Four of the 6 of us on this charter had some previous sailing experience: we booked the holiday mainly for the thrill of sailing on a big boat. We were significantly short-changed.

The skipper, Jonathan Chandler, gave every indication of not wanting to sail if at all possible. No formal sailing instruction was given at any stage, merely ‘do this now’. No sailing was done until the fourth day of seven, and then only ever under pressure from us. Only the jib was deployed, and the motor left running the whole time. No tacking was ever done. The reasons/excuses for not sailing were effectively ‘not enough wind’, too much wind’, or ‘we need to get to our destination for the day before all the moorings are full’.

The reasons for his unwillingness were not made clear: maybe he thought we were too old at 65+ (in which case he should have refused the booking), inexperienced (ditto), or weak (he appeared to be in significantly less good physical state than any of us).

• Despite what it says on the website, the safety briefing was also minimal, consisting of ‘one hand for the boat and one for yourself’, and man overboard procedure only when raised by one of us. No indication was given of where the lifejackets were.

In addition, the skipper’s ‘social skills’ (at least those visible to us) were minimal: no genuine welcome on joining the boat, a failure most days to even say good morning, no thanks or even goodbye at the end of the week. His personal appearance also left much to be desired. These comments are echoed in much stronger language in other posts we have seen, and reinforced by the eggs which were thrown at the boat by two other craft.

In summary, very disappointing; poor value and unpleasant service for a lot of money. Don’t repeat our mistake.

We truly had an awful experience on Chandler Yacht Charters.  In an effort to minimize the amount of time I spend on thinking about Jonathan Chandler, I am simply copying and pasting a letter which I wrote to Chandler Yacht Company requesting a refund and detailing why we desired one.  Hopefully this will serve as an adequate review of our trip.  We were lied to about our itinerary and treated completely disrespectfully by Jonathan Chandler to the point that we had to leave the boat on day 8 of our 10 day charter.  Please read below for further details...

Dear Conny,

I am sending this letter to insist on a full refund of charter fees and related expenses for our recent sailing holiday aboard the Koralia with Captain Jonathan Chandler on July 2-11, 2011.  Our expectations for the sailing vacation booked with Chandler Yacht Charters, created via multiple email conversations with you, along with the company website, which states that the company policy is to provide the Best Greek Island sailing experience possible, were completely unmet.  We were thoroughly dissatisfied with the sailing holiday and were completely disgusted by the way we were treated by Jonathan.

As I am sure you are aware, the situation aboard the Koralia deteriorated so drastically, that we were left with no option but to leave the boat on day 8 of our 10-day sailing holiday. The following list is a brief summary of ways in which we were misled by your company and therefore left with unmet expectations:

• Itinerary: Based on our email conversations and the itinerary that you sent us, it was very clear that we would be sailing the Central Cyclades and the Southern Peloponnese. However, none of this happened and the route chosen by Jonathan consisted of the Saronic Gulf and Southern Peloponnese with only two stops, Poros and Spetsai, which were not on the mainland. Had we known that our sailing holiday, advertised as the Best Sailing Holiday in Greece, would not go to the Cycladic islands (as I had made it clear via our exchange of emails on March 15, 2011, that this is where we wanted to go), and would consist primarily of stops along the mainland, we would not have booked this trip, as it was not our intention to visit coastal towns accessible by car.  We understood that itinerary changes were possible based on weather and vacationer preferences. However, when inquiring as to why the changes were made to the itinerary during our vacation, no explanation was given, and in fact, the question was ignored by Jonathan entirely.  It was frustrating that we were neither consulted nor able to give input with regard to the itinerary.   Therefore, as no explanation was given, and it was not our preference to make this change, we can only assume laziness on our Captain's behalf since the Cycladic Islands would have required more effort to reach.

• Sailing Holiday vs. Sailing School: Based on our email conversations, we were told by you that every effort would be made to match couples with similar interests aboard the Koralia. However, the only other couple on board was scheduled for sailing lessons while we had booked a sailing holiday. Obviously, each couple had different priorities for the trip, and we were never even made aware that mixing individuals wanting lessons with those taking a vacation was an option.   As the trip progressed, Jonathan made it clear to us on multiple occasions that, in his own words, this is first and foremost a sailing school.  At that point it became clear that we had been completely misled by your e-mail messages and your website.  We realized that we were not going to have a premiere sailing holiday, but instead would just be tagging along during a sailing lesson, presumably to help pay for fuel, food, and supplies.  One example of how Jonathan demonstrated to us that we were not a priority aboard the Koralia took place on day 3 of the trip when he announced that the morning would consist of docking practice. Given that we had booked a sailing vacation and not sailing lessons, the idea of spending a morning circling a harbor was not appealing to us. When we asked if we could instead spend the morning at the beach and get back aboard before heading off in the afternoon to do some snorkeling, Jonathan was furious. He told us that if we went to the beach, he would not dock the boat and that we would need to make a long jump to get back on. This made us feel very uncomfortable and reiterated the fact that our preferences on our holiday were not a priority, and he had no intention of meeting them. To make matters worse, the afternoon of snorkeling never materialized as after approximately 2 hours of sailing, Jonathon turned the boat around without warning my wife and I, claiming that sailing took priority and there was no time for snorkeling.  

• Unprofessionalism: The level of unprofessionalism demonstrated by Captain Jonathan Chandler was appalling. While numerous examples could be cited, we'll list just a few:
  • 1) Upon arriving at the marina on day 1, it took over 30 minutes for Jonathan (who was aboard the Koralia) to greet us. When he finally did acknowledge us, his welcome consisted of asking what are you doing here?
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  • 2) We felt that the amount of alcohol consumed by Jonathan during our sailing vacation was excessive considering his position of responsibility as captain of the boat.
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  • 3) On day 5, the captain of a boat which was docked beside us, called over to Jonathan with an inquiry as to why Jonathan had threatened him earlier that afternoon with the words if you break my boat, I will break you. Needless to say, this was extremely embarrassing for us as paying customers, as well as made us feel unsafe aboard the boat.
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Other Misrepresentations: Your website refers to the availability of snorkeling gear and all sorts of other toys; however, none of this was offered to us. When we attempted to bring our own water toy (a floatie) onboard to enhance our vacation experience, Jonathan made disparaging remarks, saying it was useless and said we would need to live with it in our cabin even though there was plenty of storage space onboard including an unoccupied cabin.

Ultimately, the situation aboard the Koralia came to a head on the evening of day 8. While at dinner, Jonathan once again began to pick on my wife, this time blaming her for attracting mosquitoes onto the boat. The situation got so bad, that another paying customer onboard, decided that it was necessary for her and my wife to leave the dinner table in order to avoid further assault. At this point, I confronted Jonathan and told him that he needed to take it easy on my wife. He responded by saying that we had booked the wrong vacation and that my wife "belonged on a cruise ship. When I explained that he had made some inaccurate and unfair assumptions about my wife, he concluded the conversation by saying that no one was keeping us on the boat and that this conversation was over. This demonstrates his complete lack of respect for us as individuals and as paying customers. Feeling completely bullied and fearful of getting back aboard Koralia, we were left with no choice but to leave the boat that evening.

To reiterate, we are requesting a full refund in the amount of 2500 Euros plus the additional expense of 300 Euros that we incurred as a result of having to leave the boat two days earlier than planned, for a total of 2800 Euros. As you can imagine, not only is it the complete waste of money that we are frustrated about, but also the loss of our time while in Greece.  This sailing experience was to be the pinnacle (and was, by far, the most expensive portion) of our 7-week backpacking holiday through Europe which we viewed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  While we can never get back the time lost aboard Koralia, we certainly insist upon a full monetary refund.

Sincerely,