On your next (or perhaps first) sailing vacation, are you looking for history-steeped villages and afternoon sea breezes? Croatia’s got those. Or maybe big wind is your thing? Greece and Turkey in the summertime are known for their blustery meltemis. Then again, if a midwinter tropical escape would better fit your plans, Navigare Yachting can help you there too, with bases in the Bahamas and both the US and British Virgin Islands.
Launched two decades ago with a single charter location in Greece, Navigare today operates in 9 countries—with more on the way—and it offers sailors a fleet of more than 300 sailboats, including monohulls from builders such as Arcona, Beneteau, Dufour, and Jeanneau, and sailing catamarans from brands that include Lagoon, Bali, Excess, and Fountaine-Pajot. Recently the company has added Aquila power cats to its lineup, and coming next year, it plans to offer all-electric Island Spirit Catamarans for charter. The plan is for the 52-foot sailing E-cat to make its debut at the Miami International Boat Show in 2024. Check out all of these options on Navigare’s Charter Page.
The vast majority of Navigare’s charter yachts are privately owned and managed by the company. Early on, the fleet was made up entirely of monohulls, but today, roughly two-thirds of the boats are catamarans. On the sales side, nearly 90 percent of the vessels Navigare delivers to owners are cats, and the company estimates that eventually multihulls will make up 80 percent of the fleet worldwide.
Coming from Scandinavia, Navigare founder and CEO Jesper Rönngard says that he always thought of the Mediterranean as the warm place for sailors. About 10 years ago, though, the company expanded first to Thailand and then to the BVI. Tortola, he says, is the most popular destination with American sailors. Today, the company does about half its business in the Med, and the remainder elsewhere in the world, including the Virgin Islands, the Seychelles and Sweden. The Bahamas, he notes, is also an extremely popular destination and earns nothing but five-star reviews with charterers. In 2024, the company plans to add St. Maarten and Tahiti to its list of destinations.
All About the Boats
With Navigare, no matter where or what you choose for your charter, the common denominator across the company is the keen attention the staff pays to maintaining the fleet, Rönngard says.
“We really try to take care of the boats,” Rönngard says. “And by taking care of the boats, we take care of the boat owners and make sure the boat owners are happy. And that way, kind of as a bonus, the charterers are really happy with the boats. That’s been our idea from the get-go. When we started the company, it was always about maintaining the boats, giving them proper service. This way, we knew that we would grow, just by word of mouth.”
That’s not to say that every boat and every vacation is trouble-free—they’re boats, after all. But having the ability to respond quickly with a chase boat to make needed repairs is also something the staff does well, he adds.
Options for Charterers, Choices for Owners
There are a number of ways to charter with Navigare, the most common of which is a bareboat vacation of a week or longer, where you get the boat to use with family and friends as you wish. Other options include skipper and luxury crewed trips, by-the-cabin charters, and flotillas, where a local guide leads a number of boats that share an itinerary that can include both free time and group events.
Navigare also offers sailing instruction so that guests can learn to skipper their own bareboat yachts. The two-week course is taught from the company’s base in Seget, Croatia, and uses a curriculum developed by the International Yacht Training Organization. It allows students to earn an IYT Bareboat Skipper Certificate. Details can be found at Navigare Yachting .
Yacht sales are another important part of Navigare’s business plan. Its brokerage office is based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the company offers three programs for buyers, ranging from a fixed monthly income plan to one that gives an owner lots more flexibility in terms of risk and revenue.
Details of the ownership plans are spelled out on the Navigare Yachting website, which is chock-full of other information about locations, itineraries, charter options, and the sailing school. There’s even an app you can download, so you can dream about and plan your next vacation on the fly.
So where do you want to sail next? Navigare has you covered.
