NorthSailing - Keramoti port

Τα τέσσερα τελευταία χρόνια συμμετέχω στην «Bonus Miles FLOTILLA» που οργανώνει με επιτυχία η North Sailing με συνεργασία Ιστιοπλοϊκού Ομίλου Βορείου Αιγαίου, διάρκεια επτά ημερών με επίσκεψη πολλών νησιών, ιστιοπλοϊκή εμπειρία και με προσπάθεια συλλογής ναυτικών μιλίων. Θα ήθελα από την πλευρά μου να ευχαριστήσω για την άψογη διοργάνωση.

Ένα ΣΚ του Ιουλίου πέρσι το καλοκαίρι αποφασίσαμε να νοικιάσουμε ένα σκάφος για πρώτη φορά, με σκοπό να κάνουμε διακοπές "διαφορετικού τύπου". Μέσω γνωστών, απευθυνθήκαμε στη NORTH SAILING. Η συγκεκριμένη εταιρία ήταν άκρως κατατοπιστική και μας βοήθησε πολύ σε ο,τι χρειαστήκαμε! Το σκάφος ήταν σε άριστη κατάσταση, ο καπετάνιος έμπειρος, ενέπνεε ασφάλεια και όλοι οι υπάλληλοι άκρως ευγενικοί και κατατοπιστικοί. Τη συνιστώ ανεπιφύλακτα για διακοπές που σίγουρα θα μείνουν αξέχαστες.

Καλοκαίρι 2021. Φανταστική εμπειρία. Ευχαριστώ πάρα πολύ North Sailing!!! Ευγενικός skipper, γνωστής της περιοχής. Ωραίο και καθαρό σκάφος. Το ευχαριστήθηκαν και η γυναίκα μου και η κόρη μου, οι οποίες δεν το έχουν τόσο πολύ με τη θάλασσα. Θα το πρότεινα ανεπιφύλακτα, όμορφη εμπειρία για κάθε ηλικία και σίγουρα θα δοκιμάσουμε και τις υπόλοιπες προτάσεις της North Sailing την επόμενη φορά που θα επισκεφθούμε το όμορφο νησί της Θάσου.

Good

Great cruise with the submarine with my friends on my birthday

We arranged a charter end August 2020 in Keramoti, Eastern Macedonia. The charter was booked with North Sailing twinned with Aegina Yachts through Borrow a Boat in the UK who appear to have no oversight over the vessels they are arranging to rent out trusting the sub contractor. I attach here a letter we wrote to Borrow a Boat after frequent emailing from the boat in question recording our dismay. The events seriously impacted our brief holiday: 'Further to my emails from Amfitriti I am writing to make a formal complaint about the charter arranged through your company with North Sailing. The number of defects, some serious, severely impacted the enjoyment of my brief one week holiday. I would certainly not tolerate such a lack of maintenance on my own classic yacht. 1/ first of all the North sailing office was closed and empty when we went to collect the boat shortly after 10 am. We then had to wait until 4 pm because they had not got the port paper stamped and in consequence we lost the whole of our first day charter. 2/the refrigerator only cooled moderately while the engine was running and not at all when it was stopped. This meant that with temperatures of 30 degree C, some of our limited stock of fresh food went bad. We drew attention to this before departure. 3/The dinghy should have been inflated and in the water before we left instead we found it folded and tied down on the foredeck. When I inflated it, it did not hold air. I deflated it, rotated the valves and spent 20 minutes pumping it up hard again. In consequence we were unable to go ashore throughout the trip when we made landfall except on one occasion when we tied up alongside in a harbour. So we had no ability to buy fresh food and a refrigerator which did not keep the fruit, vegetables and cheese that we had acquired fresh. 4/ I specifically enquired whether there was a gps and was told there was. It was a Garmin 192 which was superseded 10 years ago. I know because I had a model 292 on my boat which ceased to be supported by Garmin 5 years ago. Neither model is able to acquire satellite and is therefore totally useless. 5/ the masthead light did not work for anchoring. 6/ the compass had a clouded dome and had never been adjusted as it was 10 degrees out of true. Thus, all the navigation equipment was defective and navigation for 40 mile hops was by dead reckoning. 7/ although the boat was very well equipped, the safety light for the horseshoe life ring had no batteries in it. 8/ there were a number of other small issues of which the most important and dangerous was the boarding ladder. One of the plastic rungs was cracked through in two places and held by a loose screw which could be pulled out by hand. Indeed when you put any weight on this rung it collapsed injuring your foot and this could cause a severe accident if someone fell forward and hit the head. This state of neglect had clearly gone on for a long time. The boat was 18 years old (in comparison mine is 57 years old) and one does not expect it to be spanking new. Nevertheless, in Skiathos the occupant of the next door boat asked me whether this was my boat and when I told him it was a charter his comment was ‘I am surprised as I didn’t think a charter yacht would be so neglected. Most are kept in perfect condition’. I understand that North Sailing may not own all these yachts but that they charter them on behalf of owners as agent nevertheless they are responsible. Despite bringing these failures to the company's notice I did not get the impression they intended to rectify anything. The instructions for returning the boat were totally wrong and we were expected to tie up to the outside of a harbour mole which could not be approached closer than ten feet resulting in an accident attempting to reboard the vessel.

Nice experience and lucky for us the weather was perfect. The skippers are very friendly and helpful. Some really nice stops to visit places and beaches around the eastern coast of Thassos made our day. Improvement, some equipment could be cleaner.

Very friendly, professional and helpful staff in the office and also skippers, we have rented a boat privately twice last summer to celebrate my friends birthdays and it was just great! ? Everything in time, the boats clean and comfortable, we enjoyed swimming in Thassos beautiful bays and even saw dolphins!! Would certainly recommend, and will book again!