Bareboat Yacht Charters

A bareboat yacht charter gives you the option to hire your own skipper and crew or to be your own skipper! You create your own sea adventure and itinerary.  It’s an exciting adventure on the sea that is yours, and yours alone.

Rent, hire or charter a bare boat catamaran, or mono-hull  anywhere in the world. Our exclusive bare boat search engines allow you to search for the best boat rental destinations and book the perfect yacht on-line. Whether you’d like to explore the tried and true Caribbean destinations of the BVI,  St. Thomas, St. Maarten or St. Vincent and the Grenadines; or if you’d like to venture further afield to the Mediterranean destinations of Croatia, Sicily, or the Greek Islands and Turkey, we’re here to help you make the right choice with a bareboat yacht charter.

Whether your destination is the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean or the Far East (or anywhere in between) you will create an adventure just your own with a Bareboat Yacht Charter.

Browse our global destinations section for the latest information on the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the South Pacific, the Far East, Mexico, Bahamas and other locations. Don’t get stuck in a rut, expand your horizons and try different cruising grounds every year.

Why limit yourself to that comfortable old bareboating destination that you cruise every year, those regular BVI bare-boaters know exactly what I’m talking about. There’s a whole world of new places to explore on this lovely planet of ours and I’d love to introduce you to a more global concept of chartering in a different place every year, well  maybe not EVERY year, but certainly to think outside the box when it comes to great sailing destinations. We can help you select the right boat in the right place at the right time.

First, let’s think about what is it that makes a great bareboat or crewed yacht destination great? How about this definition: Lot’s of little islands to visit, a steady wind, clear water with good anchorages, great food, and neat little restaurants and bars, good snorkeling and SCUBA diving, friendly natives and no pirates.  How’s that for a definition?

Well, you’ll not be surprised to know that these conditions exist in a lot of places around the world. Make no mistake, the BVI, St. Maarten and the Grenadines are superb destinations and are very popular for a reason.  However, thinking outside the Caribbean for a minute, let’s think of other places that are incredible sailing destinations as well:

Think of the Baltic Sea, as an extreme example, did you know that there is a marvelous archipelago of little islands just outside Stockholm, Sweden? Very seasonal of course, you have to pick and choose the date carefully, definitely a new and exciting experience.  Let’s not forget the classic Mediterranean destinations in the Greek Islands, Turkey, Croatia, Sicily and the West coast of Italy, Corsica and Sardinia, even Spain’s Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Menorca.

Moving away from the European destinations, we can think about the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean that offer the perfect conditions we defined earlier. Let’s also talk about the South Pacific with it’s incredible islands and waters around Tahiti, Bora Bora, the Kingdom of Tonga, Australia and New Zealand.

Why not Thailand’s Phuket and Malaysia’s Langkawi? These are some of the most inviting places in the world that clearly meet the criteria we established earlier.

Moving closer to home, did you ever think of the Sea of Cortes in Mexico’s Baja California, spectacular views and amazing wildlife..! How about the Bahamas, Sea of Abaco with it’s lovely little brightly colored villages and clear waters?  Brazil’s Angra dos Reis?

There is a whole world of bareboating experiences to be enjoyed – let us lead you to the waters…

American Yacht offers bareboat monohulls and catamarans from the best charter companies that we have personally selected for their reliability and service. Destinations include The Med, the Caribbean, Baja California, the Pacific Northwest, the South Pacific, including Tahiti, Tonga, Bora-Bora; Latin America – Brazil, The Seychelles Islands and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, the Far East – Thailand, and Malaysia, Phuket and Langkawi. Yes, we can do it all. Please use our state-of-the-art search engines to find and book that perfect bareboat and open the doors to a smooth, user-friendly research and booking machine.

We have included a whole section dedicated to the most popular models of bareboat yachts generally use worldwide with an expert knowledge base to help you find the right model for your special requirements.

Following the same line of questions that we frequently get here at America Yacht, Yacht Provisioning has to be in the top ten.  Let me start by saying that most of the bareboat inquiries that we get and the quotes that we send out, do not include the cost of the yacht provisioning.  At some point however, the issue arises, many times after the boat has actually been booked and the number of guests finally nailed down:  what, where and how are we going to eat while on our yacht charter?

Different strokes for different folks. Answers range from: “we really don’t want to cook at all so we’ll buy coffee and cereal for breakfast and have our lunches and dinners ashore”.  Other answers are, “we love to cook, so we’ll buy everything at the local supermarket and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner aboard every day”.  Probably the most prudent solution is somewhere in-between.

If you are bareboating in the Mediterranean, for example, most experienced bare-boaters will arrange their provisioning so that they can eat breakfast and lunch on board and eat ashore every evening.  This is true for crewed charters as well.  Of course in the Mediterranean, every little island you visit has really neat and for the most part, inexpensive little tavernas or trattorias that serve local fare, so this is definitely an excellent option.

The Caribbean is quite different, and the local restaurants are pretty expensive, the food indifferent and “local fare” is defined as hamburgers.  There are, of course, honorable exceptions and there are also some excellent restaurants all over the Caribbean but the prices are pretty unbelievable. For the best culinary experiences in the Caribbean, try the French islands, including St. Maarten, St. Barth, Martinique, etc.  But for those of us who are die-hard BVI fans, my favorite routine is to take all breakfasts, some lunches and some dinners on board  and perhaps eat lunch ashore a couple of days and dinner ashore perhaps 3 or 4 evenings during the week.

a) Most of the bareboat companies we represent offer a provisioning service.  We send you the forms, you fill them out, tick all the right boxes, and bingo, the provisions miraculously appear on your bareboat at the base when you arrive. This is especially true and a good idea in the Med where there is always a language problem. Some bareboat operating companies have several different provisioning plans to accommodate your needs. The Moorings for example has full provisioning and split provisioning options.

b) A less expensive option in the BVI though, is to contact the supermarkets online yourself, place the order, use your credit card and bingo, the provisions also appear miraculously on board.  There are two major supermarkets in the BVI that offer this service Bobby’s and Riteway.  Both are reliable and responsive.

c) An even less expensive option is to for the captain to order the crew to go to the supermarket in a cab, do the shopping and bring it back to the boat…!!

Regardless of which method you use, The KISS method is the best – keep it simple.  If you’re a accomplished and experienced bareboater, you’ll probably know all of this anyway. If you’re not, I hope the above information about yacht provisioning helps.

Don’t forget to use this page as a resource for bareboating worldwide. Use our updated yacht search-engine to find the perfect bareboat in the perfect place at the perfect time.

We have been Moorings booking agents since 2002 and can provide you with Moorings, Sunsail, Moorings Power and Footloose boats anywhere in the world.