Zanzibar Yachtfun - Yacht Charter Company | Fleet, Reviews & Booking

The owner, Vincent, told us that the boat is chartered for around 40 weeks a year, and in this case, its age was definitely noticeable. After all, nearly 10 years is quite a lot for a charter yacht. Since I’m writing a review, it’s probably worth mentioning at least some of the issues we encountered. The biggest problem was the watermaker. There are essentially no marinas in Madagascar, so there is nowhere to refill fresh water, which makes a working watermaker absolutely critical. We were quite unlucky: during the first two days of the charter it did not work at all, and even the skipper, who clearly knew the boat much better than we did, could not fix it. In the end, we had to figure it out ourselves and help with the repairs. Even afterward, for various reasons, we periodically had to switch off the fresh water pumps. One of the built-in refrigerators was not working. To be fair, we used an additional fridge that had been installed onboard, and fortunately there was enough space for it. All the mugs were different, and there were not enough for all 9 of us, so some people had to drink from glasses instead. There were also not enough forks for everyone. In addition, there were no paper charts or pilot books onboard, which I personally consider quite critical given the local navigation conditions and the significant inaccuracies of electronic charts in the area. During the handover, nobody explained any local navigation specifics either, as is usually done. Overall, it was probably the strangest handover process I have ever experienced. The person giving us the boat simply handed over a checklist and said, “Check everything.” At the same time, he did not speak English very well, could not answer many questions from the checklist, and sometimes did not even know what the terms in his own checklist meant. That said, there were definitely positives as well. First, the boat had a lot of solar panels installed, which made this one of those rare cases where even with a fairly large crew of 9 people plus a skipper and a cook, there was enough electricity for everything: three refrigerators, full lighting, and even hot water heating — when the watermaker was working. Second, although old, the dinghy was absolutely reliable. The engine worked flawlessly, and even with small waves we somehow managed to land ashore in a single trip by carefully fitting 10 people into it. Once, we miscalculated our departure time and stayed on an island two hours longer than planned, missing the tide. The dinghy got flooded with water and partly filled with sand. We cleaned it up, pumped the water out, and it still started on the first try. Third, the cook, Said, was truly first-class. We ate restaurant-quality meals all week — it honestly felt like an all-inclusive resort. Most importantly, Vincent was accommodating and allowed us to stay on the boat for half a day before checkout, which helped compensate a little for the lost charter time and significantly softened our frustration. Finally, the real value of this boat was its uniqueness. It was the only boat available during our week that could be chartered bareboat. In fact, without it, our entire trip simply would not have happened.

We chartered a boat through your company for Madagascar, and overall, you delivered the core part of the service: we received the agreed boat, in the agreed location, at the agreed time, for the agreed price. That said, having chartered boats through brokers several times before, I do have a basis for comparison. In our case, communication could have been more proactive. Some questions remained unanswered and had to be repeated, and payment confirmations sometimes required follow-up from our side. Communication also tended to stop over weekends, whereas some other brokers I worked with were more consistently available. I would also recommend keeping the website information more up to date. For example, the cook’s fee was listed as €75/day, while in practice we paid €100/day. That being said, I appreciate your help in communicating with the charter company when issues with the boat arose. Although the broker is not contractually responsible for the condition of the yacht, it seems your involvement contributed to the charter company partially compensating us for the inconvenience, and I value that support. Overall, a good experience with room for improvement.