Bought a boat - Need a Captain

Good looking boat, certainly a change from the typical Poole Chaffee 105' I have been used to seeing. Are you planning on bringing on more crew when she is being chartered?

I had the same question as I would expect a crew of five at the minimum. Plus if you're towing a boat like you talked about, add another.

3 is doable on charter with experienced crew although 4 would provide better service and less stress on the crew.

Nice boat congratulations

It's really all about what level of service you will be providing to the charter guests. "Lots of activity and watersports" coupled with top notch service, keeping the books, and doing all the engineering will burn out a crew of three, no matter how experienced they are.

That's without even mentioning meals. Meals, of course, depend some on the formality, but providing them as expected on most 100'+ charter boats takes a lot of time from the chef and from the stews. I did a quick glance at charter boats in that size range and seemed about an even split between 4 and 5 crew members. If he somehow gets a captain/stew or captain/chef combination then it makes 4 easier for him. The lack of crew accommodation is a big issue on that boat. Even letting the Captain use a VIP cabin reduces him to 6 charter guests

Now, how many weeks of charter will certainly play a role in level of burn out.

I'm curious with a crew of 3 in what 3 positions they will serve.

Problem on most boats is the lack of crew quarters so we have to make do with what we have. In our case (84 Lazzara with 5 guests stateroom sleeping up to 10 guests) I am both captain and chef. My girlfriend handles the tender, watersports and tends to the guests needs. We have a stew who handles mostly cleaning...

It also depends on where the boat is operated. In the Exumas distances are short so we average an hour or running a day which leaves me a lot of time to swap to the chef toque . Been doing it for 10 years now and 50% of our guests are repeat so we must be doing it right.

Before the lazzara we ran a 3 stateroom 70 footer just the two of us... that was challenging

105’ chartering with 3 crew while towing, recipe for crew burn out and deferred maintenance.

I see it all the time with boats that run charters out of Nassau.

Why is the aft crew stateroom not an option?

You're talking 84'. He's talking 105'. There's a big difference in expectations.

Tell that to the people who have to wash it down and keep it squared away for charter.

To be successful in the charter business, it sure helps to hit a home run right out of the box.

Short changing things rarely leads to that result.

You re right... towing requires an extra crew

Burn out can be avoided with enough days between charters so crew gets rest and so we can catch up on maintenance. To me it s more important than extra crew. We ve done 24 hours turn around, usually around spring break when we have repeats stuck with set dates. It s tough but doable, just once

Only once? You’re very lucky.

24 hour turn arounds are pretty common in the charter business. Especially for the busy boats out of Nassau.

Then there are the day charters in between.

More than once over the years yes, I meant once in a row...

I guess it comes down to good judgement in taking bookings by balancing revenue with the ability of the crew to do a good job.

Very good point. The crew makes the charter as brokers aree very reluctant to book new boats / new crew. When we started 10 years ago, we prtty much jumped at the deep end of the pool but made it work getting good feedback. Still took 2 or 3 years to get brokers to trust us.

Being accustomed to the boat is critical. Every boat is different and on charter it has to be perfect and look perfect too with no hesitation, delay or confusion...

Equally important if you want happy guests is a captain who is very familiar with area. In your case, the Exumas have so much more to offer that the typical charter stops. There are still many scenic anchorages where yu are likely to be anchored alone. Guests love thT, it wat makes the exumas so different from the bvis, grenadines or st barths. Local knowledge is a must.