San Juan Sailing & Yachting

San Juan Yachting is great! We are two beginning cruisers who chartered a boat and instruction from them this past week. They were welcoming and very personable in our first phone calls, email communication and meetings. Roger and Marlene even hosted a barbecue for guests the night before, which made us feel part of the family. During this dinner and safety meeting we could see how they care about the guests, staff and boat owners. The instruction was awesome. Captain Bob Hulett was our private instructor for the first three days. He was engaging, entertaining and able to change the book learning into hands on experience. He shared an enormous amount of information in a short amount of time. We felt as if he really cared that we understand the information, not just pass the test. He gave us the knowledge, skills and confidence to venture out on a seven day cruise of our own. The boat was very clean, well-supplied and maintained. There was some mechanical problem the first day but San Juan Yachting responded quickly and solved the problem by late that evening. Over all the people of San Juan Yachting were concerned and worked hard for our safety and success. We recommend them to any starting cruisers.

Exceptional charter experience, wonderful staff and instructors. The chart briefings and downloadable owners notes are great for bareboat skippers.

You folks put the “extra” into extraordinary and I am pleased to recommend your company to anyone with a 5-Star rating! If you are really a “boater” then you know the vagaries of boating! The old adage of: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” applies to boating in general, as there are so many moving parts under varying degrees of stress, including the captain and crew, so consider yourself blessed if everything works the way it supposed to. My point is that after 45 plus years of being at the helm of boats big and small, somewhere along the way it has to be expected that something will fail and a workaround has to be implemented. You cannot let the probable eventuality ruin your trip. It is how you and others deal with the challenge that matters. And if you are on a chartered boat, then in many regards it is the charter company that you have to look to when you don’t have any personal experience with the boat and its nuances. How the odds of this not happening to you will – in great measure – depend on the charter company. They decide what boats will be in their fleet, and what boats are better left to someone else. If the charter company is diligent in upholding the standards they establish before a boat is released to an unsuspecting client, then half the battle is won without the client ever knowing the difference. Hopefully the client is pleased with the boat and the totality of the experience. But this is only half of the story and one that might go completely unnoticed. What happens when the best developed procedures put in place by the charter company are not enough to keep the boat from becoming the crew’s worst nightmare? What happens next will either make or break a fabulous week or two in the San Juans. Here is the half of the story that will make the difference and be the most obvious to the client! This is where customer service, attention to detail and follow-through, as well as a commitment to excellence comes in. The San Juan Sailing & Yachting charter service in Bellingham – and the dedicated team that work there – set the standard for selecting boats into their fleet that have the highest likelihood of expected service; they are also the team I will depend on in the future who actually delivers on the promise of putting 100% customer service first. I end the way I started, boaters have to accept the fact that just about everything on a boat is in some state of failure, and being the “lucky” skipper when a failure takes place is just something that happens from time to time. This, in and of itself, should not be a reason to not have a great time. It is “boating” after all. However, be it a simple workaround, or a major mechanical failure, it is the role of the charter company that can make the difference of your vacation being enjoyable or not. The potential of being the “lucky” skipper is mitigated when the rigors of maintaining stringent standards are imposed by the charter company on boat owners to ensure their boat is fit for charter. These are the things that happen behind the scenes that can make your trip truly memorable for all the right reasons. As the banner on the home page of San Juan Sailing and Yachting says: “Rated #1 in the world by the readers of Cruising World in customer service and in charter value. We don't try to be the biggest...but we passionately want to be the best”- this is more than a slogan – it is the truth! There is an old saying that it is not until you have a problem with something that you learn if commitment to unparalleled customer service really exists or is an empty promise. Thank you Roger Van Kyken and Lothar Taylor, and the whole team for all your tireless efforts to assist us through some trying mechanical issues during our last two week cruise! You folks put the “extra” into extraordinary and I am pleased to recommend your company to anyone with a 5-Star rating! Be assured we will be back to charter with you again. Thanks so much for helping us make the very best of what might not have been otherwise!

Fantastic charter service! Friendly staff and exceptionally maintained boats. We've been chartering with them for 8 years and keep coming back.

Rented back in 2015 for 4th of July week. From the initial Skipper's meeting where they gave us a thorough rundown of the islands (and the hidden ones under water) to the check out to the quality of the boat, everything was first rate! Highly recommend and we will be back!