Boat Selection

One of the fun parts of a sailing charter is picking out the boat. These days, all the boats are nice. The major issue is around how many crew you have and where you are going. For sheltered waters (like the Abacos and possibly Vounaki) and smaller groups the 36s are fine. I like to have two heads at a minimum. For most of our trips with groups of six-seven friends we like boats around 41-43 feet. This is a good minimum size for open ocean conditions and is still easy to dock. The 50+ foot monohulls are great for large crews and passages like St Martin to St Barths, but are tricky in smaller marinas and ports. One struggle for us- we like as many cabins as possible as we travel with groups of friends and not generally couples. One boat we used to like some years back was the 45, which had four actual cabins. I think a lot of cabins is a problem for resale, where a non charter second owner might like fewer, larger cabins.

Our current two favories are the Sunsail 423 (three heads) and the new Sunsail 41. We are not catamaran people, but I have chartered a cat and they are just fine. I am very used to deep draft boats, so can work with that, knowing a monohull is easier to find dock space for.