Today - YCA collects professionally developed surveys, reviews, photos and more from actual experiences of world wide charter sailors and arranges the information into easy to read reports to help with the research of your next charter. With this information you will be able to better plan your next charter by selecting charter providers that have a demonstrated track record of your liking. You will be better prepared to work with the charter providers to set proper expectations for your next charter. When you speak with the charter providers you will be well served to tell them you are planning your charter with the help of YCA and will be sharing your experience on the YCA site when the charter is complete.

YCA improves the overall health of the yacht charter industry by providing a professional system for consistent and unbiased feedback formatted for analytical review. Charter providers can use this information to objectively detect issues and improve service performance and increase customer satisfaction. The charter providers are able to perform a wide variety of analysis on their past performance and make real time adjustments that will affect their service quality. The information collected by YCA touches all the major parts of the charter industry; Marinas, Companies, Brokers, Owner/Operators, Captains, Instructors and Chefs.

YCA improves the overall health of the yacht charter industry by providing a professional system for consistent and unbiased feedback formatted for analytical review. Charter providers can use this information to objectively detect issues and improve service performance and increase customer satisfaction. The charter providers are able to perform a wide variety of analysis on their past performance and make real time adjustments that will affect their service quality. The information collected by YCA touches all the major parts of the charter industry; Marinas, Companies, Brokers, Owner/Operators, Captains, Instructors and Chefs.

There is a No Cost method to use the YCA site to research your next charter. For each charter survey accepted you will receive a YCA Subscription ID which allows you 1 consecutive month of access to the YCA Reports anytime within 1 year of completing the charter survey. If you take multiple charter surveys you will receive multiple YCA Subscription ID's. If you want access to the YCA Reports but do not wish to complete a survey the cost is USD $29 for the same subscription. If you charter with one of our YCA Charter Provider Partners (easily identifiable on the site) they will refund your subscription cost. If you charter with a non-partner you may request a refund but they are not obligated.

Absolutely! Please contact YCA with your feedback or idea using the contact form.

YCA is focused on improving the expectations of yacht charter planners and the community of people who enjoy chartering vacations. As more and more people submit their surveys, the data, ratings and rankings contribute to a higher validity and higher granularity, further improving accuracy and your expectations. Future upgrades to Yacht Charter Advisor will include improved search capabilities, access to more charter agencies, and easier survey submission, not to mention, forums, features and specials from partner agencies.

YCA uses industry standard server security as provided by one of the top hosting providers in the world. When ordering via credit card additional security is enabled to protect the transaction details.

No - YCA will not share any part of your account information with anyone - period.

Great question! The answer is in 3 parts - 1) YCA takes reasonable measures to keep the surveys anonymous however YOU are the principle participant in your own anonymity. The YCA Reports are publicly available and provide rating, text and photo information provided by you. The text and photo data can be submitted in such a way so as not to make you easily identifiable. For example keep the text review generic and diplomatic, do not make reference to specific events and do not submit photos of folks in your party. 2) You should ask yourself 'why' do you wish to provide an anonymous survey? Surveyors that demand a guarantee of anonymity usually have something negative to say and wish to avoid any discomfort from those being surveyed. While this is a reasonable concern YCA believes that 'every' survey, text review and photo can be presented in a way that "Acknowledges Accomplishments and Encourages Improvements" to the charter providers. YCA reviews ALL submitted surveys and will not allow inflammatory ratings ('Poor' scores will be scrutinized) remarks (all text will be read) or photos (all photos will be reviewed). If you feel strongly that an overall charter experience was unsatisfactory you will be better served by posting a diplomatic survey on the YCA site and privately and respectfully requesting a balanced disposition (apology, explanation, discount, refund, etc) from the charter provider. 3) YCA member information will NOT be shared with anyone inside or outside of the YCA community to include; other members, charter providers, marketing firms, or any other organization without your explicit permission.

In the unlikely event our delousing protocols turn up a bogus survey we remove the record from the database, place it in quarantine and notify the parties involved. The member and conspirators may be permanently removed from the site – not worth it. Charter Providers and Professional Crew implicated in a bogus survey scandal may be highlighted as Pirates in the reports! Shortcomings and other honest mistakes in the text review area are understood and forgiven in advance; there can be a fine line between candid and diplomatic. Our unique survey methods remove most of the guesswork. The written reviews and photos however must follow these guidelines: YCA has no tolerance in the written review for: Cussing, blasphemy, vulgarity, sacrilege, threats, personal attacks, abuse, insults, information relating to violent activity, web, email addresses or phone numbers, ALL CAPS (oops!), content not pertinent to yacht chartering, hearsay, nonsense, absurdity, baloney, gossip, drivel, hot-air, or web code (HTML). The YCA service is bound by a federal standard contained in U.S.C. Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter 2 Part 1 § 230 - the Protection for private blocking and screening of offensive material. The full text of this law can found here.

YCA charter provider partners are the backbone of the YCA service. These partners receive products and services from YCA, one of which is the opportunity to have newly submitted surveys which have any rating of ??' (Poor) or an overall rating of ??' (Fair) placed on hold for a verification period of up to 30 days. During this time YCA will contact the surveyor to verify the information. It is important to state the yacht charter experience in its 'entirety'. If you had an unfortunate experience YCA members want to know this but we also want to know if the charter provider worked with you to try and make things 'right'. The details of any post charter arrangement are not important to the yacht charter community and may be considered private.

YCA has chosen the SERVQUAL method from Valarie A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard L. Berry. It is a technique used for performing gap analysis of a service (charter) provider's service quality performance against customer service quality needs. This is the current standard service performance survey construct.

While it's best to leave history alone and accept what transpired as factual there may be rare occasions where a survey needs to be removed or modified. Please contact YCA using the contact form and request this service.

YCA allows the selection of weighted and non-weighted (raw) results in the *Ranking* Reports. The Survey *Ratings* are not weighted in any way unless used to create a *Ranking* Report. The weighted results are generated using statistical formulas that use data from charter client surveys. The formula uses a Bayesian estimate.

Your YCA Reports subscription comes with a one month membership. This subscription, depending on the level you purchased, allows you to generate an unlimited number of reports on charter providers, yachts and marinas. If you’re giving serious consideration to a charter vacation, the reports will provide what you need to plan the yacht charter portion of your vacation. More importantly, as you will be reviewing the experiences of others, the YCA subscription will give you a fair idea of what to expect from regions and charter providers you’ve selected.

Absolutely. YCA encourages you to share your Report Subscription ID with your party as you plan your yacht charter. If you need more Report Subscription ID's you can take another survey and receive one at no cost.

If you are HOSTING a charter - enter the information into the form and wait for a message from interested parties. You are encouraged to remain somewhat discrete as you go through the crew selection process. When ready, you may provide your personal contact information.

If you are SEEKING a charter - use the charter search function to locate a charter then contact the YCA member to inquire about the details.

No - the Crew Finder is a service to the charter community with no other association to YCA or it's staff or members.

Please contact YCA using the contact form and request technical assistance.