First Impression: Jet Stream

Date toured: November 2007

The 45-foot sailing catamaran Jet Stream is neither the biggest nor the fanciest boat that you will find for charter in the Virgin Islands. She does, however, offer something that I have yet to find on any other charter yacht, of any size, anywhere in the world: a captain who is also a professional golf instructor.
     Indeed, if you have a group with, say, wives who want to swim or shop while the husbands go play golf, then this just may be the charter yacht for you.
    Capt. Tim Schaaf, who owns Jet Stream, started out his career as a bona-fide PGA golf professional. He played in mini-tours and rose to the level of vice president of the PGA’s mid-Atlantic section, eventually becoming the head golf coach at Stanford University in California from 1981-87. After that, he was director of golf for a company called SyberVision Golf Schools, right up until his early 40s. That’s when he discovered cruising. Twenty-two years later, he’s still living onboard boats.
     He bought Jet Stream in 2003, when he partnered with his longtime friend Marsha McCoskrie, who serves as chef. They started out doing land-sea packages for the Bitter End Yacht Club resort in the Virgin Islands, and then worked their way into the local charter scene. Their first year, they did 40 days of charter. Their second year, it was 65. As of late 2007, they were working their way toward their goal of 80 days a season.
     The yacht is based in Road Town, Tortola, but Schaaf has reached out to golf courses from there to Puerto Rico in an attempt to create the ideal cruise-and-golf itinerary. He suggests starting on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, with three days of playing the Carambola and Buccaneer courses there, then cruising to Vieques, Spanish Virgin Islands, to overnight in what he calls "stunning" Mosquito Bay, and then cruising to Fajardo, Puerto Rico, to play the El Conquistador course before heading home.
     “You can massage that, maybe do two days at Fajardo instead of Vieques,” he says, “but the key is that this can be done, and nobody is doing it.”
     If you’d like to be among the first, contact any reputable charter broker. Jet Stream is part of the fleet at CharterPortBVI. She has a weekly, inclusive rate of $11,800 for six guests, or just shy of $2,000 per person. (Golf is extra.)—Kim Kavin