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A bareboat charter is an arrangement for the hiring of a boat or ship, whereby no crew or provisions are included as party of the agreement; instead, the renting party are responsible for such matters.
Yachts
There are legal differences between a bareboat charter and other types of charter arrangement, such as crewed or luxury yacht charter, commonly called time or voyage charters. In a voyage or time charter the charterer charters the ship (or part of it)for a particular voyage or for a set period of time. In these charters the charterer can direct where the ship will go but the owner of the ship retains possession of the ship through its employment of the master and crew. In a bare-boat or demise charter, on the other hand, the owner gives possession of the ship to the charterer and the charterer hires its own master and crew. The bare-boat charterer is sometimes called a "desponent owner". The giving up of possession of the ship by the owner is the defining characteristic of a bare-boat or demise charter.
Bareboat chartering is perfect for people who are experienced at boating, but would like to be able to explore new cruising areas and boat types. If a charterer is not experienced, the companies usually offer many levels of training and instruction.
There are many medium sized bareboat charter companies world wide and several large ones. Sunsail and the Moorings (recently bought out by Sunsail) are the largest two companies while Kiriacoulis is third largest.
The Moorings was started in the 1960’s in the Virgin Islands by Charlie and Ginny Cary. Since the early days when yacht chartering was a relatively rare thing The Moorings has grown to such a size that they have a fleet of 288 yachts in Tortola alone. Over the years the Tortola fleet base expanded out to Grenada, St. Lucia, Mexico, the South Pacific, Australia and most recently New Zealand.
There are also hundreds of bareboat yacht charter brokers or agent companies. These companies offer yacht finding and travel organisation services similar to travel agent only more specialised. Their purpose is to use their experience and networks to locate a client's ideal bareboat in terms of price and location. Charter World is an example of a large bareboat charter agency.
Many other bareboat charter companies run on contracts with boat owners, renting out their yachts when they are not being used. In a way they act as property management companies. This can greatly offset the cost of expensive yacht ownership for the owners, while letting the charter company "own" more boats for less overhead. It can also offer charterers a greater veriety of boats in different locations around the world. Companies like this can be found in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Florida and the Bahamas.
Bareboat hire has become increasingly common over the last ten years and in particular the last 2 years. There has been increasing demand for yacht vacations and many experienced and semi-experienced ‘yachties’ now consider it easier and cheaper to hire a bareboat, rather than own their own yacht. While both the international leisure travel industry (particularly outdoor activities based vacations) and the boating industry has both boomed in the last decade, so too has the bareboat charter industry which incorporates both of these pursuits.
See also
"Bareboat charter"