yacht charter course

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Our ship chartering certificate gives you a practical, commercial, and legal grounding in charterparties

Study the principles and practical mechanics of ship chartering practice and charterparty contracts., black friday is live.

Claim your 15% discount at checkout now. T&Cs apply. For more information, get in touch with our Education Consultants by email or call us on +44 (0) 20 8052 2710.

Certificate in Chartering Online Course

Core modules.

• Module 1 – Introduction, Market Context and Broking
• Module 2 – Time Charterparties I – Introduction and Owners’ Issues
• Module 3 – Time Charterparties II – Charterer Issues
• Module 4 – Time Charterparties III – Ports and Performance
• Module 5 – Voyage Charterparties I – Introduction and Owners’ Obligations
• Module 6 – Voyage Charterparties II – Charterers’ Obligations
• Module 7 – Voyage Charterparties III - Laytime and Demurrage
• Module 8 – Conflict, Interaction and Resolution

What You'll Learn

Errors in the drafting or understanding of a charterparty can reduce profits or incur significant losses. Prevent these risks through ship chartering training.

The Certificate in Chartering course is a fascinating programme designed to give shipowners, charterers and anyone involved in preparing charterparties a practical, commercial and legal grounding in these crucial contracts.

Compiled by specialists, the carefully structured study modules of the Certificate in Chartering programme highlight all the important issues and pitfalls, discuss legal and practical solutions to problems and provide practical insights on how to avoid them through good planning.

How You'll Learn

Every course is broken down into manageable modules, designed to accelerate your learning process through diverse learning activities:

• Work through your instructional material online
• Interact with your peers and learning facilitators through the online forum to discuss subject-related issues and network with fellow learners
• Investigate relevant, real-world case studies
• Apply what you learn each week to ongoing project submissions

Your Digital Badge

You can now have a digital version of your Lloyd’s Maritime Academy Certification!

Powered by Credly, your Lloyd’s Maritime Academy digital badge is an online version of your credentials that contains a description of your award, demonstrated skills and what it took to obtain your certificate qualification.

Also, your digital badge allows you to get labour market insights data including job openings, salary ranges and selected top employers, and you can display the badge in your email signature, electronic copies of your resume and on social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and X!

Liza Shaller

Charter Specialist

Solstice Yacht Charters

"I am proud to have achieved my Certificate in Chartering through the Lloyd's Maritime Academy, as the course was extremely informative and thorough, and the online support and materials were excellent!"

Denis Smirnov

Corporate Development

CISN Shipping Group

"This is a chartering course intended to set you up for success."

Capt Vikas Shukla

Commercial Manager

"Simple presentation of excellent data by industry experts. The course uses actual case studies which I found particularly useful."

100% online

• Accessible – 24/7 availability from wherever you have an internet connection
• Flexible – take control of where, when, how and the rate at which you study
• Professional – industry leading course directors and tutors
• Quality – study the same course corporations use for internal training
• Network – with tutors and like-minded professionals from around the world. Use our online tutorial forum to ask questions and share knowledge
• Save money – no additional travel or accommodation costs

Get the Latest Course Updates

Bareboat Chartering | Online Course

Learn how to charter a yacht.

The Bareboat Charter online sailing and powerboating course is your go-to resource for planning an unforgettable charter vacation. Whether you're dreaming of cruising the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or any other destination, this comprehensive course equips you with all the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully charter a yacht. From navigating the charter base to managing energy and troubleshooting, learn from the experts and ensure a smooth and enjoyable bareboat charter experience. Perfect for boaters of all levels, enroll now to make the most of your next sailing or powerboat adventure with NauticEd.

Estimated Time: 5 hours Price: $39 (or $33 with the Bareboat Charter Master Sailboat Bundle or Bareboat Charter Master Powerboat Bundle )

The Bareboat Charter online sailing and powerboat course teaches you how to charter a yacht in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or anywhere in the world! This course is taught by the charter vacation experts at NauticEd.

This comprehensive online course covers all the essential skills and knowledge you need to successfully charter a yacht. From what to do at the charter base, what items to food provision for your trip (with a downloadable PDF shopping list), and manage battery energy, to troubleshooting tips, this course will teach you everything you need to know to confidently charter a yacht in the world's most beautiful waterways.

BONUS ADD-ON:  we provide two downloadable PDF recipe guides specially designed for a weeklong charter. The guides include a full shopping list and will have your crew wowing at the culinary delights you have performed on a boat.

Whether you are a seasoned boater or just starting out, this course is a must for anyone looking to charter a yacht and explore the world's sailing and powerboat vacation destinations. Enroll now and learn from the experts at NauticEd.

In this Bareboat Charter Course you will learn:

• What to buy at the base
• What little gizmos to take from home
• What to inspect on the boat that the charter company won't point out
• Things that you would assume are done automatically but are sometimes not
• How to lead a group of people who are your friends and get them to listen to you without being the ogre of the sea
• How to manage the fridge and freezer
• Dinghy tips
• How to fix things on the boat that will go wrong
• What to train your crew on
• Quick fixes for an engine that you're unfamiliar with
• How to have an extraordinarily fun time etc etc etc
• How to manage the energy on your boat

We guarantee both your satisfaction AND Lifetime access to any sailing course you buy from us

More About the Bareboat Charter Sailing and Powerboating Course

• The Bareboat Charter online course teaches yacht chartering on sailing and powerboating vacations
• This sailing course takes approximately 5 hours total time to complete
• Take as long as you need to complete
• Return as many times as you like to review
• Take the online test as many times as you like
• Adds the Bareboat Yacht Chartering Endorsement to your Certification
• A downloadable PDF of the entire sailing course is also available to read offline
• View an excerpt from this Course

Going Bareboat Chartering? Awesome - how exciting. And even without this clinic you'll have a great time, but with all the money you're going to spend, the $39 you'll invest in this Bareboat Yacht Charter Clinic will be more than worth it. This Clinic is jam-packed full of tips from 2 professional USCG Captains who have taken dozens and dozens of charter trips in the Northern and Southern Caribbean, Eastern and Western Mediterranean, the South Pacific, Belize, Baja Mexico, etc.

The clinic assumes that you are already proficient at sailing or powerboating - the course takes you to the charter base, into an unfamiliar sailing area, and onto an unfamiliar boat and solves the unfamiliar problems you're going to have. Plus tips on leadership and how to make your crew gel in a confined space over a weeklong charter vacation.

You will receive access to our interactive online bareboat chartering course, plus a downloadable PDF document of the entire course for optional offline reading and the real-time graded test. With over 50 pages of anecdotes and tips, there are hundreds of gems and every one of them is valuable in its own right. We even give you a printable crew briefing sheet to ensure you hit the important briefing points with your crew before you leave the dock.

This comprehensive chartering course will take you about 5 hours to complete including the test. Once completed, your boating certification will be instantly updated. We guarantee that you'll enjoy your yacht charter sailing vacation more because of this clinic or we'll simply refund your $39. We also recommend that the entire crew take this course. If you're captain, having your crew understand bareboat chartering before you leave the dock is going to make your job much more enjoyable. If you're going to be crewing on an exhilarating charter sailing or powerboating vacation, then get the most out of your vacation by investing in essential chartering knowledge now.

Once on a charter trip, we decided that if we'd wanted a trip to go smoothly without a hiccup then we should have taken a Disney cruise liner vacation. Instead, the trip just seemed to be full of McGyver-type problems to solve. Every one of them was a fun challenge but it seemed like there was more than our fair share. At the end of the week, we had more fun stories than Mickey Mouse himself. We had a ball, but the trick to the success was the ability to draw on all the little tips and gems we'd learned from past experiences. This  Clinic has all those right here. You're going to feel like you are a professional yacht charterer the instant you've completed this Clinic and your crew is going to be astounded at your seemingly endless knowledge when you're in the thick of it.

Please enjoy Captain Ed Mapes' and Captain Grant Headifen's Bareboat Charter Sailing Clinic.

If you still have questions about NauticEd, the courses, and/or the sailing certifications, contact us via email or phone we're happy to help. Otherwise, register for this Bareboat Course now!

• The Types of Charters
• Good Captainship
• Arrival at the Base
• What to Bring From Home
• Provisioning and Food
• Freezer and Fridge Management
• Local Area Familiarization
• Getting Familiar with the Boat
• The Fuel System
• Starting the Engine
• Operating the Engine
• Stopping the Engine
• Plumbing and Tankage
• Bilge Pumps
• Galley Stove
• DC Electrical System
• AC Electrical System
• Knot Tying School
• Communications
• The Nautical Chart
• The Autopilot
• The Windlass
• Seasickness
• Briefing the Crew

View Bareboat Charter Course excerpt

Student Reviews

Very informative course

Unexpectedly good course.

As pleased with this as the other previous courses.

Awesome overview and a great recap of what I learned on my first BBC.

Seemed much easier after having done a few of the others, but it made good sense.

Covers the systems involved well

This course covers so much information that is clearly needed for chartering. Will go through this material over and over again as a great reference and refresher.

Very useful for gaining excellent knowledge and relevant for barefoot chartering.

THe course was very challenging. I feel the material covered has prepared me to take on a charter vacation.

Great examples and tips

It gave me a renewed appreciation for power management.

Good review for long time bareboat charterer

Excerpt from the course

This course is presented in three Modules. Planning and Arrival; Getting to Know Your Boat; and Underway.

The following are excerpts from each Module

Provisioning

Many charter companies can stock and provision your boat before you arrive. This is a good idea for the basics but there is usually little imagination in the food that is supplied. So we recommend allowing the charter company to provision for basics but plan on a trip to the supermarket for the sometimes delectable local foods and cheeses. There is typically a large supermarket close to the charter base. But check with them before you arrive via phone or email. Even in non-English speaking countries, most people who will answer the phone speak pretty good English.

Here’s a list of extra things to make sure you provide for your boat

• Ziplock bags
• Salt and pepper
• Paper towels
• Bug repellent
• More bug repellent
• Cheap little hand towels
• Rum (for your guests of course)

Once on the boat, the charter company will provide a checklist, however also please check these simple things that are not on their checklist:

• Wine opener
• Coffee maker
• Cooler that does not have a leaky drain. Very Important!
• The charter company will probably supply all your bedding but it's a good idea to check each cabin is supplied

Here's a "must list" of items to bring from home ...

Module 2 - Getting Familiar With Your Boat

Modern charter sailing vessels are equipped with a roller-furling jib or genoa and often a roller-furling mainsail. These sails make deploying and stowing the sail much easier than hoisting and hauling down hanked-on sails.  Roller furling systems allow us to deploy the sail by releasing the in-haul furling line from its clutch and pulling the sail out with the appropriate jib sheet for the jib or main out-haul for the main. When the sailing is over, roll the jib/genoa sail in by removing the jib sheet from the winch, and maintaining slight tension it while the jib furling line is hauled in.   The sail should furl tightly around the forestay foil mechanism.  Continue furling until the jib sheet wraps twice around the forestay, and then close the line clutch on the furling line, and stow the sheets.

To hoist the traditional main sail, first open the Stac Pac or unhook the halyard from the winch (as above).  Now remember how I said lazy jacks are a great invention? This is where you might have a sailor's mouth. Lazy Jacks always snag the battens at the leech of the sail. Always – every time – without fail! So don’t just keep winching the halyard up, the lazy jacks ARE going to snag. A couple of tricks we've learned here. Have a good helmsman to steer the boat constantly and accurately into the wind. Have one person hoisting the sail while keeping a watch on the lazy jacks and battens and have one more person maneuvering the boom to port or starboard to prevent the snagging and at the same time calling to the hoister to go up or let down. This problem is especially prevalent on catamarans. If you have lazy jacks on your own boat, attach bungee cords from the spreaders to the lazy jacks. This tends to pull the lazy jacks out wider and reduce the chance of snagging.

One more thing that tends to get snagged on the way up is the reefing lines. Inside the boom at the front of the boom are clutches that grab the reefing lines. Ensure that these don’t lock as you hoist the main.

The topping lift should not support the main sail after it is hoisted, but it must be tight enough to support the boom as the sail goes up.

Determine whether the main sail should be reefed before it is deployed. Reefing is most easily done before raising the sail. Reefing lines on charter boats are typically colored and already set up. Most commonly you'll pull in the appropriate reefing line and lock it with the clutch inside the front of the boom. This acts to pull down the leech (trailing edge) of the sail to the boom. Then simply hoist the main halyard as normal. (Watch out for those batten-catching lazy jacks).

The sail is hoisted according to wind conditions and the intended point of sail; more luff tension when sailing upwind (close-hauled or close reaching) or with higher wind strengths and less luff tension in light airs or sailing downwind.  A convenient gauge is to look for either vertical (too much halyard tension) or horizontal (insufficient luff tension) along the luff area of the sail. See NauticEd Sail Trim clinic.

Once the sail is hoisted, be sure the line clutch is closed, coil the remaining halyard into a neat roll, and stow it out of the way.  The main sheet is now tensioned appropriately, the sail is adjusted along the traveler, and the sheet is tweaked for optimum sailing efficiency.

Module 3 Underway

The crew briefing.

The following is a reminder list of things to brief your crew prior to leaving the dock. You can download this, print it out, and take it with you.

___________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for viewing the excerpts - we're pretty sure you can extrapolate this information into dozens of gems that will make your charter trip more enjoyable. We know you'll be very impressed with your $39 investment. Please download the Crew Briefing sheet attached here for free. You'll love the simplicity of it and so will your crew.

The NauticEd Faculty.

Other sailing courses you might enjoy

Anchoring a Sailboat Sail Trim

Sea talk testimonials

I just finished the whole NauticEd program. I am very impressed with what you have done: 10 steps higher than anything else I have studied before. Congratulations. Jean-Loup , Sailing Coach - Toronto

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Yacht Brokerage

Who is this course suitable for, whether you’re already an experienced broker or you’re looking to make the transition to this vibrant industry in a junior capacity, the diploma in yacht brokerage is applicable to anyone working within a yacht or charter brokerage environment..

Modules: 12 in total

About the Course

Over the years this course has been updated to reflect all aspects of the constantly evolving yacht brokerage industry. Module subjects include essential matters such as registration, title rules and regulations, yacht brokers and the law, business management and valuation along with other challenging subjects such as insurance, finance, sea trials and chartering.

Course Structure

The course consists of 12 modules. All students are required to successfully complete and pass the module assignments. Diploma students will also be required to sit and pass a final examination.

1. An Introduction to the Yacht Brokerage Industry

• Yachting safety
• The purchase of a yacht
• The law and yachts
• Health and safety for the yacht broker
• Customer relations & common courtesy
• Brokerage companies and organisations
• The essential resources for a yacht broker

2. Types of Vessels & Technical Descriptions

• Basics of design
• Definitions of the principal dimension
• The shape of hulls
• Types of vessels
• Sailing boats
• Sails and rigging
• Motorsailers
• Inland waterways vessels
• Mechanical propulsion devices
• Materials & their construction
• Internal equipment
• Electronic & navigation equipment
• Technical standards
• Basic operational knowledge
• Weather and tides

3. Registration, Title Rules and Regulations

• The role and function of registration
• Registration and the certification of registry
• Admiralty law and jurisdiction
• International maritime law
• Documentation
• National and international standards
• The Royal Yachting Association Training & Qualifications

4. Boat Brokers and the Law

Legal concepts

• English Law and the National Legal System
• The law of contract
• The law of tort (negligence)
• Liability in contract and tort

Sale of goods

• UK legislation
• Trade descriptions

Business practice

• Value Added Tax (VAT)
• Recreational Craft Directive (RCD)
• Title & registration
• Marine insurance

5. Business Management

• Starting a boat brokerage business
• Chosen product
• Obtaining listings, photography, advertising and publicity
• Go and see the vessel and crawl over it yourself
• Responsibilities of the different brokerages (listings and selling)
• Getting the vessel on your books
• Marketing and selling
• The sale process
• Communications, ethics and client relations
• The five big thoughts

6. The Surveyor in Practice

• The surveyor
• Organising and completing the survey
• Types of surveyors
• What makes a good surveyor?
• Types of surveys
• The role of the surveyor and the sale process
• The broker/surveyor relationship

7. Sea Trials

• Sea trial and the broker
• The purpose of the sea trial
• Engine tests
• Steering tests
• Other system trials
• Information recording and reporting

8. Valuation

• Valuation methodology

9. Insurance

• The legal side of marine insurance
• The practical side of marine insurance
• The marine trades policy

10. Finance

• Sources of finance available to the broker and the decision criteria
• Title registration and the influence on options for finance
• Liens and encumbrances
• Corporate ownership and the rationale
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Client funds, trust, deposits and escrow accounts
• Miscellaneous finance topics

11. Charter Yacht Brokerage

• Why get into the charter yacht industry
• Different types of charter
• Structure of the yachting industry
• Getting started
• Finding yachts for your clients
• Different types of charter yachts, toys, amenities and crew members
• International chartering areas and their respective seasons
• Itineraries
• Finding clients
• Sales training & closing the deal
• Financial transactions
• Preference sheets
• Clients & customer care
• Niche marketing
• Charter yacht booking

12. Yacht Sales

• Sales and brokerage
• Franchise / dealership
• Introduction to superyacht brokerage
• Role of the broker
• Campaign – be prepared
• Purchasers profile & preferences

Career Pathway

Career path: There is not one single defined career path. In larger yachts many professional yacht crew retrain as yacht brokers in order to be able to come ashore and yet remain in contact with the marine world.

Salary: Can be from a starting level of commission only up to huge sums (millions) for a successful few who sell superyachts. The average annual salary for a yacht and small craft broker in the United Kingdom is around £38,000.

Duties: Finding clients who wish for their yacht to be sold, checking all legal aspects of the right to sell the vessel, obtaining a detailed and accurate description of the vessel, and presenting it in the best possible manner (without misleading). Promoting the vessel to obtain interest and organising viewings. Acting as the intermediary between buyers and sellers and being the glue that holds a sale together through the difficult times.

Meet the Course Director

Toby maclaurin.

Director of Sales and Marketing at Ocean Independence

Toby is Ocean Independence Director of Sales in addition to being a Group Board Member and Shareholder of this leading superyacht group.

Toby’s role as Director is exceptionally varied and primarily involves him providing day to day business and troubleshooting support for the group’s 50+ sales and charter brokers across 13 international locations.

He has served on the council of ABYA (Association of British Yacht Agents) and was elected to the MYBA (The Worldwide Yachting Association) governing board in March 2008. He then completed 4 years as MYBA President followed by 4 years as Chairman of the association’s commercial company All Yachting SAS, that owns and operates yachtfolio.com and the MYBA Charter Show.

DIPLOMA IN YACHT BROKERAGE

On passing the Diploma, you will receive the above icon. Please use it on your business cards, LinkedIn profile and website(s)!

You can also use these letters after your name: MTA Dip YB

While the nature of distance learning is independent study, we recognise the importance of support. Students can contact us at any time during their course for assistance and our team of industry experts are always on hand for advice.

We have over 50 industry experts writing, developing and advising on our course material. We truly believe that allowing students to tap into their expertise and knowledge is of the utmost importance to fulfil your dream career.

If you would prefer to complete this as a classroom-based course, please contact us.

How long do the courses take to complete? What's the difference between a Diploma and a Certificate? Read through our Frequently Asked Questions below to find out the answer.

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