Get a yacht pass this season

Going beyond cruise liners, holidays on the sea now include 112-foot yachts, trip sharing, and parties with strangers

August 23, 2019 03:23 pm | Updated 03:23 pm IST

A day ago, I was dodging potholes in rainy Mumbai. Now, I am sailing, with the sounds of ‘Pull! Grind! Release!’ sounding in my ears. Ropes fly, the boom swings and the white sail buffets against a blue sky before refilling with Aegean air. Just like the ancient Greeks, whose waters we are sailing, we’re travelling with the wind on a 52-foot Sun Odyssey 519.

It’s day one of The Yacht Week (TYW) — an annual sailing festival held across seven destinations, including Greece, Croatia and the Caribbean — cruising from Athens towards the Saronic Gulf. We’ve anchored at a quiet cove on the way to the island of Poros. Our hostess, Cara, has rustled up a meal for 10 in under two hours. But before we ‘dive’ into the food ( spanakopita , bagel-style koulouri , Greek yoghurt and fruits), there’s another dive that is customary now, off the yacht into the Aegean Sea. “Who wants a swim?” our Dutch skipper, Karen, asks and we leap off the stern. Opening my eyes beneath the salty surface, I am surrounded by shafts of sunlight, fish and sapphire depths. We swim in the shallow waters for a while, build up an appetite, and breakfast is polished off in minutes.

Checks and balances
  • TYW’s Original Greece route costs between €2,500 and €3,000 a head. This includes the yacht, skipper and hostess charges, port docking and fuel charges, and groceries and alcohol. You can reduce costs by opting to do the cooking yourself.
  • Marine Solutions’ Mumbai-Goa route costs about ₹1 lakh per person (not including fuel). Their grandest, a 100-foot, four-cabin yacht, can set you back ₹7 lakh a day and ₹5 lakh for fuel. Skipper and hostess charges are included. They also have charters in Goa costing between ₹25,000 and ₹80,000.
  • Blue Bay Marines’ Mumbai-to-Goa charter for six guests costs around ₹8 lakh (all inclusive), for 7N8D.
  • Istion’s fully-crewed yachts cost from €5,000 per week to €60,000 (for the 112-foot Bugari, with five cabins). Fuel and food charges are not included.

This ritual is followed every day, as we move to Erminoni, Porto Heli, Spetses, Dokos and back to Athens. Along the way, we stop for the circle raft, a signature TYW feature, where all the yachts sailing the islands form a circle and everyone swims in the sea for a couple of hours. To make sure we don’t become certified beach bums with the requisite tan, TYW also organises parties almost every day with a different theme.

The millennial draw

Sailing in a yacht means waking up to a different panorama every morning. It also means hassle-free travel — no traffic, no tourists. That’s a realisation I, and several other Indians, have come to. What else explains the current interest in yachting, not just internationally but also in India? Marine Solutions, which started in 2003, is India’s first professionally-managed company dedicated to leisure boating. “Yachting in India has always had its patrons, but now a lot more people are interested in it. It is no longer just the pastime of celebrities and leathery old men,” says Anju Dutta, MD, Marketing and PR, Marine Solutions. “While most opt for day cruises, in Mumbai, Goa or the Kerala backwaters, we do have those who want to hire yachts for the three-day Mumbai-Goa route,” she adds.

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Meherzad Kajanwalla, a partner at Mumbai-based Blue Bay Marine, however, feels the “concept of chartering a yacht for a week or two” is still evolving in India. Most of their guests hire yachts for day trips, for either a celebration or a luxurious meal out at sea. “To be out on a boat for a week or more, one really needs to love the sea. We have done charters to Goa and back though, where guests have enjoyed the experience,” she says. But what Dutta and Kajanwalla both agree on is the “substantial increase” in the number of millennials showing an active interest in yachting holidays. In the last year or so, they’ve had more people in their 20s and 30s hiring yachts — for a few hours or even a day — for leisurely lunches, pre-wedding parties and trips to places like Alibag and Murud-Janjira.

Abroad, TYW, with its mix of parties, DJs and a young crew, is also catered towards millennials, with other yachting companies like Yachtico, The Moorings, and DreamYachtCharter picking up on the trend. “We have groups of people in their early 20s who rent yachts at popular spots such as Mykonos and sail during the day and party in the evening,” says a representative of Istion Yachts, a 27-year veteran of the industry in Greece.

Share the adventure
  • Yacht holidays are not just for the wealthy. Trip sharing websites like Antlos, GetMyBoat, Intersaiclub and BoatAffair help connect boat owners and holidaymakers, much like an Airbnb does for rooms or Uber for taxis. You can create a profile, check out who else has signed up, and use their online chat features to finalise details. No more wallet-draining nightmares on the sea!

Fun on the shore

Whether you rent a whole yacht with family and friends, or cruise with strangers, you can always expect bespoke experiences. TYW gives you access to exclusive nightclubs and beach clubs at the ports they dock. The white Riviera Chic party at Ermioni, the Nikki Beach Club party at Porto Heli and the retro-themed party at Spetses are now part of TYW legend. Docking at a natural bay on an unnamed, uninhabited island, save for a solitary cat, near Dokos and hiking up to the top on the hill is an activity and experience I’m unlikely to forget.

MG Yachts, which sails from Athens to the Saronic and Cyclades islands, offers private chefs, and baby and pet-sitting, so you can make the most of island-hopping in Greece. Back home, Marine Solutions’ Mumbai-Goa cruise promises a gorgeous coastline, stops at the 16th-century Jaigad Fort for some festivities organised by MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation), and secluded beaches. And almost all of them leave the itinerary to you.

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