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09:00 Thursday 19 Feb 2015 Rupert HolmesRupert Holmes reports on the options for chartering a boat at this year's regatta

It’s well known among established sailors that finding a crewing place on a boat at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week is relatively easy, but what if you want to find an entire boat to enter with yourself as skipper?

One aspect of the event that surprises many is the number of people who don’t own the boat they are racing. Granted, most sailors are familiar with the major charter companies such as Sunsail, the regatta’s official charter sailing partner.

Sunsail’s fleet of Match First 40s is always one of the largest level-rating classes among the bigger yachts in Black Group. The company offers a wide range of options, covering all skill and experience levels, ranging from an individual daily crew space on a boat with a professional skipper and mate, to booking an entire bareboat for the whole week. Similarly, it’s also possible to charter a boat with a skipper and mate by the day, or for the whole regatta. Competition is always very close for the experts at the front of this fleet, yet it’s also a class that has been responsible for introducing thousands of people to yacht racing over the years.

However, there are further opportunities that are often not widely advertised, especially among the one-design classes. Whether the smaller day boats in White Group, or the larger Black Group yachts, all these classes have a strong incentive for the overall health of the class to get as many boats on the water as possible. This means that in many cases owners who are not able to enter their own boats are happy for them to be sailed by others, whether on a commercial charter arrangement or, in some cases, a less formal loan.

For instance, in the Dragon class at last year’s event Dave Ross, who was attempting to win the Squib class with Duncan Grindley, made his boat available to Rudy Jurg and his team of Dutch and Finnish friends.
As an owner, Ross says there are clear motivations to allowing others to use your boat: “For a start it means there are more boats on the water, with increased competition in your class, and it’s much nicer to see your boat out racing instead of sitting on the dock,” he says. “It’s also good to help provide someone, who might not otherwise have it, with the opportunity to race in one of the world’s premier sailing events and it helps to introduce new people and new potential owners to the class.”

What advice does he have for other owners contemplating a similar move? “If it’s on a non-commercial basis, you need to intimately trust the person you’re lending your pride and joy to and ensure the insurance is covered – this is one of the most important issues as you’re obliged to have it to go racing. The owner must also make sure the other party has a full understanding of the condition of the boat at the outset, including which sails you’re happy for them to use. There also needs to be an understanding that the boat will be returned in the same condition it was in at the start of the event, but having said that I will also help to facilitate fixing any problems that crop up. It all comes down to knowing the person.”

In an event the size of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week that final point may sound like a problem for those without a huge number of sailing friends. However the sailing world has such a tight network of ties that there many opportunities for introductions and recommendations. At the same time, it’s also difficult to escape from a less than perfect track record.

A different option was offered by another Dragon sailor, Martin ‘Stavros’ Payne, one of the professional sailors on the class’s international circuit. While he normally sails in owner’s boats, he also has his own Dragon that can be chartered as a package with professional for events, and notched up three race wins at the regatta last year. Similarly, a lot of IRC yachts are often with skippers that have a track record of great success – check out the Boats and Ribs forum for some examples.

Other recent opportunities include chartering an Etchells – a fully race-prepared boat, with a back-up maintenance team, was priced at £1,000, equivalent to just £125 per day of racing. The J/Boats family is another in which it’s often possible to hire a race-ready boat for the regatta, including the popular J/70s, J/80s and J/109 one designs. It goes without saying, but if you are paying any form of charter fee for a yacht, you should check it is MCA coded, has all the correct safety equipment and is insured for commercial charter.

Class secretaries are often aware of owners who make their boats available for charter in their respective fleets, and are therefore invariably the best first point of contact. If it’s a class in which you have not yet sailed, it would also be worth getting out as crew on a boat earlier in the season, so that you start to become known to the fleet and develop some knowledge of the boat. Even better, if you can also arrange to sail it for a weekend or two of racing before Cowes Week this will help you and your crew to become properly familiar with the boat, giving you valuable experience that will show in your overall results.

This year’s Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week runs from August 8-15, and will host close to 1,000 boats, 7,500 sailors and more than 100,000 spectators.