Yacht Charter Reviews and ratings - Worldwide Charter Yacht Condition and Pro Service Quality

Captain's Corner...

When you Submit Your Charter Review here, you're enhancing Charter Sailor online research and helping our brothers and sisters afloat avoid disastrous charter experiences that put us all at risk. For most of us, when we advance some or all of the charter cost to the Charter Pros we also put at risk travel costs, vacation and decompression time, and the safety and security of our friends and family.

With your help, we're building a Charter Value Scorecard on every active Charter Yacht and Charter Pro (Brokers, Companies and Sailing Schools, Charter Base Marinas, Captains, Sailing Instructors and Charter Chefs). Unfortunately, it's become necessary to independently track the performance of Charter Yachts and Pros.

Each Charter Review comes from A Charter Sailor (like us) and is verified as authentic by the YCA staff with final approval by me,

Stephen R. Austin
Charter Sailor
&
YCA Founder

Unlike blogs, forums, company testamonials and consumer review sites influenced by the industry (sharks watching the baitshop!), if a YCA Charter Review cannot be verified it's never posted on the site. The YCA staff are experts in sniffing out 'fake reviews' and use technology and tenacity to protect our Charter Sailor knowledgebase.

By&For Charter Sailors - YCA is a critical part of your pre-charter research and post-charter responsibility to pass the word about your experience. When you combine the YCA tools with sound advice, contracts, insurance, direct references (and a strong plan-B!) we've created an elegant solution to assuring your charter expectations are set and met, offering peace of mind before and during your charter.

Submit your Charter Review online or via phone, skype or email. Your online and offline privacy are assured, we ask for and jealously guard a minimum of personal information to verify the authenticity of your Charter Review. If you prefer, we'll create a pseudo (ghost) account over the phone so your personal information is 'never' placed online. We lothe spam and other unsolicited contact and respect your choice to 'opt-in' or 'opt-out' of any YCA communications (email, newsletter, etc).

You can't blame the weather. While we fully expect Charter Pros to properly set expectations we prevent negative impact to their Charter Scorecard from circumstances which are out of their control. This is done by focusing your Charter Rating on Charter Yacht Condition (cleanliness, condition, operation and safety) and Charter Pro Service Quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy).

I hope you find YCA to be a POWERFUL RESOURCE that COMPELS CHARTER PROS to deliver on their promises - or else!

Best regards,

Stephen R. Austin
Charter Sailor &
YCA Founder

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Friends of YCA...

"...You are AWESOME!! Got the package today! Thanks very much! I did not realize that you took the time to call Ed Hamilton....thats amazing. Thank you!! It would be great if they would respond...but oh well. I posted a thread on TTOL encouraging members to visit the sight and post reviews as well. These people have chartered numerous times. I think it is a great service to the sailing community. Thank you!
- Ann (USA)

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"...I think the site is a very good idea. The information that it will gather with time will be very useful to many sailors, first hand experience is invaluable, and beats any colour brochure."
- Victor (Spain)

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"...More reviews will follow from Baltic Sea. I looked, that you are missing information about chartering in Europe. So with pleasure I will invite also my sailing friends to participate and share the knowledge."
- Andris (Baltic region)

***

"...I will certainly invite others to come to your site and rate their various experiences with other boats and charter companies, which have been quite positive. I think it is really important to have a resource like your site, where you can get input about various boats and charter companies, so that a person can make an informed choice!"
- Ann (Colorado)

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"...Thanks Steve! I�m looking forward to participating. My husband and I along with our skipper friend in San Francisco are chartering 2 boats next month in the BVI�s..."
- Michelle (USA)

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"...Thanks for creating a site that I believe to be of great value. I look forward to reviewing my upcoming BVI trip this July."
- Randy (USA)

***

Yacht charter planning has evolved. YCA provides International Charter Sailors of power and sailing yachts with a suite of sophisticated online planning tools that build confidence and set expectations. YCA Members report on and use the service performance of charter professionals and the quality of marinas and yachts to make informed decisions. The YCA planning tools put a comprehensive Voyage Plan in your hands.

Yacht Charter Advisor provides

A suite of charter planning tools that are sophisticated and unbiased
Informed selection of charter professionals based on service performance
Quality and performance measured by Charter Sailor experiences
Confidence to charter in more locations, with more sailors more often
Charter professional incentive to monitor and manage service quality

YCA is unveiling the industries first online charter survey system designed to capture the experiences of 'each' Charter Guest and return dynamic ranking reports to the community. The Charter Community shares in the benefit of the Charter Surveys.

Charter Quality and Service Performance - By Sailors For Sailors
	Yachts	Marinas	Brokers	Companies	Captains	Instructors	Chefs
Surveys	Condition & Quality	Services & Quality	Performance & Service	Performance & Service	Performance & Competency	Performance & Ability	Performance & Talent
Reviews
Photos
Ranking
Focus Pages			Optional	Optional	Optional	Optional	Optional
Planning Tools Suite
Availability	Surveys	Reports	Voyage Planner		Crew Finder	Community
Availability	Now!	Summer 2008	Summer/Fall 2008		Fall 2008	Winter 2008

All Charter Sailors may Search for or Create then take your custom Charter Survey today! Each member that completes a survey will receive a free YCA Basic Report access ID worth USD$29.00.

Cheers!

Yacht Charter Advisor

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YCA Quick Poll

Are your Charter Expectations set by the Charter web site or Charter sales brochure?

YES, these are my charter expectations and I will hold them to it.
Somewhat, it gives me an idea of what to expect
NO, the charter contract sets the minimum expectation
NO Way, past performance sets my expectation and a promise to Rate My Experience online gets results

Why Charter Reviews?

YCA Charter Reviews are designed to capture the perceptions of Charter Yacht Condition and Charter Pro Service Quality from *EACH* Guest aboard the Charter; 1 Charter, 5 Guests, 5 different perceptions of the charter experience. First time charter? Your perception is the most sought after of all!

Your Charter Review captures your perception of the most important parts of the charter including the Charter Yacht Condition (cleanliness, condition, operation & safety) and Charter Pro Service Quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) including Brokers, Companies, Sailing Schools, Marinas, Captains, Sailing Instructors and Chefs.

YCA independently tracks the performance of each part of the Charter. Before you book, Know your Charter Yacht's history (maintainence issues, safety problems, etc) regardless, of where she goes or who manages her. Did your Charter Company just rename their business or boat name (like Chandler Yacht Charters in Greece)? What's the new name and why did they change it - you really need to know this. See the performance of your Sailing Instructor no matter what Sailing School or Yacht he/she teaches on. This information is priceless!

Sadly, I've read dozens of cruising/sailing site forum posts like this one...

"...Prior to booking our trip, I searched very hard to find non-biased reviews of this yacht and business, but could find only the vendor controlled testimonials on the company site and the 'reviews' on broker�s sites selling their trips (all the reviews were glowing, of course.) I�m sure I�m not the first person to have this sort of experience on this boat, so this review is for the next person like me. If the last unhappy guy or gal had posted this, it would have saved me a lot of aggravation, disappointment, and money." - Rich (Colorado)

Now it's up to you, if you've chartered before, Rate Your Experience! Good, bad or indifferent, we want to hear from each member of the Charter Party (14yrs+). YCA enables you to Search for Charter Yachts and Pros and Compare their performance based on reviews from Sailors Like You!

When researching a Sailing School select reviews to compare submitted by Review Period (past 1-3 years), Service Quality (1-poor to 5-excellent) and Affiliation (American Sailing Association (ASA), Royal Yachting Association (RYA), etc).

When researching Charter Yachts select reviews to compare submitted by Yacht Type (power, sail, mono-hull, catamaran), Charter Type (crewed, bareboat), Manufacturer (Beneteau, Jenneau, Bayliner, etc), length, Number of Cabins and Number of Heads. For all your searches, compare reviews submitted by gender, age, country and experience level.

YCA allows you to search across all brokers and companies for the yacht you're looking for, don't settle on any Charter Captain or Chef by availability, pick the one you want and make them a condition of your booking. YCA makes Yacht Charter "A La Carte"!

We hope you find YCA to be a FREE and powerful resource for Charter Sailors and a compelling reason for Charter Pros to deliver on their promises!

Your YCA Crew!