that ‘Bloom’ was in appalling condition.

There is no question of whether or not to recommend GPSC: the boat they chartered was unsafe. PERIOD.

I think that if you knew how unsafe – you would not be so quick to charter from GPSC again. Just one example: the electrical wiring on ‘Bloom’ was in hazardous condition. We discovered sparking near fuel, in the engine room.

Allen, we’re sailors not whiners. Wensum is too modest to tell you his qualifications or just how many years experience he has sailing in Greece and elsewhere. But it may help you to know that three of our crew were yachtmaster qualified, and the remaining crew had dozens of years of sailing and chartering experience. Not one of us has ever complained about a charter before.

Stay away from GPSC – the boat they chartered to us was unsafe.

Best wishes,
North Sea