"Shaun Van Poecke" wrote in message
...
Hi all,
Im looking again at chartering in the whitsundays... I have googled and
looked around.

My wife and i would like to charter from mid-end of september for about a
week, and idealy what we would really love is a small cat that can be
single
handed, something about 26-30 feet would be ideal. Most of the charter
companies seem to have only bigger cats in the 30foot+ range with 6-8
berths. The price for these things starts at about $500/night and goes
up,
$3500 for a week plus flights, fuel and provisioning then whatever we
spend
at resorts etc could see this week long holiday quite easily costing us
$1000/day.

There are some smaller monos, but again i havent seen anything below 30
feet, and the best price i have come up with is about $300/night. My wife
isnt particularly a sailor, so i think she would have a much better time
on
a cat than a mono. plus it would be nice to be able to get close enough
to
the islands to walk.

Is this a good time of year to be in the whitsundays? Does anyone have a
lead on small cats in this area? I'd also be keen on hiring something off
a
private owner. For the boat only, I was hoping to spend somewhere around
$2500 for the week.

thanks,
Shaun

September is peak season. Most operators have heavy bookings, charge peak
rates and will only charter out in blocks of 7 days. Cheaper rates and
easier chartering conditions apply at other times of the year, with the
weather, and other things(sandflies, mosquitosand stingers) being the
tradeoff..

Even if you could find an owner who would do it, hiring outside the system
is not recommended. It is illegal, the boat would not be in survey and would
not have insurance. Any charter operator who became aware of the situation
would take it straight to the authorities.

Is making up a larger group an option? Otherwise, an older smaller mono is
your only choice to cut costs.