The idea
The creation of this portal has its roots in the idea of the most experienced sailor of the creators: it would be great to sail on a “mega sailing yacht” by only having to pay for the cabin used, instead of having to rent the whole ship. Why is this concept not offered much, currently, and I presume that there are many more people who would like to sail along on a “mega sailing yacht” economically.
The creators
Above-mentioned sailor found a partner who also believed in this concept, and not much later a 3rd partner was found to join in. So, three musketeers joined their forces with each of them having the talent, knowledge and experience on his own specialised field, being:
- 1st musketeer: sailing, marketing, shipping/engineering.
- 2nd musketeer: communication, mathematics and internet/website marketing.
- 3rd musketeer: sailing, economics and international management.
And for those who remember well, there was also a 4th musketeer in the early days ........ This is our website designer/developer/programmer, who is also playing a very important role in this project, of course. He surely has earned to become our:
- 4th musketeer: website design, developing, programming and website marketing.
And, the portal www.sailingselection.com was born in 2019 …… and finally went "live" on 27 april 2020.
How is our new sailing concept arisen: an overview
The sailing charter and cruise market in general
Sailing can be done in so many different ways and forms that it is difficult to get an overview. It is ranging from a high speed foiling catamaran doing more than 40 kn on regattas to a square rigged Tall Ship or Windjammer being more than 100 years old. Or you can do charter with a normal serial yacht like a Bavaria or Beneteau from 35” to 50” also as skipper or crewed charter, rent the mega-yacht “Athena” for € 400.000,= per week, or book a cabin (or only a bed) on a sailing cruise ship like “Sea Cloud” or “Star Clippers”.
Hereby a short overview:
A. Yacht Charter (boats or catamarans from 35” to 50”)
- Bareboat Charter or just renting the naked boat: It needs to have a responsible skipper (yacht – licence) and at least 2 more crew with a sailing experience. Local knowledge of the area is strongly requested. Rest of crew is helping, from provisioning of the food, cleaning, cooking, service and helping with the sails and manoeuvres.
- Skippered Charter: Same as bareboat charter but with an – hopefully – experienced skipper from the charter agent.
- Crewed Charter: On top of the Skipper comes a chef cook and/or Bosun/Stewardess
- Flotilla Sailing: like Bareboat Charter, but with a leading yacht/boat followed by several others sailing together. This gives much more safety and still everybody is having his own boat.
In these kinds of charter the individual is a full crew and needs to help to sail, operate and serve the boat. He is not insured or covered by the boats insurance (hull & machinery).
B. Sailing Cruises
These sailing cruise ships which are built to host between 65 guests (Sea Cloud) and 220 guests (Royal Clipper) normally have a fixed routing with operating during the night and land excursions during the day. Sailing is done when possible within this fixed itinerary and wind and weather conditions are suitable, but no routing according to the wind conditions. It is a cruise with a bit of sailing. Cruise style, luxury comfort and service. Sometimes excellent food. Very professional. Passengers are fully insured under P&I.
We are confident that there is a growing demand and potential for a combination of the two above-mentioned sailing styles A. and B., which would be to book a cabin on a sailing ship, but then possibly smaller than a cruise ship (as described under B), and with the focus on real sailing (like category A).
A new concept of “cabin charter” is born, whereby the following 5 options come to fore:
1. Tall ships:
- On these ships, mainly old ‘Windjammer’ or converted fishing or coastal cargo vessel in the Dutch ‘brown fleet’ you can book as a trainee learning how to sail such a ship and working hard in keeping it up. Nevertheless most of these ships you need to pay for. Accommodation and food is often a kind of a youth hostel. But of course being up the masts in the Antarctica on the Bark ‘Europa’ is an unforgettable challenge, if you like to learn about your limits. There is nothing on any yacht to be compared with this kind of seamanship.
- For "Sail Amsterdam", ‘Hamburg Hafengeburtstag’, "Hansesail", "Kieler week" , Festival Brest, or other ‘Windjammer’ events it is most of the time possible to book on one of these vessels for a day trip or as an incentive for a company. But this is more a happening than a sailing experience.
- Some vessels do ‘School under Sails’ meaning they take – paying – pupils to be taught on a vessel while they do long distance voyages and train the pupils in sailing and seamanship as well as a training for life…Very recommendable.
On trips like this crew and trainees are normally insured under a P&I Insurance.
2. Mega Yachts:
On these ships authentic yacht sailing on a classical styled Mega Yacht with a flexible routing is combined with the comfort of a cruise ship. They have a full nautical and a service crew with good food as well. Small groups up to 26 persons. Sailing with a bit of a cruise. Very recommendable! An example is the Sailing-Classics cabin charter product on RHEA, CHRONOS or KAIROS which combines real sailing on a Mega Yacht with the comfort of a cruise. Passengers are fully insured under P&I.
3. Classical Luxury Yachts:
This category involves ships like mentioned under category 2. with the speciality that they are real classical ships (with nice renovations/refits along the way of course, they are being built like up to 100 years old or so), with a high level of luxury and comfort/space on board, like the “Germania Nova”. Ships under this and the previous category, you will also find participating at special (regatta) events, like the "Voiles de St. Tropez" or "Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta", very special sailing events to be part of.
4. Catamarans and other crewed charter yachts:
As a result of the growing awareness during the last few years that catamarans combine spacious living area with nice stable comfortable sailing characteristics, there is a growing demand for sailing on catamarans on the basis of “cabin charter” as well.
5. Gulets and other motorsailers:
Finally there is a category of ships which appear in specific countries / sailing areas where the tradition of these ships is originating from. Like the Gulet Motorsailer: these are very nice trips, mostly from bay to bay, and are usually motor-sailing concepts, using both motor-power as well as sailing.
For most of the above-mentioned 5 x “cabin charter” types you do not need sailing experience or a sailing licence. Nevertheless your grade of fitness and experience is important for most forms of cabin charter. The sailing experience is very much determined by the area you are sailing in. An Atlantic crossing is totally different to a Mediterranean gulet trip in Turkey or Croatia with just sailing from bay to bay close to the shore.
Which services do we offer?
SailingSelection.com will lead you to find for you the finest cabin charter sailing experience and this tailor-made to your wishes. We have close contact to, knowledge and expertise about and offer the finest crewed sailing ships, cruising the seas worldwide. You can book a cabin and sail along with and get to know like-minded guests, all very enthusiastic to sail on unique, mostly classic and stylish sailing vessels from times past, and at the same time, renovated to meet the today’s comfort requirements. If you have sailed/skippered yourself for many years, but now wants to sail without doing all the hard work yourself or on your own, or if you want to get the feeling of sailing for the first time without sailing knowledge, or want to sail on a historic (mega) yacht, special catamaran or Windjammer, or if you want to sail in far away foreign waters, our formula brings together all these wishes.
Start with choosing your preferred sailing area, or start with your preferred ship, or preferred season, or preferred cabin type and we will lead you to your chosen and unique sailing experience.
Via our website portal sailingselection.com you will get a good overview for the main types of cabin charter offerings. For full charter requests (private charter of the entire ship), please contact us via the following contact details: info@sailingselection.com
Our sailing ship company partners
We have learned that ship companies / ship owners have ample availability of unused cabins during certain periods of the year, which they would like to be seen commercialised. We will be cooperating with like-minded sailing ship companies, matching our philosophy, and who can offer cabins on their ships for our guests.
For more information about why it would be worthwhile to become one of our sailing ship partners, see: FAQ raised by ship companies
How to contact us
SailingSelection.com is a brand name of Trimusket B.V. and is registered and based in Roermond, the Netherlands. Regarding questions about SailingSelection.com, and it’s services or if you wish to send any documents, correspondence, notices or other communications in respect of SailingSelection.com please contact Trimusket B.V. directly.
Our company name and address
Trimusket B.V.
La Bonne Aventure 2
NL - 6041 MC Roermond
The Netherlands
Director: Marco Becker
Contact information
For consumers regarding sailing trip reservations, see: www.sailingselection.com
Helpdesk: support@sailingselection.com or by telephone:
+31 6 21 56 77 43 (We speak English, French, German, Italian and Dutch).
For companies or for other queries:
info@sailingselection.com
Telephone: +31 6 21 56 77 43
Company registration
Kamer van Koophandel Roermond ( = Commercial Register of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Roermond)
File number: 75120445
VAT registration number: NL8601.50.616.B01