Island Cruising

Update: The issue of the car rental fee is resolved. After a couple of emails, Larry kept his word and reimbursed us for renting the car from Comox to Sidney and back. Considering how busy he is, I would suggest calling or texting him instead of trying to resolve any issues via email or Google reviews. I’m changing my rating to 4 stars. After all, it was a good experience: we had a working boat, instructions and help with geting in and out of marina (this takes skills and local knowledge - be careful), and totally enjoyed our vacation. Manage your expectations, pay attention to details and keep communication lines with Larry open for a good experience. Our chartering experience with Island Cruising in 2019 had some challenges. We still managed to have a great trip, but looking back, I think we could enjoy it more by paying more attention to details and managing communication with Larry better. We could tell that Larry was a very knowledgeable sailor and a hard-working person, but, in our opinion, communication requires more attention and effort from customers than normal. Here is our story. We’ve chartered with a few companies on the West Coast in the past, chartering older boats, but we decided to charter with Island Cruising because they had that almost new Jeanneau 37 Mybo boat with 2 helms. Despite mixed reviews we’ve read about Larry we decided to give it a try as we wanted to have a “new boat experience” so badly. We left a deposit, discussed a few details with Larry and Sharon, and booked our flight to Comox, from where we were supposed to take Mybo to Desolation Sound. A month before the charter start date, Larry called us and told us that the boat was, actually, not in Comox, but in Sydney (!). We had a number of emails where we discussed what marina in Comox the boat would be, where can we get the provisioning, etc., but Larry said there was a miscommunication and left it up to us to sort this out. Obviously, that close to the charter start date there was no available boats at Comox and there was no time to transfer Mybo to Comox from Sidney without losing precious charter days. Finally, we agreed that we will fly to Comox, rent a car and drive to Sydney, and then from Sydney to Comox at the end of the charter. Obviously, we had to say good-buy to our Desolation Sound plans and travel to San Juan islands instead. Larry agreed in writing to pay for the car rental. It took us 2 years to be reimbursed for the car rental, but we could do better job following up with Larry. Bottom line, if you decide to charter with Larry, make sure that every single detail (for example, the boat location) is clearly reflected in your contract, not just in an email. The boat check-out and orientation on the departure day was very hectic and rushed. Larry was juggling multiple departing teams. Stay collected, manage your trip excitement, and take your time to check everything on the inventory list. Open the lockers and make sure the stuff is there. Finally, a few words about our “new” boat, Mybo 3. It was new, but it had some maintenance issues. Many small things were falling apart. For example, the folding table in the main cabin opened at, like, 150 degrees, so everything was sliding from it to the deck. Barbeque valve didn’t stay in the engaged position, so we had to use my wife’s hair band to keep it depressed. Many other small things like that. We could say that the boat needed some love. Probably we overestimated the “new boat experience”.

For us Floridians, going to the Pacific NW is – aside from a very long flight – it’s a crazy proposition. Why go to the 'cold' temperatures, without being able to jump in the water, if we have the Caribbean so close to us? WRONG! This past June we spent a week sailing around Victoria Island. It was one of the most beautiful sailing trips in my 40 years of sailing. “Magically scenic” doesn’t even start to describe it and the sailing conditions were outstanding. Special mention goes to the team at Island Cruising, led by Captain Larry. All very professional and our boat was in truly outstanding shape. She was not your standard run-of-the mill sailboat, but a very well taken care of vessel, by people that know what sailors want to feel ‘at home’. We can’t wait to go back…we HIGHLY recommend them. Thanks, Carlos.

I have chartered with Island Cruising in the past, but the company is now located at Deep Cove and their fleet of available charter boats has shrunk considerably since their move from Sidney Marina. Deep Cove Marina is more isolated so you can’t easily walk into the downtown area as before, and Deep Cove has a shallow approach from Saanich Inlet. The Jeanneau 389 that friends and I chartered in 2017 requires +2 meters of tide to comfortably access the marina. This places constraints on arrival and departure times which can consume hours while waiting for the tide to come back in, and if combined with a daylight-only constraint in the charter contract these delays can drastically limit your available range on the first and last days of your charter.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support and advice. Upon arriving in Canada with my sailing catamaran I have been so fortunate to find Larry at Deep Cove Marina whose local knowledge and background of experience with catamarans has been so beneficial and helpful. Thank you again! Martin White Captain of S-V Tarahumara

Once again Larry solved a problem we had on our Catamaran. We had fuel blockage issues , under Larry’s guidance and advice we made 3 inspection ports in our baffled fuel tank and borrowed Jerry cans from Larry to get under way again . Larry’s knowledge and background solved the problem we had . Thank you Larry ( once again ) In response to a negative comment posted , we are on a Catamaran and only need 3.5 ft for draft and hence had no problem at all even on low tide . Larry even gave us a ride into town to get supplies .