Shareboat FAQ

A good point!  A 50’+ boat is still a very small space if you don’t get on with your crewmates. But — the fact is that 95% of the time, everyone on board gets on just great, and ends up really good friends. How come??

1) A very effective self-selection process! By definition, anyone who would choose an adventure vacation like this generally is an independent, flexible type, with a sociable spirit. In our experience, anyone who reads these notes and thinks “Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun!” usually turns out to be a pretty cool person themselves…

2) Just to be QUITE sure – not only do we have these very in-depth notes, but we also chat to all our potential sailors on email and/or on the phone before they book. We DO tell anyone who we don’t think is really suited that they should reconsider. We’re not doing anyone any favours by not being totally candid about this.

Obviously, we can’t make any guarantees you’ll love all your crewmates, but our success rate is pretty amazingly high  (check in with TripAdvisor and Facebook reviews from our previous shareboaters !).

We know extremely well how important group dynamics are, and we always try to create compatible groups.  For instance, we would not put a group of partying 20-30yrs olds together with eg, a 60yr old couple celebrating an anniversary trip.

We care about this a whole lot, ‘cos as most of our boats are owner/skippered, we’re there onboard with you!

Being a small, personal company, we are able to get to know most of our sailors individually – you are never “just one more number on a booking form” to us.

Firstly, what it’s emphatically NOT about is any kind of “dating deal”.  Our mostly singles groups are aimed at people who eg, are travelling solo or with a friend, and want to share the adventure with others who are keen to connect socially.

When we say “mostly” singles…. sometimes we get couples who also want to be with a very sociable group – even they don’t want to be all “couple-y”! So they are still a great match for the active dynamics of these groups.

 

Sometimes, in the early planning stages of a season’s schedule, we will nominate certain dates within a season to be “Mostly Singles”.

But actually more often, groups will develop their own momentum. All it takes is say, a couple of solo travellers to book early on a shareboat, and then of course, we’ll be sure to highlight these dates to other interested solo travellers with whom we are talking.

These trips often go from one boat with just those first few to jump in the deep end, and expand to 2 or 3 boat “sail in company” trips – cos now everyone who wants a lively, active trip will jump right on board too!

 

 

That’s what our crew “match-making” is all about! We’ll always give you the lowdown on the current guest composition of a trip, so you won’t ever end up unknowingly as the odd-one-out with eg, a family & kids!

We also send out “group intros” to our shareboat groups, so that everyone can introduce themselves and share a little of their background before the trip – a great ice-breaker when you’re travelling solo.

It’s also a chance to team up with other travellers before the trip – eg, to share taxis rides, swap info on hotels, or just have a pre-trip beer with some crewmates-to-be.

Our shareboat prices are based on two people sharing a cabin; and no, there is no single supplement in this case.

Because of the necessarily compact design of sailboats, most cabins are doubles. Some are double beds, some are bunk beds or twin singles. We get lots of solo travellers, and most are happy to have a cabin-mate (don’t worry, we won’t put you “in the same bed” with someone of the opposite sex 🙂

If you’d really prefer to have a cabin to yourself – on most trips, we are able to offer that option, at a cost of 1.5x the regular price.

There are some trips (especially our “one-off” exploratory trips, where we rent boats from other owners) when we’re not able to offer this option.

Just check in with us for any particular trip you’re interested in, and we can give you the options.