When chartering a yacht, make sure you'll be able to use the personal watercraft that are included.

What many charter clients don’t know, however, is that in a growing number of locations, the use of personal watercraft is restricted. In some places, it’s illegal to use them at all because they are noisy and can disturb other boaters. In other destinations, the use of personal watercraft is legal, but you must have a license to operate them. Many charter-yacht contracts now include provisions that require charter guests to have licenses before using any personal watercraft onboard.

Charter yacht captains are therefore working on creative solutions for guests who want to ride personal watercraft during their vacations. Some yachts, like the 191-foot Proteksan-Turquoise Baraka, decided to forgo having the toys onboard at all. Instead, the crew works with shore-based companies that bring Jet Skis out to the yacht to collect the guests.

Other charter yachts are becoming certified licensing centers in and of themselves. The 139-foot Alfamarine Lady Feryal is one example. Her crew are certified to teach charter guests the basics and provide licenses so that they can use personal watercraft all week long.

Your best bet if you want to ride personal watercraft during a yacht charter is to first verify through your broker that the toys are legal to use along your scheduled itinerary. Sometimes, they will be legal on some days and not on others, such as when you cruise through the Tobago Cays national park as opposed to other regions in the Grenadines. Your broker and charter yacht captain can let you know how many days of potential Wave Running are in your future, and you can decide at that time whether it’s worth the effort to get a license.

Then, if your charter yacht doesn’t have a licensing center onboard, you can get licensed on your own before the charter begins. You will need to take a Small Powerboat Handling Class, which usually includes about eight hours of classwork, a written exam, and a few hours of on-water practice at docking, turning, running forward and backward, and holding steady against the wind. Local Power Squadrons tend to offer these classes regularly.

Online classes like the one offered through BoatEd.com include everything except the hands-on practice—which, of course, you can get with the yacht’s crew. Deckhands tend to be masters at personal watercraft use, since it is part of their job to teach guests how to use the specific models that each yacht has onboard.

Most classes provide graduates with a Safe Boaters Card that is accepted worldwide, and that never requires a renewal. Fees for the classes can be as low as $30—a worthwhile investment no matter the cost of the charter vacation itself.

Photos: Neil Rabinowitz

the 110-foot Southern Wind Thalima is available for charter through YCO.

One example is the 110-foot Southern Wind Thalima, which turned a lot of heads at the late-2011 Antigua Charter Yacht Show thanks to her contemporary cruising design and true racing pedigree. The owner offers the yacht for charter through YCO with regular sails or with seamless sails—the kind designed specifically for and used regularly by America’s Cup contenders. The crew, too, all have racing backgrounds and are eager to show charter clients just how fast they can cruise into the history books.

Most other owners make their charter yachts available to attend regattas, but just not to race in them. Charter clients thus get to enjoy all the festivities associated with the race, but from a safe distance as spectators. Megayachts are often chartered for this purpose, with the sundecks on tri-level yachts offering one heck of a bird’s-eye view as the sailing yachts race around the course.

Between races, charter clients on the spectator boats can enjoy all of the other fun that yacht charter offers. Spectator yachts still have Jet Skis, standup paddleboards, water slides, and all of the other amenities that clients enjoy year-round.
Plus, since this particular event is in St. Barth’s, there’s plenty of shopping, dining, and touring available on land. Day trips to nearby Ile Fourchue are also an option for anyone who wants to escape the racing scene and spend some time in an undeveloped harbor filled with natural beauty.

In general, if you want to book a racing yacht for any regatta (including the next St. Barth’s Bucket), you must book at least six months in advance to give the yacht time to register for the races. If you simply want to charter as a spectator, then the time restriction does not apply—which means there is still plenty of time to charter for this year’s event.

The head of this new operation is Lex Raas, who joined the company as president the first week of January. Raas is a veteran of charter operations and comes to the new venture from TUI Marine, where as CEO he helped engineer the merger between Moorings and Sunsail. He is expected to eventually grow the BVI base to more than 30 boats.

MarineMax Vacations is now operating out of Tortola, in the BVI.

Thirteen Dufour sailing yachts arrived at Hodges Creek Marina in Tortola, British Virgin Islands on January 3rd. Eight Dufour 425s will now be known as MarineMax 433s, and five Dufour 405s will be put into service as MarineMax 413s. All the vessels are new and will have more than $50,000 worth of modifications and amenities such as water makers and enhanced electronics.

The charter company also announced the addition of power catamarans to its Caribbean-based fleet starting in June of 2012. Ten Aquila 38 power cats will become the MarineMax 382 and will be equipped with electric stoves and barbeque grills, gensets, air conditioning, water makers, and wireless connectivity. The two-cabin and two-head vessels are designed by renowned Los Angeles-based naval architects Morrelli & Melvin and built in Fuyang City, China. It is expected that power cats will be very popular with MarineMax Vacations’ target audience of experienced boaters looking for premium charter vessels in a tropical location.

MarineMax Vacations is part of MarineMax, the country’s largest retailer of powerboats. The positioning for the charter company is focused on the total luxury charter experience and will differentiate itself by providing performance yachts and personalized service. The new base at Hodges Creek is a short ride from the BVI airport on Beef Island. The base offers bareboat and crewed vessels as well as organized group events and tours.

For more information, visit MarineMax Vacations.

C class boats race in the Bahamas.

The clear, shallow waters and crowd-free anchorages of the Bahamas, only a short hop by plane from Florida, are a favorite charter destination. According to Wikipedia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, (which declared its independence from England in 1973, but remains a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, which is made up of former member states of the British Empire), consists of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets.

132 companies offering charters in the Bahamas. Many of the islands are within a couple hundred miles of the Florida coast, so it’s an easy destination to get to by air. And while many regard the Gulf Stream as an insurmountable barrier between their Florida-based boat and the gin-clear waters of the Bahamas, in as few as 45 miles you can be enjoying conch fritters while safely tucked away in a cozy marina.

Weather-wise, the Bahamas, especially the northern portion, can be more challenging and changeable than the Caribbean. Blue Northers (cold fronts sweeping down from Canada and across the Gulf Stream) can send temperatures plummeting and winds howling, especially in the Abacos, the island chain that runs along the Florida coast from Palm Beach down to Hispaniola.

But temperatures are relative; when it’s 10 degrees in New York City, even the coldest temperature ever reported in the Abacos (46 degrees) sounds pretty good. And down here fronts pass through so quickly that even colder temperatures will soon move back up toward average, which in February is in the seventies.

If you choose to head to the Bahamas in summertime, hurricanes are a concern. Since 1999, four major hurricanes (Dennis, Floyd, Frances, and Jeanne), and many more tropical storms have rolled over the Bahamas, causing millions of dollars in damage. Monitoring the excellent hurricane forecasts from the National Hurricane Service will help you avoid danger.

The shallow, reef-laden waters of the Bahamas can be tricky, rewarding the careful navigator and punishing the foolhardy. Oft-used harbor entrances are well marked and buoyed, but most everywhere else requires careful planning, use of the several excellent private charts and cruising guides that are available, and a strict, daylight-only navigation rule. The water visibility is outstanding most of the time, which allows for sight navigation especially when the sun is high in the sky.

The shallower draft your vessel has, the better off you’ll be, which is one of the reasons that catamarans are a popular choice for charter companies and charterers. Any vessel that draws over 5 feet will prove a challenge, and its navigator will have to pay close attention to the 3-foot tidal range.

Bareboat charter fleets are available in the northern group of islands called the Abacos, but crewed yacht charters may extend throughout the archipelago, dependent only on the length of your charter vacation. Besides offering excellent bonefishing, the Bahamas offer deep-sea fishing charters as well.

Nassau is renowned for plush resorts with golf courses, giant pools, spas and Vegas-type entertainment. But that’s just Nassau, located on the island of New Providence and one of 700 islands that make up the island nation known as the Bahamas. Only a handful of the islands are inhabited and most of its renowned reefs are pristine and untouched. Mostly flat and sandy, the outer islands are laid back and unhurried, where you can meet friendly local people, retired captains and sailors, old fishermen, and the artist seeking inspiration in incredible sunsets.

Read about a charter in the Exumas

Whether multihull like this one or monohull, sailing charters can offer a relaxing way to explore a new location.

Monohull sailboats for large bareboat charter fleets have long been built by companies such as Bavaria, Beneteau, and Jeanneau, and they have been standardized to the point that after you have chartered one, you’ll find that you’re familiar with the sailing, mechanical and electrical systems on any of them. In smaller venues, and in much larger crewed yacht charters, you’ll find quite a bit of variation, but in the first case, the boats will tend to be simpler. And in the latter, you’ll have a professional crew to explain, and maintain, the systems. In any case, improvements in roller-furling headsail systems, and the use of in-mast furling or lazy jacks for mainsails has dramatically simplified sailhandling on virtually all yachts.

Sailing multihulls have rapidly gained popularity in recent years, especially in charter venues such as the Caribbean. They offer wide, stable platforms for crews to enjoy their holidays, and the combination of space and stability makes them attractive to guests who may be uncomfortable in the narrow confines of a monohull, which will heel as it sails into a strong wind.

Multihulls can be built with two hulls (catamarans) or three (trimarans), but the vast majority of charter yachts are of the two-hull variety. These have separated cabins in their two hulls, plus a wide bridgedeck saloon between the hulls, which also often contains the galley. With roller-furling headsails and twin engines, widely separated, one in each hull, they are often easier to maneouvre than monohulls.

Boat over about 47 feet in length are often captained by a professional, as the size of the boats and the loads on the sailing equipment scale up quickly at that point. Space increases quickly with length, as well, and a yacht charter aboard a 50-plus-foot model can be quite luxurious.