While you can get carried away with too much planning for a week long boat charter, it helps to get a bit down on paper, if for no other reason than to make the actual trip more relaxing. Stress is the enemy of all good things.
The late William F. Buckley Jr. wrote a series of books starting in the 1970s on his ocean crossing sailing and charter adventures with friends. The first of the series, Airborne, was a best seller. In these, he set out a plan for his voyages, and selected his route and timing. He put most of his energy into picking out his crew, who were often high powered business and government leaders. He put together a nice mixture of people, as he knew they had to get along for several weeks at sea.
He assigned duties and set up watches in advance, and had a formal chain of command. As anyone who has chartered before knows, management by committee is a poor choice on a vessel at sea.
On our trips, we have the following setup, which works well for groups of friends who may have never met. The idea is everyone has a job, and we have several departments aboard. This way there is no resentment or overlap. The jobs for running the boat are only in operation when we are underway, and we try to stick to our areas of expertise.
Captain
First Officer
Food and Beverage Director
Medical Officer
2nd Officer
Crew
The idea is anyone who is new, or unassigned, has a primary job in one of the areas, and when we are sailing, everyone helps with that. But in an emergency, as an example, this allows the Medical Officer to have no other duties but to focus on First Aid.
The other idea from Buckley which we love is to have a headquarters hotel set up before and after the trip, so everyone can gather there from all over, and one is not waiting at the marina long before check in. We have used Best Western hotels extensively in Europe, which provide a cozy, well located Euro hotel experience with a USA based reservation system and at a good price.
The late William F. Buckley Jr. wrote a series of books starting in the 1970s on his ocean crossing sailing and charter adventures with friends. The first of the series, Airborne, was a best seller. In these, he set out a plan for his voyages, and selected his route and timing. He put most of his energy into picking out his crew, who were often high powered business and government leaders. He put together a nice mixture of people, as he knew they had to get along for several weeks at sea.
He assigned duties and set up watches in advance, and had a formal chain of command. As anyone who has chartered before knows, management by committee is a poor choice on a vessel at sea.
On our trips, we have the following setup, which works well for groups of friends who may have never met. The idea is everyone has a job, and we have several departments aboard. This way there is no resentment or overlap. The jobs for running the boat are only in operation when we are underway, and we try to stick to our areas of expertise.
Captain
First Officer
Food and Beverage Director
Medical Officer
2nd Officer
Crew
The idea is anyone who is new, or unassigned, has a primary job in one of the areas, and when we are sailing, everyone helps with that. But in an emergency, as an example, this allows the Medical Officer to have no other duties but to focus on First Aid.
Seriously though, I enjoyed reading your blog.
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Sailing Greek Islands | Athens boat charter
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