Any non-professional member of the Charter Party 14 and older may Rate Their Experience using the proprietary "Rate Your Experience" Survey System on the YCA web site. The first step is to visit the Charter Survey Gateway and check if your Charter Survey is already in our system. If it is, you're on your way. If not, Create your custom Charter Survey for you and your Charter Party then Rate Your Experience. 

The Ratings and Reviews consist of
3 Rating Response Types and
(up to) 7 Charter Pro Parts:

1. Yacht Condition
   1. Charter Yacht - Cleanliness, Condition, Operation/Safety
2. Sail Base (Marina) Environment
   1. Charter Marina - Comforts, Culture, Facilities, Security
3. Charter Pro Service Quality - Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy

1. Quick and Easy - The Rabbit - Be finished in 5 minutes by Rating your Yacht Condition and the Service Quality of one (1) Charter Pro. Ready-Set-Go!
   
2. Slow and Steady - The Turtle - Get a cuppa joe, take your time and save as you go. Charter Sailors and Charter Pros want your best work and YCA lets you paint the whole picture. You can Rate the Yacht Condition and Service Quality of ALL Charter Pros you came in contact with. Then complete the optional Reviews with Text, Photos and Videos. Save your work anytime to complete your Review another day after reminiscing with your Charter Party. Slluurrpp.

Registering and Logging on to the YCA web site:

YCA site registration asks for only minimal information to verify your email address. When the YCA email is received click on the embedded link, login, and you will be taken to your YCA Member Account page. Here, if you wish to participate in the YCA Ratings and Reviews, you must complete the required fields on your Account page.

Locating Your Charter Arrangements: The Charter Survey ID - is generated when someone from a Charter Party adds the Charter Arrangements to the database. The ID is visible on the Charter Verification page and emailed to the Creator of the Charter Arrangements with an embedded link that will return you to the verification page. The creator is asked to forward this email to the remaining Charter Party and invite them to Rate Their Experience as well.

Searching for your Charter Arrangements is recommended prior to adding new Charter Arrangements. This will save time and frustration by easily locating your Charter if your arrangements have been added for you but you did not yet receive the Charter ID.

An automatic check for duplicate charter arrangements is performed when you add new Charter Arrangements. This functionality is intended to protect the YCA database and not for searching for open surveys.

Adding Your Charter Arrangements:

• Departure and Return Date - Day, month and year

Rating Your Experience:

The 'Spirit' of Rating Your Experience is to provide the Charter Community with enough factual information on your charter experience to be able to make an informed decision when planning their next charter. YCA hopes that each Rationg and Review will include; firm but fair ratings, text reviews that acknowledge accomplishments and encourage improvements, and plenty of photos!

The Rate Your Experience context is based on your actual charter experience; exceptional, good, bad or ugly. In some cases the entire Charter Party will share a similar experience like a yacht malfunction and subsequest recovery of the issue, with or without the assistance of a Charter Provider. It's your personal perception of the experience that is important to the Charter Community. If the yacht malfunction was caused by the engine and you were topside sipping a drink, your experience would be significantly different than another member of your Charter Party who participated in the repair. Don't try to anticipate the responses of other Charter Guests, while they may have had a different experience, its for them to say.

The Sum of All Ratings and Reviews in the YCA Knowledgebase can be added up hundreds of different ways. For example, the Research Filters can be used to see only the experiences of women between the ages of 33 and 46 with little to no charter experience. YCA is a very powerful tool for planning your next charter!

Verify the Charter Arrangements and Charter Providers to confirm the information is accurate. If there is a question about the charter arrangements please contact the person who submitted the Charter Arrangements to make any necessary changes.

Give Your Experience a Short Title like "great location, great yacht, simply the best", or "Fantastic yacht, unforseen lousy weather!".

Rating Your Experience is a fun and easy step-by-step process. For each Survey Part simply complete the Ratings and optional Review with photo/video upload then submit for approval.

Submit Your Experience, a very important step! The YCA staff will review your Ratings and Review for appropriate language and photos/videos.

Survey Anonymity: YCA takes reasonable measures to keep the surveys anonymous however YOU are the principle participant in your own anonymity. You may choose for your Rating and Review to be Public or Private. If you choose, the text and photo data can be submitted in such a way so as not to make you easily identifiable. For example keep the text review generic and diplomatic, do not make reference to specific events and do not submit photos of folks in your party. For more information see the YCA FAQ.

Fraudulent Rating and Review Activities: In the unlikely event our delousing protocols turn up a bogus survey we remove the record from the database, place it in quarantine and notify the parties involved. The member and conspirators may be permanently removed from the site - not worth it. Charter Providers and Professional Crew implicated in a bogus survey scandal may be highlighted as Pirates on the YCA Search page! For more information see the YCA FAQ.

Exceptions to the Rate Your Experience Guidelines: There are always exceptions. The YCA staff is here to make judgement calls on exception conditions. We anticipate that there will be requests to modify a Rating, Review or photo upload.

Email Notifications: Those involved with the Ratings and Reviews can expect to receive the following email notifications from the YCA email server:

1. New member sign up verification
   
2. New Member welcome letter
   
3. Newsletter signup (optional)
4. Charter Arrangements Submitted
   
5. Rating and Review submitted 
6. Rating and Review  approved
7. Rating and Review closed - after all members have completed Rating Their Experience

Rating and Review Architecture: Each Charter has between 3 and 7 parts depending on your Charter Arrangements. The Parts are delivered in the same order each time and provide up to 3 ways to convey your experience. Only two parts are necessary to complete and one part must be the Yacht. If you begin and need to step away the system will log you out after 60 minutes and remember where you were - no worries! The 7 Survey Parts are divided into Goods (2 parts) and Services (5 parts):