Experience required for sunsail bvi s charter

Jobs_a_ good_ un

Jobs_a_ good_ un

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Jan 2005
Messages
1,486
Location
home bristol boat where ever we end up
www.beneteau393.co.uk
Just been told by sunsail that i dont have enough sailing experience for a charter i have booked to the bvi s
although when I booked i was told that what I had was enough
which is
power boat 1& 2
ICC
Day skipper theory
Day skipper practical power
Dinghy level 1 & 2
Many hours on dinghys and hobie cats must be 200 hours minimum
But never sailed a big sailing boat although many hours on my broom
So now i have to go and do dayskipper sail does any one
know how much this differs from the power one and how skilled i will need to be for the bvi s
Been offered a week in lanzarotte for £399 20/1/07 or 5 days in the solent for £ 275 3/207 both with sunsail
Any views appreciated
regards
 
There is summat ever-so-slightly smelly about being told you don't have the requesite qualifications but 'don't worry, you can go on one of our couses, /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Anyway, can't answer as I have only done DS sail but I guess MOB under sail, picking up a mooring under sail and how to keep the beer cold without much electrickery /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Seriously though, give the smaller chaps a go, I can recommend Malcom Fieldhouse (www.sailingdays.com) i think!
 
Very surprised they don't regard you as sufficiently experienced. All you used to need was to be able to flash the plastic. Must be getting very choosy all of a sudden.

BVI is very easy. Mooring buoys everywhere. Little to hit that isn't right next to something big and obvious. Line of sight navigation to everywhere except Anegada.
 
Is it worth asking if you can join one of their BVI flotillas - I'd be amazed if you don't already have sufficient experience for that... and you should be able to arrange some free sailing when you're out there.

Also, IIRC you were asking about chartering in the Sporades a few weeks ago. If you're in the BVIs after your Sporades trip, that should give you all the extra experience you need to satisfy a charter company (even if you still need to play safe and cautious for your own peace of mind.)
 
Try another company, how about www.footloosecharters.com, use ex sunsail and moorings boats. Based right next to the moorings base in Tortola and you'll surely get a better deal. I appreciate moorings/sunsail part of one group, but as Footloose bookings are via US. Tel: 1-800-814-7245 (Clearwater, Florida) it might be worth a try. Haven't used them, although have seen the boats/base when chartering with Moorings and as previous post referred, it's pilotage except Anegada.
 
It is a flotilla were on,so i was quite surprised today to learn I needed more experience and am unsure if Im just being sold another course,in the mode of sell ,sell ,sell even if he doesnt need it.(which has happened before I was bored out of my skull and ended up showing the other students how to do it which infuriated the instructor)
I was going to do a weekends sailing down in the solent with a skipper to learn how to reef it cant be that much different from reefing my wayfarer which halyards pulled which sails etc
I dont know if I could bear to go on another course while someone tells me how to plot a course to steer.
i think Im well cooked on that one
 
It's a shame that's been your experience of courses - when I was a yachtmaster instructor I aimed to stretch clients as far as possible... individuals don't fall into neat boxes that you can identify before the course starts.

Probably the best bit of advice I can give is to try another school. There's so much to learn about sailing and boating that everyone on a week's course should gain a great deal and have a thoroughly rewarding time. That includes professional skippers - those that don't recognise that are blinkered.

(Of course I taught others didn't need to be stretched... but desperately needed to be given confidence in the abilities the already had, plus a few useful tips to fill gaps. Also a very, very few needed to learn that in some areas they over estimated their abilities. Working out who needed what was one of the most fascinating and rewarding parts of the job).
 
There must be some mistake?
I have sailed bareboat with Sunsail in the BVI,s with very litttle experience. In a flottilla they normally accept you with no experience. It sounds like the lawyers have been getting involved.
Sailing in the BVi's requires very little skill in normal circumstances. If I were you I would get back on to them and complain to a higher authority or just "embellish" your experience a little.
 
Sunsail website regards BVI flotilla sailing as requiring 'intermediate' level skills. Sunsails definition of these levels here http://www.sunsail.co.uk/flotillas/about_flotillas/flotilla_levels

I would have thought you could argue that you meet them.

I think if you can prove that you were told that that you had enough experience at the time of booking you could lean on them quite heavily.
Interestingly their general page on flotilla sailing says it's suitable for first timers! I've a feeling they have decided to tighten up things after their staff were prosecuted last year, and possibly the edict has come down from corporate lawyers since you booked.
 
bollx you do have enough exp.

I have just enrolled you in the SuperSail yacht school comprising lots of sailing, in the bristol channel and other places. And you passed! Congratulations. So now you can go back and tellem.

BVI ded easy, really. Miles easier than solent, no tide and reliable wind. Hardest bit is getting boat out of sunsail base - red right returning, dogleg around the reef.
 
I'd go back and ask again and if neccessary 'update' the part of the booking form where they ask about sailing experience.
We chartered a 47 footer from Sunsail in BVI's maybe 5 years back and bareboat - with no issues and no certification etc.
Even the 'yacht briefing' on arrival only saw their people talk to us for 5 minutes before they were off to another yacht leaving us to set off wherever we wished.
Try again.
JOHN
 
It might be worth asking them if you can do a trial sail in the solent, its probably the sailing rather than the boating experience they need. I chartered 47ft in the BVI and even with certification the company required my party to take the boat out round they bay to prove we could do it. And they didnt mention that requirement until we turned up in Tortula!

The result of that foray was we were "cleared" to go anywhere including Anegarda.

It turns out that the charter industry in the BVI has lost a few bareboats returning at night to Virgin Gorda - having missed Anegarda outbound in daylight they find the reef on the way back at night . . .

So I wouldnt worry about it but talk to them . . . /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
IIRC sunsail's requirement for this sort of charter is that the skipper must have had at least one week experience skippering a similar vessel. However anecdotal evidence is that they have in the past been very flexible about that.

However I can fully understand them getting more strict about this. They put themselves in a difficult position if they do not enforce these requirements and an inexperienced skipper gets into difficulty - they could certainly face claims for neglience (even from the skipper himself).

I know it is hard - but for your own piece of mind if not anything else it would seem appropriate to do your dayskipper sail. There are tricks to handling a yacht that you will not have come across with your combination of dinghy and power experience.
 
I think they are just trying to sell you one of their courses, but I do think a w/ends experience on a larger sailing boat would be best, but getting that on a friend's cruising boat in the solent one week-end would be fine.
Even if you don't do that once you are there what are they going to do - send you home on the next plane ?
The BVI's are quite easy I've done that flotilla.
My amusing experience was that on eone flotilla, it could have been this one, you needed to have sopme sort of "International Certificate", we arrived without one. No problem they said just fioll in this form and give me a photo and we will laminate something up which looks like the right thing ! When my wife said she didn't have a passport sized photo with her - they said no problem we will use someone else's - and that's exactly what they did !!
 
From what you have said about your experience etc I think that you would be one of the better qualified/experienced flotilla charterers in the BVIs, expecially a large number of those coming from that large country well to the North of the area!Keep pressing the point with the admin department and if necessary rebook with another company. Moorings are generally better anyway in my limited experience.
 
no flight home, but they can insist you take a skipper.

Anyway bigsailing boat experince erm, probably a nice idea. Points of sail, general stuff. Should be good stuff i suppose.

{thinks} I wonder exact mechanics of how this question srose? Did they take booking and then just now uh-oh you need more exp. Or di they agree he dos have enough experience and then erm, change their minds?

Trouble is of course one never has "enough" experience, so there can always be an argumnt against.

It doesn't sound too rapacious to me tho, if never been on yerknow 30ft + crusiy sailingboat, really?...
 
Decide whether Sunsail are being reasonable or unreasonable.

Try others if the BVI is where you want to go.

If you feel Sunsail are unreasonable or did not correctly inform you don't put more money their way.

Do a Dayskipper course somewhere warm and tidal as a holiday. We started that way and sailed to North Africa from Gibraltar. Plenty of RYA approved sailing schools in Gibraltar.

With DS practical on yachts you get the ICC issuied FOC from the RYA if you are a member.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top