Two months ago I had the privilege to arrange a luxury yacht charter for a new client who wanted to surprise her husband with a one day super special treat. We chartered the MY Jackie One through Via Colvento in Italy to begin in St. Tropez at 9am, and cruise leisurely along the Cote d'Azur to Nice, disembarking at 4am to catch their flights back to the US.
We organized car transport to the airport, and helicopter transport to St. Tropez, where they met the yacht, to be told within 20 minutes that the Captain had no intention of taking the yacht to Nice for their charter, because the 'weather forecast was too bad.'
Now, I've been in the yachting industry practically all of my adult life, as crew, and then as owner of Crew Unlimited - the first professional yacht crew agency in the world, so I know that weather is the final word. But as a boat owner, I also know that weather changes, hour by hour, minute by minute. So while you can say to your friends "We're going out on the boat Saturday at noon," Saturday may roll around and the seas can be 3'-5' feet at noon with black clouds all around. So, you say "The weather's no good, let's go do something else for a few hours, and see what it turns into." Then by 3pm it's beautiful out, the storm has passed, and the seas are like glass. So you go out and have a great time. No big deal.
Instead, the Captain of this yacht flat out refused to leave the dock! How are they going to cruise the Cote d'Azur from St. Tropez to Nice if they never leave the dock?!
So as their Charter Broker, I am on the phone with Captains in St. Tropez asking their opinion, on the SeaFax weather service that the Captain uses, and on three different websites with live feed Video Cameras. I can SEE what the seas and the skies look like, and my colleagues assure me that an 80' motoryacht should be fine in the exisiting climate, perhaps better waiting till after 5pm or so. It's only a 1.5 hour cruise. My client is on the phone with me throughout the day, telling me that the weather looks fine to go out, there are boats coming and going, and she doesn't understand why they can't leave. She concedes that it is not a beautiful day with flat calm seas, but contends that they are avid boaters and have their seasickness patches on, and are prepared for the forecasted 1-2m seas. She also doesn't understand why they can't at least go for a harbor cruise, so she asks the Captain again. (Mind you, SHE is the principal on the charter contract, not her husband.) The Captain tells her 'Look, lady, I told you, the seas are too rough! You will be in hospital for 3 days after the trip! It is not safe!' But still, she doesn't think she will be, as she is an AVID boater and has been in rough seas before, and besides, she is the charter client who has paid over $10K to have this boat for one day, she deserves to at least go out, get tossed around, and make the final call. Doesn't she? So she pushes further, 'Can't we at least go out in the harbor? There are other boats out there, smaller boats, too?' His response this time - this is when bad went to worse - 'There are 20 boats out there lined up waiting for my spot at the dock! If I leave, we won't be able to get back in - and I HAVE A CHARTER TOMORROW!'
Are you freaking kidding me? Seriously. Because if he is kidding, I can take a joke. But no, he wasn't kidding.
He, instead of fulfilling his obligation to MY charter client to treat them as the owners for the duration of their charter, 21 hours in total, decided that it was better for him to assure that his NEXT charter was accommodated. How did he intend to service a 2nd charter in St. Tropez, when the contract had him disembarking my guests in Nice that day? Was he planning to drop them off at 4am and hot foot it back to St. Tropez? Or did he have no intention of ever leaving the dock in the first place, fully intending to cheat my clients? I found out later that he had indeed canceled the dockage in Nice BEFORE my guests joined in St. Tropez. He had no intention to honor the contract.
When the guest asked, immediately after hearing this news, could they get off the yacht and get their money back, he told them that they wouldn't get their money back because they were 'there' which fulfilled his obligation to them. What?! Ok, so you can't leave the dock because of 'weather' but yet the charter is still 'fulfilled'? How's that?
Of course, as their Broker, I requested the Central Agent NOT to release the funds to the owner until this dispute had been settled. She called the owner, who called the Captain, who said to my clients that he was going to call the POLICE if they had no intention to pay. This is just before dinner time for them. I speak with my client and she and her husband and their guests by all means, don't want to have the POLICE called on them (especially if there is no chance of getting their money back, and at this time of the evening) and decide to try and make the best of this already tense situation, so I tell the Central and Captain that "everything is ok for now."
Needless to say, the day was awful for everyone involved, the clients felt ripped off completely, the Captain and his crew continued scrubbing and getting ready for the next day's charter, and my clients felt like unwelcome guests in a foreign place in a hostile environment.
The Chef ignored (or never read) their preference sheets to serve them the type of food they wanted, instead serving them smoked fish (specified no uncooked food at all) and stale chips and then tried to serve the same type of fish for dinner! How does that constitute 'Surf and Turf' and where's the filet with peppercorn sauce? (They did make a lovely carrot cake, thank goodness!) The hot tub wasn't prepared, which took almost 2 hours to fill, and at the end of the night, when their additional 600 euro car and driver came to transport them to Nice, the Captain presented them with a bill for more than 750 euro! Yes, he charged them 595 euro per night times 2 for dockage, then a 500 euro gratuity for the dockmaster, plus 6 euro per glass of Compari and soda!
First of all, the dockage in St. Tropez was specifically NOT authorized for two nights. This was a bone of contention from two weeks before the charter when I spoke to the Captain to check on plans for the guests, and he informed me he'd booked two nights in St. Tropez. I told him in no uncertain terms that the second night was not necessary because they would be dropping off in NICE. He said 'Oh, you want to CHANGE things!?' No, it's in THE CONTRACT. Specifically, I requested they find an alternate marina that would be less expensive. There was one in Cogolin (10 minutes away) that was only 175 euro a night. And I specifically told the Captain that not one penny of the APA was to be spent without authorisation from me or my client.
Second of all, the contract states that food and beverages are charged at cost, not per drink or bite. The bill was hand written and was not accompanied by a single receipt for the nearly 3000 euro this Captain spent of my client's money. Remember, this is a one day charter. 3000 euros in expenses? They didn't even leave the dock? That didn't even include fuel!
The next day, after the guests had left, I received an invoice for the 750 overage, as well as for the charter fee (which is held in escrow by the Central agent) and guess who is cc'ed on it. The client's HUSBAND! Not the client, her husband, the birthday boy, who this was a surprise for. Now he knows how much she spent! Ugghhh!!!
As it stands now, I have submitted all the documentation of the day's weather, proving that there was no Force 5 winds as the Captain claimed, proving the cost of dockage nearby, and notes about the trip from my client, to the Central Agency, and have requested a full refund.
The Central Agent, nearly two months later, has finally responded that the Owner is not willing to extend any kind of refund or credit, and she has released the funds in escrow. Even after reading multiple posts on the MYBA Open Forum concurring that the Captain was way out of line and that the clients are due some kind of consideration.
Yes, my clients did stay aboard, they had no choice. They had already been told that if they canceled the charter they would not receive a refund, and then were told that they would have the police called on them if they disputed the bill at the end. We've all seen 'Locked up Abroad,' what were they supposed to do?
I posted the issue on the MYBA Open Forum asking specifically if the Captain had authority to cancel a charter because he had another booked for the next day, and confirmed that he should have canceled it calling it 'Force Majeure'. But he refused to cancel it, and he refused to fulfill the contract by taking my clients to Nice, at any point in the 21 hour charter. Had he 'canceled' the charter my clients would at least have been able to make a claim on their trip cancellation insurance, get their full fee back, and enjoy their $10k some other way, aside from sitting at the dock in St. Tropez, something they specifically requested NOT TO DO! But he refused to cancel it. He instead chose to consider the charter fulfilled, while sitting tied to the dock, instead. He didn't even take them around the harbor in the tender.
I wrote to MYBA for advice, and due to my not being a Member of MYBA the organization, they 'do not have the resources to assist with this dispute,' so basically, we are left with no recourse to sue the Captain, as he is not a party to the MYBA contract. We must instead sue the Owner of MY Jackie One for breach of contract, and Via Colvento for releasing the funds when specifically instructed not to.
Does anyone have any other specific advice or remedy to offer to my clients or myself in this case?
