Often the first question that people have when looking to charter a boat is what exactly is a bareboat charter and how does it work?
A bareboat charter allows you to hire a boat without a skipper or crew on board. It’s essentially your boat for the day giving you the freedom to explore at your own pace. It means that you take responsibility for the boat for the day and can set an itinerary (usually with some restrictions) of your choosing.
To qualify for a bareboat charter, any reputable charter company will require you to have certain qualifications or experience. For example, to bareboat charter a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) in the Solent, you usually need a minimum of the RYA Powerboat Level 2 certificate and often a VHF operators license. This ensures you have the experience to handle a boat confidently and safely.
Many RIB charter companies will offer various options like a half-day, full-day, and often during summer months, an evening charter option too. The first time you charter, you’ll usually get an ‘onboarding’ session to get you up to speed with the vessel. This will take you through the key safety features, basic functioning of the boat, the equipment you have on board as well as key things to know such as where you can/can’t go.
After that, you’ll usually be required to look over the boat yourself. Check things are working as expected and ensure that there aren’t any things missing, that should be present, or obvious damage (even if it’s minor) to ensure that the charter company is aware it was present before your charter.
Once you’ve confirmed those details and are up to speed on the basics of the boat, you should be good to set sail!
Cost-Effective: Whilst the upfront cost of chartering a boat, such as a RIB for the day, can seem quite high, it pales in comparison to the cost of buying, maintaining, and storing a RIB yourself. This can end up being thousands of pounds per year, let alone the cost of fuel to take the boat out when you use it. You’ll often get additional perks with reduced rates for fuel and free temporary mooring at certain locations.
Freedom and Flexibility: One of the big benefits is that you control the itinerary and can decide exactly what you want to do with your boat for the day. Most charter companies will have some restrictions but you have full control over exactly what and where you take your boat.
Setup and Ready to Go: The vast majority of charter companies will provide boat charters for the day with a number of essential equipment as part of the hire. You’ll almost always have things like lifejackets, VHF radio, navigation & chart plotters as well as safety equipment such as life rafts. These are all things that would normally be at an additional cost and often not something boat owners have due to the cost.
Privacy: Sometimes it’s nice to have a captain or crew take care of everything. But on smaller boats, such as RIBs, a bareboat charter gives you the chance to enjoy some privacy with just your friends and family on board to enjoy the day together.
Morning: Starting on the River Hamble, after your briefing and getting your bearings on your boat, you may start the day cruising upriver to River Hamble Country Park. Recommend grabbing a coffee at the Floater's Cafe on your way up before soaking up the sun.
Late Morning: You can then head out to the open seas and maybe head over to the historic forts near Portsmouth to see them close up. This is a chance to power up your RIB, keeping an eye out for what is a very busy channel.
Afternoon: At that point, you’ll maybe throw out the anchor at somewhere like Osborne Bay. It’s a great spot to grab some lunch and lovely views onto the Isle of Wight and back across the Solent.
Late Afternoon/Early Evening: At this time, you’ll want to think about starting to make your way back to your mooring. But first, you might want to work your way around some of the Isle of Wight before putting the hammer down back to the mainland. After mooring back up, and likely a hose down and quick clean of your vessel, you can hand the keys back and call it a day!
When I first wanted to charter a RIB, I researched a lot of different places and found it pretty hard to know exactly to look for. To make it easier, I’ve put together a shortlist of the best places I found to charter RIBs on the Solent as well as a deep dive in terms of what to expect and the types of boats you can charter. You can take a look at Bareboat RIB Charter Options here.