What makes the difference?

Why best boat rental with skipper and cook in Croatia?

Let us try to explain….

Regarding food: We used to have a budget for food option too. To have a food option budget is actually kind of a standard in boat rental with cook. So, with food budget, you pay for groceries. And lots of times this is payed directly to skipper in cash upon your arrival.

So, we had food budget in previous years too. This year we decided to change this. There are many reasons that we changed this. Let me try to explain why the price and what makes the difference from others:

– if you pay in cash, we have EUR, but in Croatia we need Croatian Kunas; meaning there is a hussle to convert this (on islands) and problems with exchange rate and bank commissions. That is why bank transfer is better.

– 400 EUR per person seems a lot, but one thing is, food in Croatia is expensive. And this is per week for all meals. Croatia is in EU and you can not compare it to other sailing destinations like Caribbean where food is much cheaper. For comparison, you will spend around 100 EUR per dinner per person in good restaurants in Croatia. So, that is just for one dinner for one person(!). I am talking about good restaurants that I would recommend. If you go to a tourist trap kind of restaurant it is going to be less, but still around 50 EUR per person and the food will not be good.

– all meals are top restaurant like. Or better. We really try to get fresh things from locals, that are organic. Not from stores. Lots of times we bring things from home – like home made noodles from my grandma or home made marmelate or gnocchi. If there is time we bake fresh bred or pasteries on board (if we are not sailing a lot). We always try to catch fish from the boat – so they are really fresh. Other will just go to store and bring you frozen fish (from China or farms).

– the wide selection of boats are offered as bareboat (no skipper) from boat owners. Meaning you can rent them and you can be skipper. We put our skippers and cooks on them. These boats are always really badly equipped. Especially with kitchen stuff. (equipment is bad even on crewed boats). So it is hard to make good meal if you lack on equipment. That is why we bring our own kitchen equipment like:

• ice maker (for your drinks)
• good knives – that are sharp
• storage containers (to keep ingredients fresh, especially for ones that are not available around the corner)
• smoothie maker (we go to farmers market where available and we can make smoothies from fresh fruit or vegetables)
• coffee maker (believe it or not, but lots of boats do not have one on board)
• juice maker
• toaster (if someone wants hot sandwiches)
• ….and so on (there is more and a lot of this in NOT available on other boats)….

We really offer top service for your money.

Besides all this kitchen equipment, I always bring tons of extra boat equipment, spare parts and tools… to make sure you are safe and broken things can be fixed quickly (most of the time)…. so it does not interfere with your holidays. And we always bring stand up paddle, kayak and snorkeling equipment to the boat if someone wants to use them.

So, we can do this on any boat you like, not just on couple luxury yachts that have this kind of offer (and charge way more).

On top of this we really give you what you want: top sailing holidays where we take you to special places or anywhere you want (if weather and rest of conditions are ok). At least we really (!) try. Not like others where they just pretend and take your money. Yes, that is a thing. Lots of skipper will just take you where they want to go, where it is easier for them, from A to B and go to bar after arrival.

To get back to food costs….

One thing is that usually there is not much left. 400 EUR per person per week for all meals is calculated based on past experiences and expenses. From your kind of group size, there will maybe be 200-300 EUR that will be left.

But if you think it is too expensive, we can go back to food budget arrangement. Let me know if I should make you another offer with food budget (so, we set up budget and you get back what is left).

APA and boat operating costs: this is a budget to cover marinas, fuel,…  so, you get back what is left. I can get this off the offer too and you take care of this expenses any time the occur. Usually our clients do not want to deal with this every day, couple of times per day. That is why we set up a budget.

I hope I managed to explain some things. … :-) If not, just ask or let me know and I will try again.