Luxury Yacht Charter- San Juan Islands

[dsteding]

Update,... I got my quote back from the above mentioned transport service. Anybody care to guess what they want to take a 110' vessel from Florida to Lapaz Mexico??? BTW,... its only about a 2300is mile trip( roughly ) estimated to take 2 weeks.... Ill tell ya cause your never gonna guess.....$126,000.00 bucks!!!!! unreal.....

I guess owning a yacht that size is a serious proposition in terms of cashola. Good luck.

[Jaksonbrown]

Thanks for the suggestion anyway Jan. It is a great concept and really cool operation, but wow! They want bucks for their services. And to think they can get some 30+ vessels on one trip....
I am in the wrong business!

[dsteding]

I bet they burn a couple hundred thousand just in bunker oil on that trip.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway Jan. It is a great concept and really cool operation, but wow! They want bucks for their services. And to think they can get some 30+ vessels on one trip....
I am in the wrong business!

[Pez7378]

I bet they burn a couple hundred thousand just in bunker oil on that trip.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway Jan. It is a great concept and really cool operation, but wow! They want bucks for their services. And to think they can get some 30+ vessels on one trip....
I am in the wrong business!

And no doubt they pay a fortune on insurance.

[Sounder]

I bet they burn a couple hundred thousand just in bunker oil on that trip.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway Jan. It is a great concept and really cool operation, but wow! They want bucks for their services. And to think they can get some 30+ vessels on one trip....
I am in the wrong business!

And no doubt they pay a fortune on insurance.

...and permits for the Oversized Loads.

[Pez7378]

I bet they burn a couple hundred thousand just in bunker oil on that trip.

And no doubt they pay a fortune on insurance.

...and permits for the Oversized Loads.

....and coffee for the drivers.

[Sounder]

I bet they burn a couple hundred thousand just in bunker oil on that trip.

And no doubt they pay a fortune on insurance.

...and permits for the Oversized Loads.

....and coffee for the drivers.

You know as well as I do they're not using coffee to stay awake!!

[Jaksonbrown]

Ok, OK,.... here we go again,.... Strike 5????

I am off to Southern Cali friday to look at yet another boat. They were makin movies on this one last weekend so I am hopefull this one is not a junker!

Im givin 3-1 odds that this is our boat! LOL!!! Any takers??

Place your bets,.. plllaaaacceeee your bets!

I gotta be crazy!

[Aquanautchuck]

I don't know, if it was me I would be prepared for another POS. You know how good those Hollywood guys and gals are with special affects. I could be a old tug boat in real life and look like the Queen Mary on film. LOL

[Jaksonbrown]

I don't know, if it was me I would be prepared for another POS. You know how good those Hollywood guys and gals are with special affects. I could be a old tug boat in real life and look like the Queen Mary on film. LOL

Lets hope not....Funny you should mention the Queen Mary,... The boat I am going to look at is moored right next to her! LOL

[sunnydude]

...Funny you should mention the Queen Mary,... The boat I am going to look at is moored right next to her! LOL

Thats where my boat was sitting when I found her online last winter. You must be heading down to Long Beach then?

[Jaksonbrown]

yup....staying at the Hyatt right on the marina...How long did it take you to get your boat up here Sean? Did you sail her yourself? Id love to hear about the journey!

[sunnydude]

Ours came up the I5 corridor. Not willing to take the chance bringing our 38' in February weather.

I know the hotel you are at. Have a fun trip.

[Jaksonbrown]

Well,

Unfortunatly,....I have hit another dead end. I went to see a beautiful boat this weekend, only to find out that she is a huge gas hog and goes waaaayyyy slow. Something I probably should have been informed of, but was reluctantly not informed of by the broker. This is just not what I am looking to provide. So that is now a month of weekends traveling around wasting time and money. I am going to take a little break from running around the country for a bit. Sorry to get you guys hopes up for nothing..... I ll keep you all informed of any developments that might occur..

[BigFameOne]

Seems like you should be able to rely on a local broker to represent you and buffer you from the crap, and to only contact you with boats that match your criteria in the same way one would rely on. Real estate agent. Sorry you are having such headaches dude.

[sunnydude]

Oh well Cory. Now for the time being you only need to entertain 1 or 2 divers aboard the Carver.

[Sounder]

Ok, OK,.... here we go again,.... Strike 5????

I am off to Southern Cali friday to look at yet another boat. They were makin movies on this one last weekend so I am hopefull this one is not a junker!

Im givin 3-1 odds that this is our boat! LOL!!! Any takers??

Place your bets,.. plllaaaacceeee your bets!

I gotta be crazy!

Damn it, I KNEW I should of placed a bet!! Oh well, with 3-1 odds, I figured this was definitely going to be the one.

That's too bad - sounds like this has been quite frustrating.

I have a question though... outside of a sailboat, IS there such a thing as a 100' yacht that DOESN'T guzzle fuel? Knowing little-to-nothing about them, where's the line between "great fuel efficiency" and "poor fuel efficiency" on a 100' boat?

[Jaksonbrown]

Well, the main thing was the speed. 9Kts is just too slow. You should be able to "cruise" at 12kts or so which is optimal fuel economy speed... hopefully achieving 1.5-2 gph fcr, and have 14-18kts reserved "just in case".

I have been from AK to Southern CA to no avail.... time to stop for a while before I end up divorced! Thanks for all your support though folks.... perhaps Ill just get a bigger personal Yacht and "be a host" to a few extended trips up north this summer. With the economy in the tank,.. if you have the means,... personal boats are dirt cheap right now....Tons of repos, etc out there.....

[LCF]

Well, it's a good time to take a break from boat-seeking -- we have some fantastic tides coming up!

[Mattleycrue76]

1.5 gph? Dude I think you auxillary generator would use more than that. When I was on a westport 112 last year at the boat show and asked the crew about the fuel consumption I think the number were something like 20gph at cruise and about 100 ghh at full speed (19knots). Heck the jetskis are gonna use more than 1.5 ghp

Am I missunderstanding something?

[dsteding]

Hmmm, I hadn't seen the 1.5 gph requirement. My 18 ft RIB uses 6 gph, and I'm happy with that.

[boydski]

1.5 gph? Dude I think you auxillary generator would use more than that. When I was on a westport 112 last year at the boat show and asked the crew about the fuel consumption I think the number were something like 20gph at cruise and about 100 ghh at full speed (19knots). Heck the jetskis are gonna use more than 1.5 ghp

Am I missunderstanding something?

I think Corey meant Gallons per Mile. The boat he looked at last weekend burned 3 GPM at 9 knots, which is pretty slow and inefficient. Many boats in that size range will cruise at the 9-10 kt range and only burn about half that amount of fuel ( ~ 1.5 GPM). Of course if you bump the speeds up to 12-15, the fuel rate goes throught he roof, but having the capability of a little extra speed when needed is a good thing, and being stuck at 9 kts is pretty slow.

[Jaksonbrown]

Yup,... GPM...sorry... what Scott said......

[dsteding]

I think Corey meant Gallons per Mile. The boat he looked at last weekend burned 3 GPM at 9 knots, which is pretty slow and inefficient. Many boats in that size range will cruise at the 9-10 kt range and only burn about half that amount of fuel ( ~ 1.5 GPM). Of course if you bump the speeds up to 12-15, the fuel rate goes throught he roof, but having the capability of a little extra speed when needed is a good thing, and being stuck at 9 kts is pretty slow.

Ahh, that makes sense. Small boats=GPH, big boats=GPM, another difference between small and big.

I'm probably .2 GPM.

[CaptnJack]

I haven't been following this thread until now...
The Nautilus Explorer started "local" (BC), Mike Lever sold that boat and had a bigger one custom made in China. Its 115ft and cost him roughly $1.2 million 10 years ago. You couldn't have a foreign built vessel made for this activity (look up the Jones Act) unless you foreign registered it (which is a good idea) and conducted international journeys. For coast-wise trade it won't work. The original Nautilus boat went bankrupt through incompetency (after Mike sold it and involved a lost diver who fell overboard in a storm but who was found alive by another vessel).

Mike tried to do some limited WA charter activity but the hassles exceeded the prices he could charge (by and large we are cheap SOBs). So he added AK where the markup/bookings are much more reliable and appeal to people worldwide. Now he bops back and forth between the Socorros, MX and SE AK completely skipping Puget Sound and the Gulf Islands. And only hits even Port Hardy a couple times a year (which used to be his bread and butter). He's booked solid into 2010, maybe beyond.

Personally I think you will have a tough go business-wise sticking to the San Juans. Ranging up into the Gulf Islands will increase your appeal at 3x the hassles for being on foreign voyages. You'll need someone who really knows the worthy dive sites or your customers (and word of mouth) will be disappointing and that is what will sell - much more so than the hot tub. The Nautilus Explorer has a hot tub and its really an afterthought on people's minds when they book $3k 1-week trips to SE AK and the Socorros.

For what you are thinking of I would look into a used Delta hull (or similar, they are local) and have in completely converted to your specs. Boats in currently charter along the SE coast are not going to cut it. Ditto stuff on the SO Cal market. SE AK boats are going to be in rough shape almost by definition. However, with the buy-out of the King Crab boats last year (or maybe in 2007?) there are quite a few of those on the market right now. As long as you don't put it back into fishing, those hulls are CG blessed and could be converted into a charter. So you might consider that avenue.