Dec 11
30
Caribbean Chartering
Butterfly is available to Charter in the Caribbean from Christmas 2011 until Antigua Race week 2012.
The yacht will be based around Antigua, W.I. and is available for charter around the beautiful Leeward & Windward islands throughout the season.
The yacht will be skippered by an expert skipper with extensive local knowledge of the whole of the island chain, providing you with a charter that suits your pace, places of interest and activity type.
For our special New Year offer, please call our hotline now on 01234 818788
Typical week’s itinerary could include;
Day 1: Arrival; greeting onboard with typical island fresh fruit / rum punch. Dinner onboard or at a restaurant.
Day 2: Breakfast onboard, slip lines and sail to Ffryes bay, sailing inside the famous Cades Reef. Anchor for lunch, swimming / snorkelling. After lunch weigh anchor and sail to Deep Bay for the night. Sundowners onboard with light snacks. Dinner onboard / ashore. Sleep under the stars in hammocks or in the luxury down below.
Day 3: Breakfast onboard, and a good long sail to Barbuda – approx 5 hours to arrive and anchor off a beautiful pink beach that goes on for 14 miles… Lunch en-route. Amazing snorkelling, swimming off the reefs / around the yacht. Afternoon tea / refreshments late afternoon. Sundowners onboard watching beautiful sunset. Dinner Al-fresco in the cockpit with amazing views of distant Antigua, moonlight, stars and candles.
Day 4: Early breakfast, followed by a tour of Barbuda – you can visit the Frigate bird colonies, arrange diving excursions on the amazing reefs here. Afternoon – sunbathe and relax! Dinner onboard / lovely restaurant on the island.
Day 5: Early breakfast, followed by a swim, then set off for an exile rating sail back to Antigua to the beautiful anchorage of Green Island. Lunch and snacks en-route. Anchoring mid afternoon in time for beach / swimming /snorkelling off Green Island. Sundowners onboard followed by dinner at Harmony Hall – an absolute must if you are in this area as it is beautiful!
Day 6: Swim and breakfast, weigh anchor and sail around to the South coast spending the afternoon on the beach. Sundowners onboard. Sampling fresh caught fish / lobster onboard for dinner.
Day 7: Morning spent around the English Harbour/ Falmouth Harbour area discovering the world known Nelsons Dockyard and local attractions. Lunch onboard. Last quick swim before airport transfers in the afternoon.
Jun 11
29
Round The Island Race – June 2011
June 25th gave rise to another fantastic round the island race for butterfly, Kenny, Simon and Dan were joined by eight guests, which we must say were a really good crowd and a great time was had by all. The strong winds provided perfect sailing conditions for butterfly and we ended up in 325th position out of the 1900 yachts that entered the race (albeit a fair amount of these pulling out, probably once they saw the rain in the early hours of Saturday morning.)
The weekend began on Friday morning where we had a practice sail up to cowes. This gave everyone the oppurtunity to meet each other, familiarise themselves with the boat and practice tacking, gybing and helming the boat. After a hearty lunch moored up in Osborne bay we sailed back downwind using the asymetric, I am sure I can speak for everyone when I say this was pretty exhilirating and all hands were certainly on deck. Once moored up everyone enjoyed a few drinks up at the bar, it was only a few due to Kenny making sure everyone was tucked up in bed by 11.
Five and a half hours later the team were up (and dressed in full wet weather gear) we motored up to cowes enjoying bacon sandwiches and coffees preparing for the start of the race at 06 40. After a nice start we tacked our way up to cowes in the midst of hundreds of boats to dodge and dive between, Pete, the bowman spotting all of the other yachts in our class and making mental notes to make sure we beat them. After a chopy pass around the needles we sailed downwind to St Catherines point surfing down some pretty big swells at around 13 knots at times, we opted to not fly the asymetric in the 25-30 knots of wind, our decision was confirmed to be a sensible one after passing a capsized trimaran and many boats broaching to. After an exciting beat upwind back up to cowes we passed the finish line at 14:49 in now brilliant sunshine, with a few sunburnt crew members on board. We were fortunate to get moored up at Sheperds marina in cowes, we were moored 7 boats deep which gave a fantastic atmosphere in cowes. What a better time to enjoy some doombars and crabbies at the pub in cowes. This turned into a fairly inevitable bar crawl followed by pizzas and some wine back on the boat.
After a lie in on Saturday morning, and more bacon rolls, Butterfly sailed back to its berth at Haslar Marina through the fog to bring an end to a succesful weekend racing and more importantly a fun weekend had by all.
Well done to Simon for guessing the correct finish time and thankyou of the to all of the guests for making it a great weekend, we hope to see you booking in for next years race.
Apr 11
18
The warm weather is here!
What lovely weather we have had so far in April. The Solent was like a millpond on Saturday 16th but we managed to have some asymmetric sail practice outside beautiful Lymington. The sail went up without any problems and we practised gybing ready for the Round The Island race in June this year.
And because the wind wasn’t great we decided to stay in Lymington for the evening with some great food at one of the local pubs.
Aug 10
12
Summer Update
Well that is another Cowes week over , hopefully all of you who participated enjoyed the atmosphere and hopefully some of you managed to get onto the Podium if you managed to get out of the beer tents!!
Butterfly has been manic and crazy but most of all really enjoyable, we have had some really great charters over the last month or so.
Robin and his crew came out early July – a quiet trip round the south side of the Island was requested and an overnight stop in Berthon was our final destination. At Bembridge Ledge we had a real old “pea-souper”, it was not until we got 6 miles offshore that we even got to see our companions, all worth waiting though as the sun shone brightly and it was not long until we were surrounded by a fantastic pod of Dolphins, nothing better to get everybody in really good mood. Was it 30 or perhaps 60 dolphins I heard the voices saying… it didn’t really matter it was just a wonderful sight.
Peter from ORM and friends came along for a hop over to Poole, once again we went round the south side of the Island, surprisingly the wind increased to F6/7, I had quite forgotten how messy Christchurch Bay can be. The trip back was outstanding and we hit 13 knots passing through the North Channel at Hurst Castle. I remember an old friend of mine reciting “Tide, Tide just follows the Bl…dy tide!”… how right he was.
Mark C followed with his 3rd trip out with us, not so much wind but as ever with Mark’s enthusiasm for the water we had another great day.
Our charter with Scotia Bank hit the jackpot… what do you do to make the day really exciting especially when a few of the guys had flown over from Canada? The answer was nothing, Cowes week and the Solent supplied all the entertainment. We dropped anchor in Osborne and the brave tested the water, whilst lunch was prepared. Our intention was to sample the atmosphere in Cowes, no such luck though as Chris spotted the English and US, America cup boats, I think he would have even tried to swim to get a better view if we had all not agreed to go and have a closer look. Well, it was worth it as it was amazing , two enormously talented crews, the pinnacle of Yacht racing! Words cannot describe the excitement that ran through all of us. Icon Leopard then greeted us with a sail pass, followed by Oman the ex Ellen Macarthur Tri. The open 40′s then battled it out around Gurnard Ledge, who needed entertainment!
Did the fun stop there? Of course not, as after a few well deserved bottles of Champagne Kaylan they spent the rest of the day entertaining us all, I think I will leave it there, apart from saying what a truly memorable day.
On the last Friday of Cowes week I was delighted to receive a late call from Andy, a good friend of mine who like most of us loves getting out on the water, it was not long until I realised that he had obviously sailed to a reasonable standard in the past. Wiggling our way down the Solent into Yarmouth albeit a 30 knot breeze and the odd shower, it certainly finished off a great week.
To all the rest of you who I have not mentioned for various reasons thankyou for your continued support.
As to Butterfly herself, the maintenance has been kept to the highest of standards. Endeavour helped recently with a minor Gel coat repair and secured the gooseneck fitting that I had reason to believe had come a little loose. Sea-Start attended us promptly prior to a charter replacing a cracked fuel filter glass bowl. Apart from that all appears to be in pretty good shape.
Plenty more sailing organised for August / September and right through to December, so we at Butterfly Yacht Charters are really looking forward to meet all of you who have already booked.
Jacqui & Kenny
Jul 10
1
Testimonial: F1 Charter
F1 Colour, a colourshop and printer based in London had a days charter with Butterfly Yacht Charters…
Heres what F1 said:
“What a great day!! the boat is fantastic 49ft and in great condition, loads of room. We sailed out of Gosport into the Solent and across to Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Kenny the skipper was brilliant very professional but fun with it. He lets you do as much or as little as you want and knows all the best bars and pubs as well!! We had a nice bit of lunch in a pub and sailed back with a glass of wine. We have done a few charters with Butterlfy now and it works really well with staff, clients or mates.”
All had a great time and will definitely go again.
Ken Harrison
F1 Colour, London
Jul 10
1
Butterfly 4th Year
Butterfly Yacht Charters is now into its 4th year, so firstly I would like to say thanks to everyone who has spent time with us on the water.
After having had some awful weather to start the season , (well done those who braved the cold!), we must all be pleased with the recent high pressure system, hopefully it will continue.
Butterfly has recently had its annual Birthday treat, Carl and his team at Endeavour Yacht Services done a super job antifouling and carrying out all the external maintenance. We had the teak Semco treated this year, looks absolutely fabulous.
Sam at Spirit Chandlery kindly helped in the management and maintenance of the Yacht, ensuring sail repairs , rigging inspections and all manor of minor tasks were carried out professionally and without fuss.
Marine Power carried out our annual engine inspection and service , Paul was enthusiastic and very keen to pass on his knowledge, getting to the raw water impellor on the Yanmar 110hp is know easy task, using a small ratchet spanner helped enormously , a piece of kit I will certainly be adding to my tool box.
Chris Temple had his 3 yearly coding Inspection , keeping Butterfly up to scratch, “cat 2″. 60 miles offshore. Apart from replacing the First Aid Kit that has never been opened , he seemed more than pleased, such a nice guy.
So there she is already to go for another season. The calendar is slowly getting booked, we have had some fantastic clients on board already this year and hopefully will have many more who can enjoy the fantastic waters of the Solent and surrounding areas.
WOW…………..walking down the pontoon at Haslar to discover BUTTERFLY she is so beautiful so looking forward to getting on board. We were greeted by Kenny the Skipper and Jackie the Hostess they made us feel so welcome. Once on board we had coffee and super bacon rolls followed by a safety briefing by Kenny – he made us feel so at ease. Once we were on our way he encouraged us to participate in helping us to sail the boat. We were a bit nervous at first but he soon put us at our ease and showed us the ropes. The Solent was a super place to sail in and we were all in awe of the big boats around us. We then sailed in to Cowes it was so exciting. A few of us got off the boat to have a glass of wine and to have a look round. Unfortunatelyl it was only a days sail but luckily Kenny was very happy to show us various places before we arrived back at the Marina. This is something many of us want to do again it was superb. We will be back and thanks Kenny and Jackie for a brilliant day.
Karen and the girlies.
May 2010.
May 10
9
Weekend Charter idea!
Why not get a group of 6 people to charter Butterfly to Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Slip lines early morning and set sail through the Solent past The Needles and then across the channel heading towards Guernsey. We’ll berth at St Peter’s Port and give you time to take in the idyllic scenery. Feel free to head into town and spend an evening in a great waterside restaurant.
The following morning we’ll slip lines (not too early!) and head back across the channel, up through the Solent and and stop at Cowes for the second night (or we can head back to Portsmouth if you need to get back).
The 2-3 day jaunt will only cost £300 per person and includes your accommodation on the boat (with two sharing each cabin). Don’t forget to bring your passports!
Food onboard while sailing and fuel will be charged as extra – we recommend allowing approximately £100 p/p for this.
Contact Kenny or Jackie for more information this summer on 01322 860778.
Apr 10
20
All Clean!
We’ve just had Butterfly out the water for her annual inspection and anti-fouling (that’s where they remove all the organisms that attach to the hull which affects performance and durability).
Once she’s back in the water we’ll check over all her instruments on a test sail ready for more charters.