Mulligans, Shotguns and Fritters—Oh My!
International Yacht Collection announced this week that the 130-foot fully crewed motoryacht Sacajawea is seeking charter guests who love to golf. The yacht is moving north from Florida to New England, and along the way the captain has organized itineraries that include some of the most picturesque links in the Carolinas.
The announcement reminded me about what fun it can be to combine a yacht charter—bareboat or crewed—with a favorite hobby. The hobbies that spring to mind first are water sports like snorkeling and fishing, but if you think a bit about your itinerary and destination in advance, you can combine a private yacht charter vacation with pretty much any hobby you choose.
My family and I did just that last summer onboard the 60-foot motoryacht Irony, which has two crew and takes six guests for a base rate of $12,500 per week (about $2,600 per person with 25-percent expenses added). We chose to charter Irony in the Chesapeake Bay and set our waypoints up the Wye River offshoot for a place called Pintail Point, where there is an outstanding sporting clays course just a short golf cart ride from the dock. Our favorite family hobby, you see, is blasting orange clay “birds” out of the sky with shotguns, so we worked with Capt. Dan Cole to arrange an itinerary that gave us a few days’ worth of scenic cruising combined with a few days of shooting wobbler, poison bird, and other sporting clays games.
The beauty of private charter yacht vacations is that you can plan a highly personalized itinerary like this no matter what your hobby. I’ve heard of wine-tasting charters, scuba charters, even charters based solely on a search for the best conch fitter stands in the Bahamas. On a charter yacht, bareboat or crewed, you’re not at the mercy of pre-planned itineraries and quickie shore excursions. You can linger and lounge as long as you’d like, doing whatever you choose, wherever you want in the world.
If golf is your thing and you’re interested in a crewed yacht for ten guests, I recommend you talk to a reputable charter broker about that Sacajawea advertisement. The Carolinas have some of the East Coast’s most gorgeous greens, and you can enjoy them with a full crew at a base rate of $70,000 per week (or $8,750 per person with 25-percent expenses included).