Leopard 23 charter in Italy / Sicily (name: "Maeva Star")

“Unprofessional charterer”

We have rented a Dufour 460 from 2017 (so in her 6th year) which was in average condition but most issues seemed to be caused by the poor maintenance: - toilet sinks were dirty and had a bad smell - the bow thruster did not work because it had a separate battery that was not properly charged (or was not charging any more) - the stern folding platform had issues in the past and was improperly repaired, one of the two sustaining chords (which were unsheated Dyneema size 8mm and spliced at the ends) was changed with a sheated rope with a smaller core and knotted instead of spliced so having less than half of the nominal load resistance because of the knots. We had a problem because of that: the smaller rope broke eventually while we were bathing in calm sea when a couple of stray ferry waves arrived, also causing the hinges of the platform to bend a little (we noticed with this occasion that they were repaired before). The checkout experience was also bad, we had to wait until late in the evening, the charter company representative didn't bring the documents with him, so we could not make the written checkout. And we could not discuss the problems as the representative kept telling me that only the base manager has the papers and will decide but the base manager was away until Sunday. When I mentioned the platform and I have shown the broken rope he specifically said that that rope was too small. Then, after leaving the boat on Saturday morning, I got a call from the base manager that they will charge me for the platform and for not working bow-thruster - something never mentioned by the representative that was present at checkout - but they gave up on the bow thruster after I stated disputing the issues with the charter agency. They still charged us 200 eur. for the platform, regardless of the fact that the issue was their fault and I amply described this in WhatsApp messages - because this is how the manager was communicating. So I wonder what can one do when facing a charter company that takes money from the deposit in a discretionary way? Better to avoid Jonio Yachting in my opinion.

“bad boats, to avoid!”

Rented a sailing boat Bavaria 45 for a week from Milazzo (August 2021) the boat is delivered to us dirty (cleaned up after our request) and without the full of diesel. The boat is absolutely unhealthy with indecent electrical system (discovered threads, discovered contacts, raffazzonati connections) and immediately presents serious anomalies (list only the most serious): - support of the crimched boom and with outgoing pin (arranged in some way) - Ecoscobdaglio not Working (replaced after 2 days) - inadequate and dangerous electrical system (12 volt batteries are not loaded, Salpa still works in sob and only with full power engine, refrigerators only work with the engine on) - no bow propeller - not works Anemometer works - Tree head light does not work - vhf radio does not work on call - it does not work fuel level indicator - rudders not perfectly functioning all the problems do not impact only on comfort (not working refrigerators, hot drinks and avaried food) but above all on safety! Absolutely inadequate boat to navigation, an unreliable owner, to be avoided. Over the past 20 years we have had the opportunity to rent dozens and dozens of sailing boats and we never, I never repeat, found a boat with such serious deficiencies with impact on comfort and especially on safety. Following our experience (also confirmed by the crews of the other boat boats of the same owner present at the start and return) the owner Jonio Yachting is absolutely not recommended and to be avoided.