Are you a qualified skipper, but you don’t own your own boat?
Then follow captain Bob’s example – charter a sailboat and fill it with crew via the GO SAILING App and share all the expenses of your charter!
Buccaneer Days on Catalina Island, California
As a sailor raised in SoCal, the Channel Islands have always been a pleasant and beautiful place to visit. So anytime an opportunity arises to make the channel crossing I’m usually on board.
I’m a licensed captain and avid racer so I spend hours and days on boats. Consequently, I’ve never had a huge desire to own a boat and be burdened with all the upkeep and management headaches. Plus, with so many boats available for charter, it hasn’t been an issue. The issue, as we all know, is getting friends that have the available time and money to go on a sailing adventure. With jobs, and kids, and sports, and events, and, and, and… it’s nearly impossible to find crew. Until GO SAILING. What a jewel of an app.
I wanted to go to Catalina Island this year and summer had just slipped away. Then I remembered Catalina’s Buccaneer Days at twin harbors in October. One more good chance to go and surely friends would be interested, right? Wrong… Same excuses… What now? I had heard about the GO SAILING app and loaded it. What the heck? Familiarized myself with the app and started thinking. What if I could charter a boat and find crew to split the expenses. What a deal! But what if I committed to the boat and couldn’t find anyone? Uh, oh.
So I called Blue Pacific Boating in Marina del Rey and discuss my situation. In the end, I put a Hunter 46 on hold with a fully refundable deposit if I cancelled two weeks in advance. That night I posted the trip on GO SAILING with all the details — the float itinerary, costs per cabin, food costs, and what I expected in participation because this was by no means going to be a pampered trip with a chef. Within 48 hours I had my first application on the app!
I wanted to make sure that I interviewed each applicant so I could have some idea about their food preferences, attitude, and abilities. The lady from Sacramento was pleasant and didn’t care about the pirate party. She had limited sailing experience, but wanted to learn more. She had always heard about Catalina Island and thought this was a good chance to go. Perfect! A good attitude and understood she had to pitch in. Plus, she bought the entire forepeak for just herself.
Within five days, I had the boat full and started to turn folks away. I couldn’t believe it. I thought, Wow! I had no idea so many people had the time and money, but just needed the ability to find sailing opportunities. Thank you, GO SAILING!
Everyone mailed me their checks so I confirmed the charter. Now, I just had to coordinate the menu. Luckily, no one had strange food requests so the menu came together quickly, and all the communication was done inside the GO SAILING app. Everyone pitched in and the trip was a huge success. We’ve all shared pictures and good memories. Plus, I met some new sailing friends who want to do another trip. But where now? Chartering out of Channel Islands? Or maybe St. Thomas in the Caribbean! Who knows?
Captain Bob
