My First Experience on a Yacht Charter

Will Nicholls
Sep 2, 2018 · 5 min read

This seemed like the best thing to talk about for my first post as it was my first experience as a first mate on a X-55 Yacht and my first ever charter.

Me Helming an X-55

So just wanted to talk about my day today. I thought this was a great time to do one of these because this was my first ever paid work on a boat so I was working on a X-55, really nice boat, the biggest I’ve ever been on in the UK and because it was paid work I was paying a lot of attention as well as being an awesome experience. I’ll just run through my day, what happened and my experiences. I got to the Marina at around 8:00am and met the clients, all very nice people, friendly and up for a days yachting. Met up with the skipper, James, so it was just me and him. I was first mate and he was the skipper on board. Once we got the safety briefing underway we went off. I was involved in things like releasing the bow line from the pontoon as well as some of the others helping out and generally getting involved.

Keeping the guests happy with smiles all round

We sailed into the Solent, pulled up the main sail using the main halliard and learned the correct technique to do that (pulling from as high as you can, pulling the halliard out towards you and then down to create a purchase, making it easier to pull). It took a few of us to do it, especially when the sail gets close to the top as it gets heavier. We began to sail in the solent in some light winds which I found was a good introduction as it tends to slow everything down and there isn’t much that can go wrong. We got the jib out as well for extra speed. We began tacking up towards the Isle of White at an average speed under 10 knots.

Our aim was to get to Cowes, when we got there at around midday I did the stern line (The line attached to the back of the boat). We got the boat onto the pontoon, the guests got off the boat and headed up to the yacht haven. James and I checked over the boat to make sure it was in good order for the guests to return to after lunch. We followed them up to lunch and ate with them, really nice food which also got paid for by them.

After lunch we headed back down to the boat on full stomachs ready for the sail back. When we set off this time it was slightly windier and was building but we were prepared for that. We started off with the wind behind us going downwind and really picking up the pace at around 11 knots. We headed towards the forts, went around them and then headed on the last fetch towards Portsmouth harbour. As a bonus I even managed to get behind the wheel and do some helming on the way in. I was ecstatic about that because it was my first time helming a boat of that size and in that wind it was absolute bliss.

As we approached the marina, we had to take down the sails. James had instructed me to make sure the lazy jacks were all clear of the sail and I misunderstood him and when the sail came down the “Slugs” got stuck in the mast track, so got a bit of the blame for that! I’m glad it happened though as I find you either win or you learn and on that occasion I learned. Overall though it was a very successful trip. James finally steered the boat into it’s space. It was interesting to watch him and see the amount of time and space he took to make sure the boat got in safely, especially with the wind blowing the bow onto the pontoon I thought he controlled it expertly. Once we got tied up to the pontoon the guests were ready to leave, they said there goodbyes and thanked us for a great day on the water and left us to back the boat away.

The Last Fetch in

James and I cleaned down the boat. It consisted of running it over with a hose washing all the salt off and scrubbing the deck (The key apparently is to scrub sideways, against the grain so you’re actually cleaning the deck instead of shifting the dirt along the boat). We hosed the outside, hoovered inside, put covers on winches, covers on sails, cleaning the galley, cleaning the beds and generally tidying up so it’s ready to use next time. It only took us around 45mins-1 hour.


In summary, for my first ever experience I really enjoyed the whole day and am looking forward to doing some more yacht chartering work. At that level it seems through the day, most of the stuff I was doing was pleasing the guests, giving them Tea, Coffee, Drinks and Food or whatever they need and just ensuring that the guests are happy. At the end of the day I was being paid so I am actually working and not necessarily there for a joy ride even though most of the time it doesn’t seem that way.

Really happy to have gained some experience on a bigger boat like that and meet some awesome people and I look forward to doing some more.

Date: 09/05/18. Details of voyage: Cruising from Portsmouth Harbour to Cowes, Isle of Wight. Days on board: 1 Distance travelled: 34nm Tidal.