As master of your own vessel, the freedom of bareboating is hard to beat . Here you are your own skipper and cook and you are free to create your own itinerary. There are some requirements. You will need to prove to the yacht charter company that you can sail and have the relevant cruising skills, and that you can read a chart and navigate. Some companies insist that you have a skipper’s qualification. It is worth noting that bareboat charter is not usually a luxury option. The boats are generally designed to be functional rather than stylish. But they are freedom afloat. The charter company will brief you, they can provision the yacht for you and they will provide an emergency back-up service while you are out sailing.

There is a good variety of bareboat yachts on offer in the Caribbean, monohulls and catamarans – from 30ft to 65ft – and there is also an increasing number of bareboat motor yachts on offer. The procedure for chartering motor yachts is exactly the same as for a chartered sailing yacht. All charter companies will want to see reasonable experience, history of ownership or skippering in similar sized yachts or lots of experience in smaller yachts. Some companies will ask for formal qualifications but many don’t need this unless you are relatively new to boating.

Bareboat charter facts and How to Book

SKIPPERED YACHTS

If you don’t feel sufficiently confident to go it alone, you can opt for a bareboat with a professional skipper aboard, either for the whole of your charter or just for a couple of days. Skippers are chosen for their sailing experience and qualifications and they will tutor you whilst you sail and use their local knowledge to show you the best places on your selected itinerary. You will have to cook and provide for him/her, although a cook can sometimes also be arranged. Make sure you request a skipper and/or cook and receive the necessary assurances before confirming your reservation.

Bareboat charter facts and How to Book

FLOTILLA SAILING

Another option if you would like to sail with some support and company is flotilla sailing. The small fleet will have a lead boat with a captain on board who will guide the flotilla and help out, leading the itinerary. Flotilla sailing is popular in the Mediterranean but there are only a couple of areas where it takes place in the Caribbean, which DefinitiveCaribbean is currently researching.

Bareboat charter facts and How to Book

BEST SAILING GROUNDS

The Caribbean has some of the finest sailing in the world. The Virgin Islands offer safe anchorages within a few hours or just minutes cruising of one another. It is less ‘exposed’ sailing and there is a beach bar or shack in virtually every cove, making it very lively and good fun. The Grenadines, the chain of small islands that links Grenada and St Vincent, are a little more exposed and have a rawer, more natural West Indian character. St Lucia, with its small charter bases at Rodney and Marigot Bay, is sometimes a starting point for the Grenadines and the island is served by direct flights from the UK. Also consider the small French islands around Guadeloupe that are easily reached from Antigua, which itself is a big sailing centre. The part Dutch/part French island of St Maarten/St Martin also has excellent facilities, with some offshore cays to explore as well as the nearby islands of Anguilla and St Barts. Finally, the Bahamas offer limitless sailing grounds. Its super-abundant sand and shallow water (baja-mar in Spanish means ‘shallow sea’) makes for quite tricky sailing, but it has the bluest and most beautiful sea of them all.

Bareboat charter facts and How to Book

HOW TO FIND A BAREBOAT TO CHARTER

Please note that the Cruising and Sailing sections of DefinitiveCaribbean are being developed at this time so the choices of products and destinations are limited but the products and companies featured are the best in their area.

If you know where you want to sail, and wish to make direct contact with a bareboat yacht charter company in that area, please see here for a list of bareboat charter companies featured on DefinitiveCaribbean.

If you would like to make a booking through a yacht broker (either in the UK or the States), who can use their knowledge to make the most appropriate booking for you, please see a list of yacht brokers featured on DefinitiveCaribbean (coming soon).

Please select by island below to read about sailing on that island and see a list of bareboat charter companies by island.