Why a Sunsail Catamaran


In the early 80’s while on a two week vacation in St. Thomas we chartered a new 33’ Endeavor from CYOA. My previous sailing experience had been limited to 16’ Hobe Cats. At the time it all looked pretty simple and the Endeavor was a very forgiving vessel. After our first week in the BVI we were hooked. Every year, for the next 20 years, we bareboated all over the Caribbean, from St. Thomas to Grenada. We chartered from CYOA, CYC, Sun Yacht (eventually bought by Sunsail), Moorings, and Sunsail. We chartered our first catamaran (38 Athena) in May 2001. Well from that time on my wife was hooked on Cats. Although I still considered myself a purest it is very hard to beat the room and comfort of the cat. Additionally, if I wanted to continue enjoying the islands it looked like I better start riding the horse in the direction it was going. It also seemed that 95% of the time spent on the boat is at anchor, so you might as well be as comfortable.

So there I was in 2001 retired, working my next career, and pondering what I want to do when I grow up (ha). One night after reading a Sailing or Cruising World article about another person cruising the Pacific it occurred to me that hey, I could do that. So the idea begins to grow. I start putting a 5 year plan together. I must convince my spouse that this is a sane idea and I need to find a boat. It seems the consensus is about 40’, that size is good for most sea conditions and has adequate room for a couple. I liked the idea of purchasing a new boat and putting it in charter until we are ready to go. This will give us the opportunity to save some money and continue our favorite vacations until we are ready to shove off. I wanted to purchase a new boat for a reasonable price and had my initial sights set on a Beneteau 393. I had serious conversations with TMM, Moorings, and Sunsail. For our circumstances I like the idea of having a fixed income and the charter company taking care of all expenses. Ultimately I thought Sunsail had the best yacht price, a short term fixed income program, and offered the most owner sailing time. The icing on the cake was Terry Axley, Sunsail Broker, he was easy to work with, knowledgeable, and realistic on what to expect.

During the next three and a half years we enjoyed a very positive relationship with Sunsail. We made it a point to use or sell all of our owner time every year. We spent at least two weeks per year on our own boat in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. While in charter the engines averaged about 700 hours per year. The boat was holding up well and seemed to be in very presentable condition. I tried to keep the perspective that for this time period the boat is an investment, and my main return on investment is counted as sailing time. As part of my plan I had set aside a fixed dollar amount for upgrades at end of contract so I was expecting to spend some money to bring her up to long term cruising standards. Overall I was quite satisfied with the Sunsail maintenance program. It is in Sunsail’s best interest to keeping the boat in excellent shape or they risk losing customers.

We got to know the Sunsail base manager and staff at Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent. Every time we visited St. Vincent the Sunsail employees always treated us like family and continuously found ways to exceed our expectations (complimentary hotel rooms, extra bags of ice, hospitality drinks, etc). The Sunsail Owner Care Representatives were always helpful and usually able to provide us with upgrades when reserving boats.

When it came time for phase out again Sunsail excelled. I scheduled the survey a month before end of contract and made plans to stay at the boat from survey to sail away. I contracted with Mr. Chris Kessell from St. Lucia for the Survey. Chris is an Accredited Marine Surveyor and had experience as a Moorings Base Manager. Overall his assessment of the vessel’s condition was very good and we only came up with 21 defects, most very small in nature. Here’s the list;

1. holding tank ‘Y’ valve had come loose from the head bulkhead and were semi frozen and hard to operate
2. weeping of toilet outlet hoses
3. no flare kit aboard
4. window on bridge deck starting to come loose
5. rivnuts on sliding glass door loose and need replacing
6. tension arm and bolt missing from refrigerator compressor on starboard engine
7. water leak from exhaust manifold on starboard engine
8. throttle cable guide has come adrift
9. port engine exhaust blower not working and not properly mounted
10. longitudinal support for aft berth not properly attached and in danger of falling
11. emergency lower hatch missing 2 locking nuts
12. main sheet bail broken and replaced with rope
13. first reefing line badly chafed
14. both water tanks missing mounting hardware
15. both propane tanks not equipped with OPD valves
16. bow running light cable frayed
17. whale back plastic scoops missing on drain locker.
18. port side FM radio speakers not working
19. secondary anchor shackle needs replacing
20. cracked jib car roller
21. corroded VHF radio terminals at the mast base

Chris was quite impressed with the L380 and felt that “Some Days A Diamond” stood up extremely well over the past 42 months. After the survey I hired Chris to help me install a chart plotter/radar suite, LED tricolor, and electrical wiring for the HF radio (amazing how much work got done in one day). Thanks Chris.

Additionally, while Sunsail was working on the defect list I was able to replace most of the canvas. All within a 2 week period we converted our boat from charter vessel to private yacht ready for the 1600 mile trip home.

If considering buying a boat to place in charter there is no one right answer that will suit everyone, we all have different needs and priorities. I can not speak for those that choose to place their boats with other companies such as TMM, Barefoot, footloose, CYOA, etc.

The Sunsail program worked for my situation. From my perspective some things to consider:

1. Return on investment (ROI) will be sailing time
2. On vessel selection with companies like Sunsail and Moorings you basically must take what they are offering. They buy for what most people want to charter. They also have tremendous bargaining power with the manufactures.
3. Guaranteed income worked for me, it paid for 48% of the boat
4. If yacht sales business is slow you might be able to negotiate some goodies on the phase out program like new hull painting, new sails, etc.
5. Visit your boat at least once a year.
6. Be reasonable in your expectations of boat condition. Most charter guests take good care of the boats but there are still some jerks out there.
7. It is in the companies best interest to keep the boat in good condition, they need the repeat business and recommendations
8. Most important, establish a relationship with your base manager; this is the person that is responsible for your boat. He or she is also probably the person that will work with you during phase out.
9. Be actively involved in the phase out, be there for the survey and stay with her to oversee the defect work.
10. Enjoy the experience.