The world's leading yacht charter company is announcing a completely new type of programme, a ‘round the world’ programme, designed to enable you to discover the world's most beautiful sailing areas on your own boat, without having to worry about anything other than the trip itself.

The programme is aimed initially at very large crewed catamarans, but will be extended to smaller craft.

Round-the-world sailing is something of a Holy Grail for yachtsmen. First there are the long crossings, but above all the discovery of exceptional, remote and wild sailing grounds.

An ever-increasing number of sailors are sailing long distance, and several thousand yachts are on the water at the time of writing.

But casting off for two years is not as easy as it sounds. You have to be able to organise your professional affairs, your children's education, sort out the question of your main residence, find the boat, acquire the skills, organise maintenance... You can also choose not to do the whole trip in one go, but to do it in stages, leaving the boat at one of the major ports of call on the round-the-world trip.

There, other problems arise: abandoning your boat in an unknown shipyard, or worse still, at anchor, at the other end of the world, at the mercy of a cyclone or the goodwill of a distant sub-contractor for maintenance work, is not something to dream about...

There's another question that needs to be answered before you can embark on this great adventure. That of experience. While crossing the Atlantic is within the reach of many people, the trade winds are well travelled and the distances are within reach of the SAR services, the situation is very different in the Pacific, where you often have to rely on yourself in the event of a problem. This explains the development of round-the-world rallies such as the ARC (Atlantic Rally foir Cruisers) or the GLY World Odyssey (Grand Large Group), where flotillas of yachts sail, remotely or in flotillas, from one stopover to the next.

The new management programme devised by Florentin Le Noxaïc, Yacht Sales Director & Global Product Development at Dream Yacht Charter, has been designed to address all these issues from a single source.

To begin with, it is aimed at flagships, the very large catamarans that are the new Bali 5.8, Fountaine-Pajot Samana 59 and Thira 80.

These vessels will be NUC-rated and operated by crews selected and hired by Dream Yacht Worldwide.

The principle is simple. It is a co-ownership management programme with three investors.
The round-the-world programme lasts two years. During these two years, the boat will move from one sailing basin to another, led by its crew and owners.

The home port will change from Dream Yacht bases in the Mediterranean, then in the Caribbean, then in Polynesia, Australia and finally Thailand. During each of these pit-stops, maintenance is provided by the company.

For their part, investors pay a fixed cost over two years, a method of financing that helps to secure the cost of the operation. The cost is fixed because Dream Yacht Worldwide takes care of all the management costs (staff, insurance, maintenance, harbour, etc.) so that the investor has no worries about the boat and only has to worry about his or her sailing schedule.

The company will set up an occupancy schedule between investors, and the yachts can be hired out between occupancy periods to keep costs down. Owners will be able to decide whether or not they wish to embark on a crossing.

At the end of the two years, the investor exits and Dream Yacht either brokers their share or commits to a ‘Crewed’ management programme.

When sailing, the boats remain under the responsibility of the crews, two (skipper and cook) for the 60‘ and three for the 80’, with the addition of a hostess.

Fully equipped, these yachts will also carry €60k worth of toys, including a fast tender capable of towing skiers or wakes, underwater scooters, towing buoys and even windsurfing or kitesurfing!

This new Dream Yacht programme is particularly interesting and innovative in that it is designed to provide an experience for its customers. It's no longer a question of buying a share in a yacht, but of buying a slice of life, the organisation of a round-the-world trip.

A round-the-world experience devoid of all the worries associated with organising this kind of adventure alone. Purists will howl, but the idea is excellent, especially when you consider that Dream Yacht will be extending this service to smaller, more affordable boats.

After all, what sailor doesn't dream of being able to treat themselves to such a trip, at a fixed cost, without worrying about their boat or suffering any major constraints?