Getting qualified to charter, what does it take?

Yep looking into the schools

It does seem like a I see one school that does a 4 day course that takes you up through bareboat charter certification. If I were the owner of the boat, i would feel very uncomfortable about letting someone fresh out of class sail my boat out of eyesight. To think about it 20 years ago I took a 3 day course and was given the equivalent of coastal cruising certification from the club I belonged to. I probably had 10 days of keelboat experience at that time.

The reason I am interested in a course is two fold.
My wife needs to learn to sail, and our Potter 14 is not the same experience as a cruising keel boat. Plus she just might learn the basics better from some one other than me.

As experienced as I am, my captain recent captain time has been a 22' trailerable or smaller. I am not sure how this would stand up to the experience standards. If I could just get a lesson on where all the trough hulls are, how to start the engine, how to dock the boat under power, and how to operate the marine head, I think I could challenge and pass all the other tests up through some of the higer ratings. Hoping the certification may help open the door to some charters.

I took the Offshore Sailing USSailing bareboat certification class at their Tortola location. The idea was that since this was taught on a Moorings boat, it might hold more weight for the Moorings than other classes. It did seem to help, although our credit card may have helped just as much. After one successful charter with them, they've cleared us to sail just about anything anywhere. Meaning they trust me (and my credit card) more than _I_ trust myself. It probably didn't hurt that our instructor was also a Moorings skipper, and we had his signature in our logbooks. Not that anyone actually looked at them.

But if you know what you are doing, I think you can get by. Most places in the western hemisphere will take your word for it--or at worst ask for a "check sail" to prove you aren't completely incompetent. There really aren't any formal certification requirements. We could have probably gotten by without the class, but I think it was worth it from an actual learning perspective.

Thanks for the advice this is what I have found

First off, I should have pointed out is I am both poverty stricken and cheap.

With these constraints this is what I have found. Some of these schools are shockingly expensive, $2-4K for a rating. Likewise their charter prices are beyond my scope. Airfare to the Caribbean and a weeks charter is just not in the cards for me. For that much money I would buy the 25 foot boats I have been looking at, even though I still may.

Some schools are quite reasonable. I figure these are similar to renting a boat for a few days and having someone sail with me to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, then giving me a rating at the end.

Two schools that have peaked my interest are
"Anacortes Yacht Charter" that will get me up through Bareboating for under $1000. For a little more I can sail in Mexico with "Sail San Carlos" and spend a week onboard in Baja.

For anyone else interested, there is a similar thread going in the "learning to sail" forum, where I got some more info as well.

My wife and I took a couple of the ASA courses but I'm not sure of the value of them, other than you can get some docking practice. We chartered a boat in the BVIs, and they didn't even ask about certifications, they just asked for a resume and a check out sail. If you don't do well on the check out sail (and as a previous poster stated, the bar is low) you have to hire a captain. We own a 35 footer and still had to have the check out sail; after about 5 minutes and a couple of tacks they let us on our way.

I think the charter companies look at certifications this way: The only people that would spend thousands of dollars to learn how to handle a boat are people that don't know how to handle a boat. You have to prove you can handle a boat, not just show them a paid-for piece of paper that says you can.

I took ASA through 104 here in Texas many years ago. Years later I bought a Catalina 27 and sailed it on our local lake for about 12 months. I then filled out a sailing resume with the charter companies. They all were happy to let me charter. When I got down there they pretty much just tossed me the keys. No checkout sail or skills check. From watching the other people leaving the dock at the same time, it was clear I was one of the most experienced people leaving that day. Some of these people looked like they have never maneuvered a boat under power before, but the charter company was completely unfazed. I also heard quite a few people on Channel 16 with comments like "how do we raise the main?" Basically, the bar seems pretty low. I think your standards for yourself are probably higher than theirs.

RainDog said:

Basically, the bar seems pretty low. I think your standards for yourself are probably higher than theirs.

Click to expand...

Yep I try to set my standards higher than average, but there has got to be somewhat out there thinking the same thing that is below average. I challenged the basic keel boat rating 20 years ago and passed it. Funny considering I had only sailed hobie cats till then.

I must be getting more conservative in my old age that I would not just pencil whip my resume and bluff my way onto a boat. I read the fist 100 pages of Annapolis book of seamanship and did not learn much This summer was the first day I sailed in 4 years, so I am a bit rusty and with snow in the mountains nearby my season is soon over. Subjects I need to brush up on before I can even attempt to bluff my way onto a boat.

Rules of the road.
Docking and Anchoring
Man overboard Skills
Motoring

One of the charter companies I have talked to near Seattle wanted experience in similar sized boats and experience with tidal affected waters. My last charter was a Catalina 30 in 1990 in SOCAL, is that recent enough for you. Maybe I can hire a captain to spend a day teaching me how to dock.

PS: I wish I could live in Austin for the winter.

I was never certified to bareboat charter, but had experience on several different types of boats as crew. I had been co-captain on a catamaran charter, then did my first charter as captain on a catamaran in the Florida Keys. By the time I started chartering in the BVI I had been a boat owner on Lake Superior for two years and had no questions asked at the charter base. I agree with the prior posts that charter companies are more interested in the sailing resume than the certifications. Not all charter companies require a checkout sail (Moorings and Sunsail come to mind.)

Now I'm a certified ASA instructor and USCG licensed captain. By the way, you don't have to take ASA 105 to learn navigation. You will learn basic coastal navigation in the ASA bareboat charter (104) class. And yes, if you already know how to sail you don't have to take Basic Keelboat. You can "challenge" any ASA level if you have the experience. I was surprised how becoming an instructor filled in the gaps of my knowledge.

Most charter companies will do a boat briefing with you to familiarize you with the boat's systems. You will do an inventory of the boat before taking her out. That's when you should look for the through hulls and ask our boat briefer to fill in the details.

Thanks Gail

Thanks Gail,
My new plan is to study my extensive library and challenge as many ratings as I can. Then hire a captain to spend a day with me docking, anchoring, reefing and anything else he can think of I should practice, then hopefully take out a boat for a week.

My sailing skills exceed what my resume shows. I have a lot of time on big boats 30-38 feet but not as captain. The rating would be just to have something to show to the charter companies to make it easier on both them and me. Plus being land locked it would be a way to expand my sailing resume.

The navigation should not be a problem, as I am a commercial pilot (no not airline pilot, anyone who flies for a living is a commercial pilot). I manage to find my way each day without a GPS. I know how to use one, if I can remember how that is, but most of our planes are not so equipped. Navigating at 7 knots should be a little easier than 260.