Cruising Holidays

Travel

Do-It-Yourself Cruising Holidays

Bareboat charters provide a unique way of experiencing the charm of the Pacific for a growing number of travellers. By Karen Earnshaw

FOR NEARLY a century, yachties have been enjoying the beauty of the South Pacific islands, their craft taking them to places inaccessible to the normal tourist. In turn, the islanders rely on these “boat people”, their hard currencies a boon to increasingly independent economies.

Cashing in on this glamorous and adventurous way of travelling, Tonga, Tahiti and New Caledonia are host to companies specialising in the hire of sail-your-own yachts. It’s called bareboat chartering, but the boats are anything but bare.

The yachts range in size from 10 metres to 13 metres and have everything on board the temporary sailor needs to survive in paradise. The charter companies can do the provisioning, so there’s nothing left to do but bone up on the charts, learn how to

work the radio and get a few tips about the islands and reefs in the area.

“Until recently only experienced sail ors chartered our boats,” Kerry Dickerson of the four-year-old company Noumea Yacht Charters says. “But it has become so fashionable to go sailing that more and more inexperienced people are hiring the yachts. A lot of new sailors ask for a skip per the first time, with the idea of doing it on their own in the future, “Our man in Noumea, Roger Chate lain, who has spent many years cruising on his own yachts, can work out in 10 min-utes whether someone’s got enough ex perience to take a boat out on their own.”

Noumea Yacht Charters operates out of the Isle of Pines. Lying southeast of Noumea, it offers superb protected anchorages and white beaches.

Bareboat charters in Tonga and Tahiti are available through the American company The Moorings, which has similar operations in the Caribbean and Mexico.

The island groups offer a huge variety of anchorages. But, like anywhere in the South Pa cific, reefs present a danger.

Cary Evarts, who has spent the past six years cruising the Western Pacific in his sloop, Seal, says, “A lot of people who charter boats have gained their sailing experience near cities and are often totally unused to looking out for reefs. People new to the area just have to learn to keep a constant watch out and be very, very careful.”

The bareboat companies take care to point out trouble spots in their area. “The Moor ings company in the Vava’u group of islands in Tonga has it down to a fine art,” Evarts says.

“There are about 50 beautiful protected spots and they use a system of numbered anchor ages. When you turn on the

radio, yachties don’t talk in latitude or longitude or the name of the bay, you just use the anchorage number.”

There is a rapidly growing number of people wanting to discover the delights of Pacific sailing. Prices are not cheap. The Moorings, which uses World Expeditions in Sydney as its Australian agent, charges about $ A 2500 a week for the hire of an En deavour 37 (the bottom of the range) in Tahiti. This price, which doesn’t include airfares, drops by about $3OO for the same deal in Tonga.

Says Kerry Dickerson of Noumea Yacht Charters: “Four people from Melbourne, for example, can take out a 12 metre Be neteau for $lOOO a head. That includes air fare, two nights in a hotel and five days and nights on board.”

Noumea Yacht Charters’ principal shareholder is the Australian company Club Marine. “The island definitely bene fits from having us there,” she says. “With our growing market Club Marine has

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spent $40,000 on promotion in the past 16 months we are sending increasing trade to Noumea. And of course, those people just about always want to spend some time in the capital seeing the sights.”

The benefit of having yachties cruise the islands is evident not just in the major ports. Says Cary Evarts: “In Tonga, for ex ample, the villagers often ask visiting yachts if they want a feast. The whole vil lage goes out and gets pigs, lobsters, clams, fish and they’ll spend a week preparing a night for a couple of boats.

“With the money you pay them about $lO a head for five times as much as you could possibly eat they can buy much-needed items. We helped to buy a water pump for one village, and other people we came across were saving up for diesel generators.”

Time is a crucial factor for people on charter yachts, and often (forgetting they are meant to be relaxing), through lack of sensible planning they may miss out on

some of the delights. “Because they only have two weeks or so, they spend heaps of time sailing, rushing from one island to the next to try to see it all. They would be bet ter off just choosing two spots, say, and really get a feeling for the people and the culture,” says Evarts.

One question asked of the travel indus try is why there are so few bareboat charter businesses in the South Pacific. A number of companies have now won licences to run bareboat charters in Fiji, but as yet noth ing concrete has been organised. There used to be a bareboat charter yacht com pany in Port Vila, but they have diverted their business interests elsewhere. And, as far as the other nations are concerned, the idea of bareboat chartering is still nothing but a dream.

“One of the problems is that the Car ibbean is so geared up to chartering that it’s hard to get Americans and Europeans to come this far,” Evarts says. “And every thing is so cheap in the Caribbean. There’s

no real reason yet for would-be sail ors to jump halfway across the world when they have it on their doorstep.”

Local companies disagree. The Pacific islands have more varied cultures, more unspoilt islands and unpolluted waters than anywhere on the globe. But attract ing the tourist dollar is not easy. “Bare boating is certainly an expanding industry,” says Kerry Dickerson, “For ex ample, we will soon be purchasing more yachts to add to our fleet. But it takes time and money.

“Roger keeps our yachts in immaculate condition, but when they get to be about three years old, we have to replace them with a brand new boat.”

These problems aside, there’s no doubt that, as tourism in the South Pacific grows, so will the need for more bareboat charter companies. Before too long, there may be thousands of people hoisting the main, tightening the jib and setting a compass course to a Pacific paradise. □

Divide the cost between half a dozen friends, and a yacht charter becomes an economic holiday.