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Checking in on a charter yacht: what to inspect before you leave
Short answer
Anything not recorded at check in will be put down to you at check out. Half an hour with a camera and the inventory protects your deposit more reliably than any insurance policy.
The handover decides what happens to your deposit. At check out the base compares the yacht with the condition recorded at check in. Any scratch, missing fender or torn sail that was not written down will be treated as having happened on your watch. After a week at sea it is almost impossible to prove otherwise, even when the damage had clearly been there for a long time.
Walk round the boat methodically, ideally with a member of the base staff: hull and deck, guardwires and rubbing strakes, tender and outboard, sails and lines, anchor and chain, engine hours and fuel level, and the safety equipment including the service dates of the liferaft and flares. Photograph every existing mark with a time stamp and make sure it is written on the check in inventory before you sign anything.
The same applies at the end. Ask for a written check out report even if nothing has happened, and get confirmation that the deposit will be released in full. If there is damage, you need a short description signed by the base: without it hardly any deposit insurer will pay, and without a detailed check in inventory you have little to argue with if the base blames you for something that was already there.
Worth remembering
30 minutes
for a check in with photographs
Your deposit
depends on the paperwork, not on memory
What is not written down at check in is paid for at check out.
Questions
What owners ask us about this
What should the check in inventory include?
Every visible mark on the hull, deck, rig, sails, tender and outboard, plus the fuel level, engine hours and safety equipment, signed by both you and the base.
What if the base staff are in a hurry?
Take the time anyway. If necessary photograph the boat yourself and send the pictures to the base with a short message before you cast off, so the condition is on record with a date.
I find old damage once we are under way. What now?
Report it to the base straight away in writing with a photograph. The sooner it is on record, the harder it becomes to attribute it to you later.
Related
Not sure whether you qualify?
Whether it is “Checking in on a charter yacht: what to inspect before you leave” or another question: send us your residence and the flag your boat flies. You will get a straight answer in one email; including a no, if that is the answer.
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