If you are a regular charterer, you’ll know that the number of charter companies is vast, and the sailing areas range from the Caribbean to the Whitsunday’s. You’ll also know that going on a charter holiday is the essence of freedom. A different port each night, a fabulous sail (or high speed blast in a motor boat) each day, some white stretches of sand, secluded coves, sparkling coral and wind in your hair.

For those that have never chartered before, it is just fantastic. If you are experienced, you can take a bareboat charter and be your own captain. If you are not yet confident, or you want a ready made social life, then a Flotilla is just right for you.

It’s important to note there are some differences in requirements between the Caribbean and Mediterranean. While in the Caribbean it is experience that is most important to a charter company, in the Med it is likely they will want to see at least an RYA Day Skipper qualification (or similar).

If you don’t know what a ‘Day Skipper’ is, then you ought to think about getting some training before you go. Doing the training is great fun and will give you loads of confidence and you’ll learn how to be a competent crew (there’s a Competent Crew course you can take if you have zero experience) and how to skipper a boat safely during the day in familiar waters (Day Skipper). A typical course is 5 days and can be done at any time of year. Clearly it’s warmer during the summer months but it is also more costly and the competition for places is stiffer. The best time to take a course is in the early spring, so you are nice and ready to build on your learning on your charter holiday later in the summer.

A great way to keep track of your training courses, miles and certificates is by using the ‘Sailing CV‘ section on this site. The Sailing CV section enables you to log the qualifications you have taken (like Competent Crew, Day Skipper or Coastal Skipper), upload the certificates and then log each and every voyage you take. You can log the boat’s name, wind speed, capacity in which you have sailed, how many miles, night hours or whether the voyage was in tidal or non-tidal water. (You’ll need to get a free account and log in to use the Sailing CV – register here.)

It’s then really easy to print off the CV and provide this as evidence of your experience AND your qualifications to the charter company. It is likely that you’ll have to pay a security deposit for taking the boat, so ensuring you demonstrate you have a great deal of experience as well as ‘pieces of paper’ is a great way to see if you can reduce the excess on any insurance policy.

Once you have your ‘Skipper’s ticket’ you can charter boats abroad or in the UK. The world will be your oyster.

The next step is to find the right location and charter company. In future articles we’ll be looking at different charter destinations, so keep watching this space.

As for finding a charter company, you need look no further than on Harbour Exchange as you can now browse boats to charter right here.

Or, use the form below to make an enquiry straight away.

Related posts:

1. Harbour Exchange Club House
2. MyBoatingInfo.com – Sailing CV & Boat Register
3. Yacht crushed by whale back on the water

The Ellen MacArthur Trust is one of the first organisations to sign up to Harbour Exchange. Not only will you find their profile on Club House, you’ll also find it in Bid or Buy under Charities & Trusts in the Directory section.

You can support the Harbour Exchange campaign to raise £10,000 by clicking on the button below:

If you don’t know what the Ellen MacArthur Trust does, then you must check out their website www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org

Thanks to generous donations from the public, the Ellen MacArthur Trust can help young people recover from cancer by giving them a thrilling and confidence boosting experience sailing.

Ellen is an inspiration and has set a very high bar, and her charity lives up to the standards set by one of our biggest sailing heroines.

Give whatever you can by clicking on the button above.

Related posts:

1. Ellen MacArthur Trust goes on first long-distance voyage
2. Dame Ellen to start Round the Island race
3. Release your Inner blogger – write for Harbour Exchange

For those that have been afloat without any news service for the past year, you’ll be forgiven if you haven’t a clue what Twitter is. For everyone else, you cannot have missed it. All the hype, all the publicity about how it will change the world, all the people out there wondering how on earth a tweet can be anything other than a ‘Priory admitting’ severe condition of narcicism.

Twitter may not change the world and you may not be interested in what a complete stranger has had for breakfast – but it can be the most interesting thing on the web.

You can get updates on what Lance Armstrong is up to – he has an amazing 800,000+ followers. Dee Caffari has a twitter, so does Richard Branson, Eddie Izzard, Jonathan Ross and countless others that really are very interesting.

The Twitterers who are the best are those that live by the mantra of ABL – ‘Always Be Linking’. They find great stuff on the web and squeeze the link down to the size of an insect and then tweet it. It really is a completely new way of surfing – find people you like, follow them and visit the sites they tweet about.

Harbour Exchange has a Twitter account and you can follow us by going to http://twitter.com/HarbourExchange

You’ll also see that on Club House there is a Twitter widget on every profile and dashboard. When you sign up for an account on Club House, you can input your Twitter details in the widget and all your friends at Harbour Exchage can automatically see your tweets.

If you are thinking… but I don’t really have anything to twitter about, think again. Find the people you like on Twitter and you can ‘re-tweet’ their tweets.

For anyone who is intersted in finding out more about this whole area, we have a FREE e-book to give away if you sign up on Club House or if you follow Harbour Exchange on Twitter. Just join Club House, request to link to Commodore as a friend, and when Commodore accepts you’ll be sent the e-book.

Couldn’t be better!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Is Twitter a journalistic tool? (guardian.co.uk)
• Micro-blogging service Twitter to ‘launch TV series’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Is Twitter the next Second Life? (Christian Science Monitor) (techmeme.com)

Related posts:

1. ‘AllNews’ and BoatNe.ws
2. Harbour Exchange Club House
3. Ellen MacArthur Trust – Donate via Harbour Exchange

The Club House at Harbour Exchange is now OPEN!

Join here to connect with your sailing friends, crew, teams, family and just about anyone else with an interest in sailing, yachting, boating or watersports.

You can:

• share photos
• write blogs
• organise your crew with a group
• set up an event calendar
• upload important sailing documents
• update your friends on the wire or via twitter
• and lots more…

Join Club House NOW!

Related posts:

1. Release your Inner blogger – write for Harbour Exchange
2. Ellen MacArthur Trust – Donate via Harbour Exchange
3. Exe Sailing Club is club of the year