The Charter Sailor Advocate   Charter Value Assured, Sailor Satisfaction Secured…

Ahoy!

Yacht Charter Advisor (YCA) provides a Charter Value Assurance Index for use by Charter Sailors, Charter Yacht Owners and Charter Pros by monitoring worldwide Charter Sailor Satisfaction of Yacht Condition and Service Quality. YCA Charter Scouts (like you and me) are on the water now observing regional Yachts and Pros intending to Rate Their Experience at YCA. When the Scouting Reports come in, YCA verifies, moderates and aggregates your feedback so:

• Charter Sailors can be assured of Charter Value in their desired location
• Charter Yacht Owners can be assured of Yacht/Fleet Condition
• Charter Pros can manage and market their Charter Value Assurance Index™

Charter Value Assurance at a glance. We do the math at YCA and clearly present which Yachts and Pros have assured their Good/Exceptional Value and which ones have assured their Poor/Fair Value. Check out the screen shot below, would this be a concern if you had a reservation with the #2 ranked company?

What You Do -

• Heading Out? Charter Sailors planning their next charter, search YCA for Charter Yachts and Pros and review their Sailor Satisfaction Rating (Yacht Condition & Service Quality). You can search a Global or Charter Region or by Yacht, Marina or Pro Name.
• Chartered Before? Charter Sailors, Rate Your Experience and become a Charter Scout. Charter Scouts observe and report on Yacht Condition & Service Quality and we do the rest!

What we’ve done (and will keep doing) – At YCA we’ve separated Yacht Charter into its basic parts from a Charter Sailor’s perspective:

• Yachts – power & sail, crewed & bareboat
• Charter Pros – Marinas, Brokers, Companies, Schools, Instructors, Captains and Chefs

We made these parts available to Charter Sailors for post-charter structured opinion. From those (verified) opinions we extract the Charter Sailor Satisfaction Rating of:

• Charter Yacht Condition (cleanliness, condition, operation and safety)
• Charter Pro Service Quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy)

Charter Value is appraised separately for each part of the charter from the Charter Sailor Satisfaction Rating (1-5, poor, fair, average, good, exceptional), we wouldn’t want a Charter Captain or Chef dinged for manning a poorly maintained yacht, even if it was their yacht! The Assurance Index is based on the number of verifiable ratings provided by Charter Sailors:

At its core, YCA measures the Charter Pro’s ability to appropriately set and meet or exceed (our) Charter Sailor expectations. This means the Charter Value is based on facts; no more ‘beer yachts’ for champagne prices and hopefully the end of “…does anybody work here?” YCA’s Service Quality measurement is empirically derived (SERVQUAL) and fairly engages the world Charter Industry on a single understandable scale of performance. YCA provides one flexible scale that allows Charter Pros (any size or locales) to distinguish themselves through unbiased Charter Sailor perceptions.

YCA monitors the value of Charter Yachts and Charter Pros over time. Now that we’ve established that Charter Value is based on a history Sailor Satisfaction, YCA watches for and reports on charter trends and developments that affect Charter Sailors and the Charter Industry. A Charter Company with an acceptable Assurance Index (7+ surveys) and sustained average performance (3+ ratings) will have no difficulty Assuring Charter Value to potential clients. Charter Pros with no or low Assurance Index (0-4) or, acceptable indexes combined with a low Value Rating will need to reevaluate how Charter Sailor expectations are set, yacht maintenance strategies and/or Service Quality initiatives.

YCA inspires exploration of new Charter Grounds by Charter Sailors who may otherwise hesitate to venture outside familiar waters, seemingly for the first time. Charter Value Assurance motivates Charter Pros to set and meet their own selected standard of Yacht Condition and Service Quality and appropriately convey an expectation to Charter Sailors. Continuous unbiased monitoring of Yacht Condition encourages Charter Yacht Owners to put their vessels under charter with newly discovered access to proven Charter Pros.

“The ‘Beer Yachts’ will become a good value and the value of the ‘Champagne Yachts’ will be independently confirmed. On the contrary, that highly maintained regatta winner; well, we may find her a little less available than before. Just as important, the Service Quality of Charter Companies and Brokers will be revealed by Charter Scouts along with the competency and safety of Sailing Schools, Instructors and Charter Captains. This is a win-win for yacht charter.”
– YCA Founder Steve Austin.

YCA compliments the established charter booking process with advice and local knowledge from unbiased Charter Scouts (like you) who have been there and done that; on that yacht, with that company, captain, chef, etc. YCA is not a booking agent, we’re a Charter Value Assurance Agent, driving value, confidence and accountability into the worldwide Yacht Charter experience.

Charter Sailors Steve Austin and Jon Tulien found that the pleasant challenges of cruising outside familiar waters paled in comparison to the unpleasant challenges presented by a variety of Charter Yachts and the Pros that facilitated our excursions. Having searched then researched and looked again, we found no credible (unbiased) information on Yacht Condition or Service Quality online. Not surprisingly, the ‘dock talk’ supported this; where to go and who to book with. The combined frustrations of missed expectations, difficulty in planning and filling Charter Parties for our charter plans was preventing us from getting on the water as often as we would like.

Become a Charter Scout and Claim your Monkey’s Fist Pocket Lanyard! After you Rate Your Experience for the first time you’ve earned our respect and admiration and we offer you: more

1.    YCA membership promotion to Charter Scout
2.    Access to the ‘Sailors Like Me’ profiles, even better ‘personal’ assurance
3.    Monkey’s Fist Pocket Lanyard, a symbol of the Yacht Charter Community and identifies you as a Charter Scout, one who truly cares about Charter Value & Quality, Sailor Satisfaction and Charter Safety.

YCA protects your personal data and enables Charter Scouts to decide if they want their Scouting Reports to be public or private. Our Sailor Satisfaction Reports proactively protects the identities of Charter Scouts wishing to remain unknown. YCA employs full survey and personal privacy protection and takes measures (passive and active) to verify a Scouting Report is valid.

YCA is a positive influence on Yacht Charter and provides an even playing field for the small ‘one yacht one crew’ operators and the multinational(s) like TUI Travel (parent of both Sunsail and Moorings) to compete ‘fairly’ for our attention. Throughout the YCA experience you’ll find positive reinforcement to provide diplomatic and useful feedback, written reviews are encouraged to:

“Acknowledge Accomplishments and Encourage Improvement”

So now you see, we’re ready at YCA to accept your Scouting Reports are provide Charter Sailors (like us) with Charter Value Assurance. Now it’s you turn to share your charter knowledge – Rate Your Experience of past charters and tell Charter Sailors how to book the best and avoid the rest!