The summer before Hurricane Irma, we spent 20 days chartering a Bali 4.5 out of DYC’s St. Martin base. It was a vibrantly unforgettable trip. The staff was probably the nicest group of people we have met at a charter base. They were exceedingly accommodating and were enjoyable to work with.
They upgraded our yacht to a newer, nicer vessel with a water maker (which is surprisingly addictive). The DYC team saw our large crew of 5 adults and 4 children and upgraded us to a larger dinghy. This was a huge help.
There were a couple of maintenance issues and they were quick to get everything fixed and extremely pleasant and helpful throughout each episode. The base is in Marina Port Royal, and surrounded by shops, bakeries and great restaurants within easy walking distance. The base is also directly next door to the Customs office, which was convenient for clearing out of St. Martin and into Anguilla.
We arrived at the base after 8:00 pm and (understandably) there was no one there to meet us. Would have been no problem, but there was no electricity on the dock. We needed instructions to get the air-conditioning running, but since there was no one around, we slept on the trampoline and made the best of it. We asked for an early start so we could beat the morning draw bridge to get out of Simpson Bay harbor, but that didn’t work out. So we had to spend most of our first day waiting at the dock to catch the afternoon bridges. I’ll be honest, I didn’t love that.
This one St Martin trip was the first time we chartered thru DYC, so in many ways this review is specific to that base. I won’t go thru the usual exercise of saying what I would make better about that base, but they have been at the forefront of a trend we don’t really like.
Nothing personal. Nothing they did made us angry or agitated. They are just not our choice for a highly specific reason:
At every DYC base, they have a 4:00 pm launch time. You have to return before 10:00 am. In most places this means that you can’t leave the dock the first day, and have to come back to the dock a day early to get in before the return time. That means you are paying full freight for TWO FULL DAYS when you are at the dock. So instead of getting a great deal on a week-long charter, you are really only getting a 5-day cruise with two sleep aboards (the night you arrive, and the night you leave).
Maybe we are just too cost conscious – or anal retentive – to think of our charter schedule based on an hourly rate. But we are. If this doesn’t bother you, DYC has a beautiful fleet of yachts with incredibly nice people.