2020, a year which the whole world will remember for the COVID-19 pandemic, is drawing to a close. Although the infection statistics are still not improving as much as we all would like, hope is just around the corner, in the form of vaccinations.

 

Tony Rainold and his wife, Sherryl, along with Charlie and Ginnie Cary, the founders of The Moorings, met as you would expect -- through sailing. And the idea to open a charter company in the Caribbean came as all great ideas do, under the influence of rum.

The Moorings is credited with creating the “guaranteed income” ownership model that has become the most popular plan among the world’s largest charter companies. This attractive option aims to remove all risk to the owner as it ensures their loan or lease payment will be covered in the form of a guaranteed monthly payment from the charter company. Boat buyers are reassured during the sales process that no matter what, they will receive this payment, regardless of the actual charter activity of their boat. This guarantee is the cornerstone of the entire program. Without it the model fails, and the owner can be put in a very difficult situation.But can all these charter companies guarantee they’ll remain able to send out hundreds of payments each month ranging from £1,000 to £10,000, no matter what trials and turmoil come? The fact is some of them can’t.WE NEVER MISS A PAYMENTWhether it was the 9/11 attacks, the worldwide recession in 2008, or the more recent devastation of hurricanes Irma and Dorian, many charter companies folded under the circumstances and found themselves unable to honour their guaranteed income commitment. Meanwhile, The Moorings) never missed an owner payment.The world again finds itself under the weight of another crisis. This time in the form of a global pandemic that has shut down travel and tourism completely and has sent global markets into uncertainty and disarray. Honouring our guarantees to our owners is more important now than ever. We can, and will, continue to do so. This is also attesting of the financial strength of our company, and our commitment to our owners.WHAT OTHER CHARTER COMPANIES ARE DOINGWe have however, learned over the past few weeks that some of the other large charter companies find themselves unable to pay their owners. They have officially ceased all owner payments for several months, sometimes even until 2021 and the resuming of those payments may be conditional.It is important for anyone considering purchasing a yacht through a guaranteed income program to be aware that “guaranteed” sometimes only means guaranteed during the good times.OUR PROMISEWe believe guaranteed means guaranteed, no matter what.So, please make sure you do as much research and fact-checking as you can before entering into a partnership with a group {% video_player "embed_player" overrideable=False, type='scriptV4', hide_playlist=True, viral_sharing=False, embed_button=False, autoplay=False, hidden_controls=False, loop=False, muted=False, width='444', height='250', player_id='29115767819', style='margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; display: block; float: right; width: 444px;' %}

 

Over the last few weeks the entire team at Travelopia Yachts have been focused on the safety and well-being of our employees and our customers. With all The Moorings and Sunsail destinations around the world now inaccessible to our charter customers and owners, either due to entry restrictions or as a result of our main source markets in North America and Europe advising against travel, our charter business, in common with many businesses around the world, is going through challenging times. We have already taken significant measures to mitigate the commercial impact that the corona virus is having on our business. These measures impact across the breadth of our business, whether it is temporarily closing bases for a period of time or for example delaying the opening of our Mediterranean bases. As you would expect, we have also had to take some difficult decisions with regards to pausing some of our projects, reducing our marketing activity and encouraging our teams to take additional leave in this time of reduced activity.

Last month I was lucky enough to return to the BVI’s having not sailed there for over 15 years! Accompanying me was my first mate and husband Niall; a very keen novice fisherman who always manages to pull in enough fish to keep our bellies full, and our good friends Sophie and James who are fairly new to sailing but picked it up super quickly and are now keen to get qualified as soon as possible so they can begin chartering! All four of us are kitesurfing crazy so we made the trip out to the BVI’s with a monstrous amount of kiting equipment including a hydrofoil board which we planned on mastering over the course of the holiday! If you’re not sure what this is it’s a board that has a mast under the water with foil attached to it creating lift making your board hover about a foot above the water’s surface, well that’s the idea anyway! The small plane from Antigua to Tortola was only a 14 seater and somehow our 5 long board bags were squeezed into the hold! We were blessed with a fantastic forecast for June with 20 knots of constant wind showing for each day so we sat on the plane with grins on our faces as we knew we were set for fun times ahead!

Jean Larroux wrote the rules for the charter yacht ownership programme used today—in fact he invented it. That’s right, our sales manager wrote the blue print for what 100's of other yacht charter companies would imitate for decades to come. This is his story....

If your ideal charter is one where each night you’re anchored in secluded bays, enjoying a freshly self-caught tuna for dinner straight off the barbeque, with some of the world’s most stunning beaches as your backdrop then the Seychelles is the sailing ground for you!

By far, there are no other sailing holiday companies with greater quality product than The Moorings and Sunsail offer. All of our bases are staffed with employees trained to the highest of standards in customer service and technical expertise for maintenance and upkeep of the yachts.