BENETEAU Cyclades 43.4 2008/REFIT 2018 charter in Greece (name: "SAPPHIRE")

“Never ever book at Golden Compass”

The company has no respect to your time at all. Even with an “early check-in” I couldn’t leave the marina until Sunday noon. The boat was poorly maintained. Many things small didn’t work, like anemometer, pitometer log and others. During my trip I had an engine failure that was caused by contaminated diesel in the tank. I spent 3 days repairing it. The boat name was Sapphire (Beneteau Cyclades 43.4). I took the boat in Corfu on the 10th of September’22 for two weeks. The engine of the boat failed when the sea was rough. It happened twice to me, both times when the weather was tough and I was relying on the engine. The reason was that the tank wasn’t inspected for a long time, so there was a bacteria contamination there. When the diesel was shaked well enough the goo from the tank blocked the fuel inlet filter. Another problem was the rusty contact on the anchor windlass that also failed during the trip. Both the engine and the anchor windlass failed at the same time when I was trying to hide from a bad weather in a bay one evening. After that I had to go to the closest port where I could dock alongside - this was Fiskardo port. The company said that I shouldn’t have gone there and instead go to their base which was 20NM away. They refused to pay for repair at first claiming that engine was checked and it was my fault. I spent the whole day convincing them that I did they right choice in this situation. In the end I repaired the engine and the windlass on my cost and left the port after 3 days.

“Never book at Golden Compass”

Never book with this company. We were sent to a port and waited there until midnight that someone picks us up. Our boat did not exist at all and the replacement was defective without electronics without sail without anchor The condition was a disaster. Safety equipment was not available. They wanted to force us to sign the contract without being able to check the boat. Then they want the deposit in cash. According to the port police in Greece, the company has been closed and is based in Bulgaria. For us the worst vacation we have ever had.

“stay away from Golden Compass Yachts!”

We have just finished a week of sailing in Corfu, with a chartered boat from Golden Compass Yachts, (also known as the "The yachts Club Perigiali" We chartered a Sun odyssey 519, 2016. Bottom line Do not charter from GOLDEN COMPASS YACHTS... Although price was competitive but not cheap, the service was terrible and the ship's maintenance condition is outrageous. This is the list of faults during the week: 1) Receiving the Boarding pass, first surprise... I was amazed that the check in will be at old harbor, not at the planned location that was agreed on contract, NAOK sailing club Marina. 2) check in: We arrived 2 hours before check in time at 15:00. The maintenance technicians and the cleaning personals were on the ship, I understood it is going to take time, so we came back at 17:00 as agreed on the contract. Golden compass does not have any docking space so they improvise location at the old harbor that does not have any facilities, like shower, toilet, water, electricity nor fueling, this harbor it is not suitable for chartered boats. 3) at ~ 18:30 I started the checks after the technicians said that the boat is ready I opened the bilge and it was full of sweet water up to the top, called the technicians and they found a crack at the water tank. Turned the bilge pump on (it was off!!!) and it took over 2 hours to pump out all the water. The boat stinks like sewage , mostly in the main toilet from overflow of the holding tank. I could not check the sails, because of strong wind condition. There were many safety equipment missing like flares, flashlight, portable VHF etc that I thought will be given during formal check-in. At 19:30 Vasilis the owner of the company arrived and ask to sign the papers and pay the deposit, insurance and cleaning charges, in cash only! After payment he disappeared. 4) At 21:00 I called Vasilis, not a nice person is understatement, and he didn't understand why do I bother him... 5) he arrived at 22:00 to the ship . I asked how to turn on the generator and air-condition, both were part of the contract...and the surprise was that both do not work... I was tired and upset but luckily we had a reservation for an hotel for the first night. so we scheduled to continue the check-in on Sunday morning. 6) On Sunday I understood that there is no formal check-in, you check what you want and nothing more, no instructions nor help...help yourself... but I insisted to have the flares...got them thanks God 7) After some more cleaning at ~11:00 day after the check-in time, I released the ropes and start our great family vacation . We left the harbor, tried to lift the main sail , the reefs were a complete mess. After struggling with the main I managed to lift it, but unfortunately the full batten main had no battens... so it looked terrible, and to take it down to the lazy bag that had not even one clip around the mast was not easy task. 9) Jib Halyard, was connected to nothing, so as soon as I opened the jib roller, it started falling. I fixed it and continue...NOTHING WILL STOP US. 10) Instruments and gages , auto pilot, wind speed and direction, nothing works, but NOTHING will stop us 11) First stop at Sivota, outboard motor does not start...this can destroy the vacation...I reported to Vasilis, So we started rowing the dinghy , NOTHING WILL STOP US. 12) Few times during the week I asked to take care of the dinghy's outboard but he simply did not care nor had any intention to repair or send a replacement, he asked for a video, I sent, but still didn't care, he said it worked at the harbor... so we kept rowing, NOTHING will stop us. Just to mention that we had to pump air to the dinghy every use.. 13) Since we had no outboard, we had to spend some nights (and money) in marinas with docking options, 14) Check out was a nightmare like check-in. We decided to return to the harbor on Friday Morning, to spent some time in Corfu, so we asked in advance the evening before for docking location, since golden compass location in the harbor is longside piracy parking, to fishing boats or tourist boats . First Vasilis refused that we will arrive before 17:00, but after some pressure from the agent who sold us the charter, he agreed. 15) Our flight was early on Saturday, So I asked to checkout on Friday evening and just sleep on the boat till 3:30am, this is a standard procedure in all charter companies, and was noted in the boarding pass. Vasilis did not accept it since he didn't want to give the deposit,600 EUR before the boat is empty. After all the surprises and the behavior and attitude of Vasilis during the week, I was afraid the he will not arrive at 3:30 am. Surprisingly he came on time and paid back the deposit +80 Euros refund for the outboard that didn't work. Despite all the above, we managed to have a great vacation , Greece and Corfu were good to us, but the boat and the charter company where a huge disappointment. Do not charter a boat from this company unless you have to!!! Amit Arazi July 2022 Date of experience: July 2022

“Worse charter experience I ever had (in 30 years!)”

We have just finished a week of sailing in Curfo, with a chartered boat from Golden Compass yachts. All and all, Corfu’s area is an amazing place to sail with family and friends. This was my third time sailing here in the past year and every experience was different and amazing. we chartered a boat through the app click n boat, that offered us their sun odyssey 419 2017. I'm an experienced skipper, usually sailing in Greece on chartered boats at least twice a year. Having said that, I have a couple of things to shed Some light on regarding this character experience. Due to schedule constraints, we where  scheduled to arrived at Corfu, on Monday morning. Before booking the boat we discussed our arrival time and where assured by Golden compass that the boat will be ready for us on Monday morning at 8:45, and we will have a fast checkin process. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Golden compass yachts are not operating from Guvia marina, but from a old harbor between Corfu port and the old city marina. Unfortunately it is not a harbor suitable for chartered boats. For example there is no fuel station there, which makes the checkout day very complicated. The base manager met us 3 hours later then we set. Telling us the boat needs some more preparation.. eventually resulting in us leaving the marina at 1600 instead of 11 as promised. The boat that we got was poorly maintained. The ropes where old and damaged, the curtains on cabin windows where turn and broken. The battery where not able to hold the charge, which forced us to turn off the refrigerator, and frequently have to turn on the engine (also during the night) as the charge alarm went off often. Besides that, we received the boat dirty, and lacking essential equipment like water hose, kitchenware, etc. The back platform was partially broken. Water tanks were nearly empty and fuel tank 3/4 full… The dingy and outboard worked well. The checkin process was basically absent. The base manager refused to go over the boat and checklist with us, which ended up in us signing on an empty form. We did not resived any instructions or directions for where to change water tanks or holding tanks etc. We managed to have a great time despite all this, but the boat, base manager and the charter company where a huge disappointment. I will never charter a boat with then again and highly recommend you don’t either, no matter the attractive price.

“The very worse”

The very worse charter company. Hand over a cash deposit at your peril. BE WARNED THIS IS A FRAUDULENT COMPANY!

“Evaluation Golden Compass only negative.”

We were recently traveling with Golden Compass. I can only advise everyone to charter there. That was the last catastrophe. We are still waiting for the deposit and will go to court with it. The boat was anything but okay. Pretty much everything was defective. The gas system almost cost us life. This is a purely fraud society. No one has appeared to return from the boat. Seems to be the stitch to keep the deposit. So finger away from Golden Compass. We just want to keep everyone else from being damaged. Best regards Walter

“Finger weg”

Guten Tag Wir haben die bei ihnen offerierte Oceanis 43 „Topas“ in der Zeit vom 18.09. – 02.10.21 gechartert und dabei „Schiffbruch“ erlitten. Um sie und insbesondere ihre Charterkunden vor ungewollten Überraschungen zu bewahren möchten wir, d.h. meine Crew und ich nachstehende Hinweise geben: 1) Sehen sie sich die negativen Kommentare auf trustpilot, nonnsite und 12knots an. 2) Der Zustand des angebotenen Schiffes weicht erheblich von den schönen Werbefotos ab 3) Sauberkeit, Hygiene und Schiffsicherheit sind nicht gegeben. Wir sind nicht an Bord gegangen. Es war unzumutbar. 4) Der Umgang mit der zu zahlenden Kaution ist grenzwertig 5) Der Start- und Ankunftshafen ist nicht Gouvia sondern NAOK (ohne Infrastruktur) 6) Das Auschecken ist am Samstag ab 9.00 , dies ist bei der Planung der Rückreise zwingend zu berücksichtigen und auch, um seine Kaution zurück zu bekommen. 7) Der Umgang mit den Charterkunden bei GCYs wird von uns mit einer glatten „sechs“ bewertet. Manfred Heyen

“a very unpleasant rental experience”

zojuistNIEUW Our advice is: don’t do business with this company and most importantly do not sign any contract with them. This company has proved to us to be untrustworthy, unprofessional and disrespectful by providing us a boat in very poor condition. Below we tell our experience with the Oceanic 37 called Pearl. When we arrived we first had to sign the contract and hand over our (cash) deposit because they had to go to the Port Police quickly. All this before we even got on the boat. Unfortunately we have done this and agreed with it. Once on the boat, the first thing that struck us was the foul smell in the toilet, poor cleaning and outdated condition. (Later on our trip there was a blockage in the waste water tank). We subsequently found various defects, which meant that we could set sail 24 hours later. There was a leak in the engine (cooling water), 3 connections between sail and mast were missing or broken, pump in the shower did not work, gasoline outboard motor was not topped up, etc. All this was repaired and/or resolved. Except for the smell in the toilet. We were still kindly helped. Once we set sail we discovered that the alternator was not working and the windlass was in very bad condition. We got into a situation where there wasn't enough power to raise the anchor (because the alternator wasn't working) and the manual system to raise the anchor didn't work either. Then we had to pick up the anchor with our bare hands. We went back to the base to get this checked out. They keep insisting that everything works 100% well. We are sure that this is not the case and we had a very experienced Dutch sailor and mechanic looking after it who concluded: broken alternator, anchor winch in bad condition and very dangerous to continue sailing. Also, when it started to rain, all windows leaked along the sealant edges, leakage along the mast. Their response to our complaints: boat 100% OK, we just couldn't close a window and still had to learn how to pull up an anchor…….. We wanted to return the boat earlier. this wo was impossible. Even when we indicated that we did not want a refund. We had to continue our time on the boat. Hardly used electricity (no fridge and lights on, charging as little as possible) and anchored as little as possible. As a result, we were limited in our travel options. Due to the contract that we had signed, the Port Police could not do anything for us unfortunately. The communication was difficult. The boys on the base were willing to help, but did not always have the knowledge and no decision-making power. An often heard answer: I'm not a skipper, I'm not a mechanic, so I don't know. The manager was on another island. It was difficult to get a response from him via WhatsApp, by phone or email. If we did speak to him, we were called names, cursed and blamed for all kind of things. In short: a very unpleasant experience for us and we are glad that this is behind us.

“Stay away from Golden Compass Yacht.”

Stay away from Golden Compass Yacht. Just got back from a cruise arround Corfu Greece. To warn everyone, I present the following information about the Golden Compass Yacht charter company. I rented Oceanis 50.5 Emerald, which is a pure ruin. The Golden Compass Yachts company is the worst charter company I have ever rented a yacht from. The company will do anything to stretch you. They have a good cop and a bad cop who are well trained to trick people. Very unclear check-in and check-out procedure. The instruments in the cocpit do not work, but you will find it after you go on a cruise. Of course, they are not going to fix it. The yachts are moored in the marina where there is no water or electricity. In the event of a breakdown on the way, this will be your problem not the charter's company. On the same day, a yacht was rented by the helmsman who made an appointment for an early check-in. The company did everything so that the skipper did not have time to carefully read the contract. As a result, they did not leave as planned. The other crew we spoke to had to stay longer to their deposit back. Choosing a Golden Compass yacht is asking for trouble. #yachtcharter #ionianislands #goldencompassyachts #gcy#sailing #sailingvacation #sail #sealifeSty