TLDR
Boat had mechanical & crew issues forcing us to spend the first two nights in a marina. We were switched to an under equipped, malfunctioning bare boat for the final 5 days. Original crew ditched out on the trip at the last minute. Replacement crew was on island time and had never worked for this company before. Derek promised us a partial refund. We provided wire details. He has sent nothing and is unresponsive. We are taking legal action against The Yacht Vacation Company.
Here is my story.
I used Derek Hunsinger and his wife Brenda Hunsinger on my honeymoon in 2011 when they were owner operators of the Bella Vita and had a wonderful time. Since then he has expanded and operates under the following names that I know of and manages many boats and business interests around yachting.
https://theyachtvacationcompany.com/
https://the-yvc.com/
https://iyachtclub.com
https://www.aquatiqueyachts.com/
https://www.sailbellavita.com/
https://bavarianblisscharters.com/
Ocean Yacht Charters
Yacht's Operated by The Yacht Vacation Company
Destiny Unbound
Buena Vida
Moon Shadow
Perfect Moon
Soul Mates
Southern Queen
Tryst
Bavarian Bliss
Dolce Vita
Galaxsea
Utopia
Walk'n on Sunshine
Boattox
Hazel Delta
Wind Dancer
I reached out to Derek about booking a trip over Christmas and he referred me to his son Jared Hunsinger (iYatchclub/Aquatique Yachts).
We settled on an all-inclusive sail for eight people (4 adults/4 kids) on the yacht the Bavarian Bliss for sailing 12/18/2024-12/26/2024. All payments were sent via wire and paid well in advance.
3 days before the cruise - My wife and the matriarch of the joining family had an extensive phone call with Captain Bertie and Chef Michelle, our boat crew. They planned the voyage together including excursions, activities, food and drink selection, water toys, ect.
Day 1 - We are set to sail at noon. Our driver tells us there is a problem with the boat they are going to take us to a bar so we're not sitting at the dock. It'll be "2 hours max". The day rolls on we find out the boat is missing. After 6 hours at the bar Derek declares "sorry guys, obviously today is on me" to our party. We are then driven to the marina where the boat is docked.
We get to the boat and learn Captain Bertie and Chef Michelle, our crew have left the country due to visa issues. We had just talked to them Sunday night, this is Wednesday morning. All the planning we had done with them is now in the ether. The food & alcohol wasn't provisioned based on our talk with the original crew. Our new chef was a total disappointment. She had never worked with this company before and vowed to never work for them again. Her skills, service, and attitude were all very disappointing.
Nobody knows where the new captain is and now we're told the boat has a generator problem and that they'll have the part to repair it the next morning and we'll be off by noon. We slept tied to the dock of the marina that night. Boat had a broken A/C in my cabin and nobody was given a run through so we're on a big boat alone, no captain, no instruction and nobody knows how to get anything to work.
Day 2 - We are set to sail at noon. Derek tells one of my shipmates the boat was missing yesterday because the captain stole the boat to go Christmas shopping and was fired on the spot once they located him. Workers show up with the generator part but are unable to find a fix. The A/C unit in my cabin is replaced. It's well past noon and we finally get a new captain he found on the island. They had never worked together before. After two days of Derek buying time, 2 hours at a time repeatedly, we needed a resolution. We agreed that he was going to refund day two as he had not delivered a working vessel.
Derek offered two remedies
1) The first was to take the boat as is and he would make best efforts to repair it, but if the repairs didn't work we would need to return to the marina each night.
2) The other option was a full refund and we find a hotel which we pay for. At this point, I was leery of Derek and didn't fully trust the flow of money back to me.
I countered with if I take option 1, every night we spend in the marina is a free day which he rejected. I now think the boat was never sea worthy as it's CVLA license had expired in May 2024 https://mycvla.com/boats/bavarian-bliss/.
I asked him to find a suitable replacement, which he said was impossible over Christmas. Our new captain heard us talking and made one phone call and booked a bare boat for the next day. Derek did pay for the cost for the bare boat.
We sailed for about two hours on the Bavarian Bliss in the late afternoon before returning to the marina. We slept at the Marina on night two. The captain did not stay on the boat and we had many issues with the electrical systems - no power, lights that won't turn off, lights that flicker non-stop. After many hours we were able to find a captain who was prepping a neighboring read more
