Charter Boats Skipper and Crew Guide

Hiring a boat is easy. If you have the experience you can skipper it yourself or you could have someone else do all the work for you and learn from them or just sit back and enjoy the cruize. If you’re not familiar with the options, here is a quick guide. Let us show you how you could have one of the most amazing experiences of you life.

To see the exact options, for the type of boat you are looking at, look under “More Information” to find further details.

A.  You sail the boat yourself
This is known as “Bareboating” and for your own crews’ safety and enjoyment, either yourself or another person on board must be an experienced skipper of a smiliar vessel to that which you will hire. For some boat types you may need at least 2 experienced sailors and provide a sailing certificate or be a motor boat captain.
The entire experience is up to you from ploting the course, reading the weather, raising the anchor, hoisting the sails (if on a sail boat!), mooring, knowing what to do if safety issues arise, etc., down to creating meals and scrubbing up afterwards.

If you’re the Skipper, you’ll need to show that you can make the right decisions and that you know the rules and regulations relating to being on the water. For sail boats in particular you may be asked to demonstrate that you can sail and lead your crew with directions they can understand and that they know how to act upon them. The adventure is yours and at the end of the journey you have pleasure of knowing that you did it all.

Organising on-board provisions
When you are cruizing in the Whitsundays you have the option of getting someone else to organise provisions for you in advance. This includes a range of beverages and platters, high quality meats and the freshest produce, kids packs and fine food. You can take the work out of organising provisions and order one of the well designed provisioning packages, or create your own custom order. Your order will be awaiting you, already stored away on your vessel for your departure. To explore the tantalising options, go to: www.whitprov.com.au/qyc

B. Learn to skipper or hire a skipper.
If you don’t have enough experience yet and would love to learn, for some boat types (usually the smaller ones) some of our suppliers offer short courses that will get you up to speed to go Bareboating. You may also be able to hire a Sailguide to be onboard your vessel for a day or two for all hands on deck training.
Alternatively, if you’d just like to relax you can hire a skipper and a hostess to safely navigate the vessel and organise meals. Or, you could create your own culinary delights and just have a skipper taking the helm. This is a good option if again you are wanting to learn to bareboat in the future.

See “More information” under the boat you are interested in to see the options available.


C. Hire a crew.
Hiring your own crew will put you in safe, experienced hands allowing you to relax and unwind. We realise that everyone has different goals for their trip so in choosing a crew you can choose to be as private from them or as social as you wish. Some crews may be the owners of the boats themselves, usually a husband and wife team who are passionate about charter boats as a way of living and sharing the fantastic experience with others. Other crews will have completed special yacht training certification with each having unique tasks such as weather reading and navigating, or being the chef with serving and hosting staff. Crews will usually organise provisions for your journey.
The best thing to do is to provide details of your preferences before hiring to ensure the right team is dedicated to meet your requirements. The recommended size of your crew will also depend on the size of your vessel, the number of people travelling with you and your plans.
Crews can also provide alot of local area knowledge, advising on the best places to explore and interesting places to eat if you wish to dine out.