# Chartering Greece



## Leeward1503 (Aug 17, 2003)

I want to charter a yacht in Greece in October and have been told that it would be foolhardy to leave it until I get there. I would have thought that it would be easier and a lot cheaper. But as I am from Australia and know nothing of the Greek charter business'' it is hard to decide especially from such a distance. Can anyone help?


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## sailingblues (Aug 22, 2003)

First decide what type of boat you want then shop around for best price and payment method.

Try these companies:
Kiricoulis,FYLY,Destinations Greece,Easy Yachting,Athenian yachts.


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## slalom23 (Aug 26, 2003)

With all the reputable companies why mention a bankcrupt company ex gpsc,
now (destinationsgreece)


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## sailingblues (Aug 22, 2003)

I am on a Destinations Greece charter right now so they can''t be bankrupt. GPSC is an American company from what I know but Destinations Greece is a new company run by Greek-Australian called Alex who used to work for GPSC and is now out on his own. I am Australian and booked through Alex and have nothing but praise for the service I have recieved so far. I have also used the other companies in the past and have had good service from them as well. Destinations Greece won this time round based on price.


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## alexwavez2 (Jun 19, 2003)

I went and looked at the site of Destinations Greece and I think you must have been told a BS story. On the bottom of one of the pages is the following: Home | Our Company | Making Plans | Yachts & Countries | Flotillas 
Cabin Charters | Travel | What''s Hot! | Contact Us
Phone: 30-010-9850004/5
Destinations Greece Site designed by: 
Copyright © 2000 GPSC Charters. All rights reserved. 

You can view the page at the following location: http://www.destinationsgreece.com/EnglishSite/YachtsCountries/index.html

I know GPSC has really put a damper on many peoples holidays. Perhaps you are lucky.


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## Tintin (Sep 6, 2003)

Hi there:

I am considering a family sailing holiday in Greece. We are planning a 10 day trip in June 2004 with either SunSail or Moorings. I have had positive experience with both companies. I have personally cruised in Carib, Tahiti, and Hawaii.

Location considered are Athens, Ionian or Sporades. 

Does anyone have experience sailing in these locations for a family cruise.

Ideally I want relatively easy and short jumps, less crowded venues, and some interesting history and sites in route.

Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

Sincerely,


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## yotti (Sep 25, 2003)

Tin Tin
Just spent one week in the Ionian.
Kiroucoulis a bavaria 42 chartered from Gouvia Marina on Corfu.
My crew were all novices ie no sailing at all and had one friend who had done a little sailing.
The boat and company was great and the area is slendid!!!
Each day started off wit no wind so on with the donk till about two pm when the wind piped up to about 15 knots and dropped off at sunset.

The area was good with pleanty of oppurtunity to sail either long distance 35 miles or ten miles. check out http://mappoint.msn.com. Select the World Atlas 
My route was gouvia to mourtos - parga - nidri on levkas - paxos - petitri - gouvia.
All of there besides nidri was really small quwaint villages and nidri was commercial resort.
The ionian was good for begionners as wind was light and days are short.
hope this of help to you.
i Have more in depth info if you want.
Gavin


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Regarding Destinations Greece, Alexwavex and Malt29 are correct. Until July of 2003 they were GPSC Yachts. That''s when they stole tens of thousands of dollars (perhaps more) from a bunch of people who charted boats with them. They then changed their name to Destinations Greece. Everything about Destinations Greece is exacly the same as GPSC Yachts, from the company phone number, to the address, to the web page, to the people working there. They are a bunch of thieves and anybody they don''t rip off should consider themselves lucky.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

We have also had great luck with Moorings and Sunsail on quite a few charters around the world. I will tell you names in Greek chartering to avoid though. Avoid at all costs Aegeus Yachts and Vernicos Yachts. Also steer clear of Westward Ho Sailing out of the UK. They are the company that hooked us up with the two I mentioned and don''t stand behind any semblance of fair business practices. All three are dishonest.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Instead of writing the whole horrible story, let me just tell you three names to avoid at all costs: Aegeus Yachts, Vernicos Yachts, Westward Ho Sailing U.K. If you want particulars on why you should steer clear of these companies let me know and I will elaborate. You can get saddled with a yacht that doesn''t work and people who are incompetent and dishonest with any of these three companies. My advice is to go with Moorings - have been with them numerous times and never had a complaint.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

All the reputable companies? We can add three names to the thieves - Aegeus Yachts, Vernicos Yachts and Westward Ho Sailing in the U.K. for representing the two Greek companies mentioned. If there are reputable Greek companies I wish I had known. From now on, I will never go with anyone but Moorings.


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## Sailor25_2001 (Dec 10, 2003)

So what happened with you and Aegeus Yacht Charters? I have chartered Six 51'' boats from them for Sept 11-18, 2004. I have never used them before and have sailed Grece four times previously.
Linda


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Hi Linda,
I''m sure that if you have chartered six 51'' boats from one company you will be treated like royalty. We chartered one 31''boat from them for two weeks and they treated us very badly. First, the boat was equipped with roller furling mainsail and it wouldn''t budge unless you got up on deck and pulled and yanked on it. This was noted in the log book back in June and we chartered in October. They spent several hours of our first charter day trying to fix it by squirting WD40 oil on it. It rolled out once. Then when we were underway, on the first attempt it failed again. Among the other problems with the boat were the toilet, which leaked and made the entire salon smell like a sewer, the bilge pump didn''t work, the windlass malfunctioned due to lack of maintenance, the dinghy had an air leak, and the boat was generally not clean. We motored to Simi Island the first day and phoned them to tell them that the sail failed again. They told us they would have someone there to try to fix it. We waited there one day, a man came and had a look and said he could do nothing. When we got back to Rhodos, they spent one entire day of our charter fixing the sail and other problems. The problem with the sail was due to improper maintenance as it was rigged with the wrong size line causing it to jam. They wasted five days of our 13-day charter and when we asked for compensation they came up with one half of one day charter fee. We spent at least two full days getting back to Rhodos and sitting on the dock waiting while they did the maintenance on the boat that should have been done before handing it over. Plus, we had to alter our sailing plans to accomodate the maintenance of the boat. They also claimed that the smelling toilet was from dirty water in the harbor in Rhodos - it didn''t smell anymore after they tightened the seal however. The truth is that they don''t do proper maintenance on their boats and then deny that there were any problems. The log entries, however, prove that these problems were there for months. They also have too much on their plates to attend to any problems that arise. They were difficult to find at any time and when you did find them, they were too busy to do anything. We have chartered many times and have never had a single complaint until this company. I would never touch them again with a ten-foot pole. The same goes for Adrian Foss with Westward Ho who set up this charter. He has no idea of what incompetant people work for Aegeus Yachts and has no conscience about taking one''s money for a less than successful charter. We ended up paying quite a lot for the 8 days we were able to sail with their yacht. As I said before, if they treat you this way, they really are too stupid for words. But they have really no integrity at all when it comes to the "one-time" charterer. It has to be noted that the yacht was a Vernicos yacht, supplied by Aegeus Yachts. With so many hands in the pie, no one takes responsibility for anything. Perhaps Aegeus takes better care of their own yachts, but they did not take responsibility for the yacht they supplied us from Vernicos Yachts. I hold all the companies involved equally responsible for supplying what they promise and what they charge for. They are not cheap or discount yacht charterers. It was a very expensive two-week charter of which we had 8 successful sailing days.


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