My 3rd trip with Superior Charters and as usual everything was outstanding. The boats are in great shape. The reservation process is fully automated and flawless. The staff are friendly and helpful. The two adjacent marinas are well laid out with spacious fairways and slips and excellent restroom/shower facilities. I have chartered 32 and 39 foot Benneteaus as well as the Lagoon 380 and been very pleased with the condition and operation of the vessels. I have done the safety reviews with Superior Charters' captains and have found them to be very professional, friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. Superior Charters sets an outstanding example for all chartering agencies. read more

I've have 5 trips with Superior Charters. We do a bare boat charter each September. Great boat, great sailing trip. No issues with reservations or customer service. Clear Air sails like a dream and we've had her for 4 years now. Although we've had some minor nav instrument issues, no major mechanical issues. We"ve never had to call in for anything. The boat is always clean and ready for us. The captains that check us out in the morning have always been helpful and polite. read more

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My favorite sailing destination and my favorite charter company! The staff are always friendly and professional and the boats are well maintained. I've been coming to Superior Charters for 10 years and I'll keep coming back to them. Thank you for so many great memories! read more

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Top notch operation. I did the Sailor Certification Course and was extremely happy with Captain Mike guiding me through the learning curve. He was thorough but not overbearing allowing you to learn at a comfortable pace but clearly getting the basic tools to operate a sailboat safely. In addition he was a constant source of interesting information around the islands. Superior Charters once again delivered on their nice sail boat and thorough check in/out process. Thank you for making this a great learning experience! read more

Superior Charters - Boating Near Me - Bayfield, Wisconsin

I was recently trained on a 38' Lagoon Catamaran. Captain Mike Simon was our trainer. We really liked working with Mike. Mike has a large amount of vast experience and would recommend him for any training. Superior Charters are always pleasant to work with. We initially were trained on a monohull 5 years ago and try to return to sail every late summer fall. Sailing the apostle island is ideal for training. We experienced a wide verity of weather. read more

Superior Charters - Boating Near Me - Bayfield, Wisconsin

We chartered Pearl, a 32ft Beneteau, somewhat older but it good shape (I own an '84 34ft Hunter in SF Bay so old doesn't scare me; actually, it provides comfort) CS leading up to the charter was impeccable. On the return, somewhat less so, but still above average. I'd recommend to provide and include in each boat, a list of possible gatchas. Every boat, even when same model and year, have differences which could be annoying. In this case, we had to figure out how to drain the shower (we didn't use it but it collected water from the fridge) and fridge, which operate with the bilge pump and a shower pump apparently wired in parallel, but require setting the valves in certain specific ways. We asked the question at time of check-out and the answer was 'everything looks good' (paraphrasing) but no specific guidance was offered. All in all, a great experience. My son (he's returning soon to take a ASA106 class) had a wonderful time; a we ended up tied in wins in our chess matches! read more

Cindy and the whole staff are amazing! I called to set a first time sailing experience for my wife's birthday. Cindy was very helpful in selecting a great boat for us and a captain to take us out for the day. We ended up sleeping on the boat in the harbor the day before and after our day trip so we did not have to go and find a hotel during the weekend. Our captain (John) was great and really got us involved in sailing the boat! We are planning on going back to get certified so we can take trips on our own! We really appreciate the great service . The boat was amazing and very clean. Cindy also helped me by suggesting the Wild Rice Restaurant for the perfect birthday dinner, 5 STARS! read more

Superior Charters - 41' jeanneau - Boating Near Me - Bayfield, Wisconsin

We had an AMAZING Learn to Sail Weekend on a beautiful 33 Jeanneau with the BEST captain ever, John M. The boat was perfect, the setting is amazing and the sailing was phenomenal. Bayfield is a super cute town and definitely have dinner in town at least 1 night. Sailing to Madeline was a blast and having whitefish tacos as the Pub was a night to remember! Overall an awesome experience and we will be back. The only improvement would be a tad nicer sheets--for $35 per person we just felt like the sheets and towels could be improved a bit. Otherwise, thank you!! Also Cindy B does a fabulous job organizing your itinerary and making sure your trip is seamless. read more

We wanted to say thanks for providing us with a great instructor and fabulous sailing trip! John did a great job making us feel comfortable with Emogene. We really felt good with her after our 3 days of bareboating and took care of the boat like it was our own. We look forward to planning our next trip. What a great family run business! See you soon! read more

A BEAUTIFUL yacht in fantastic condition made the experience almost perfect. A very kind gentleman from Superior Charters took us out to verify our sailing proficiency and we then we were off to explore the Apostle Islands. It would have been a perfect trip, but then the bed-bugs set in on us... The trip would have been a five-star experience were it not for those read more

I appreciate the the reviews on this charter company. Although their replies were evasive at best, the companies in town who have had interaction with them, past charter boat owners and employees can certainly relate to you. read more

Great folks. Reasonable rates. We had an awesome time on our chartered Jeanneau. Boat was nicely outfitted and clean. Hope to be back next year! read more

A complete nightmare. The day before we had an idea of learning to sail while on vacation so i prepaid for a 2 day class. The following day we arrived to our sailing class with my gf and her daughter (10 y/o) for a day of sailing and instruction to be greeted by what seemed like a hung over drunk. There was no curriculum, no outline of topics to be discussed for the day nor introduction the days agenda, no explanation on how the class was going to certify us rather we spent the beginning part of the day on the docks unsheltered from the 85 degree sun listening to the ramblings of a hungover functioning alcoholic, after he concluded his stories about his daring bloody mountain rescues, covert military operations, life as a cowboy in Colorado and complaints about how his previous ex wife divorced him because of another ex-wife's meddling in their relationship we spent an 1hr on the docks being told to grab this due-hicky and that winch and some whatcha-ma-calit with out explanation of their prupose or function. This continued for another hour as if someone was teaching us to sail in Chinese when we spoke English. Captain psycho managed to motor us off the docks while threatening us if we damaged the vessel we would be paying a "hefty fortune" while demanding us to preform u-turns in the harbor while other ships and boats had what turned out to be the right of way. After motoring (not sailing, this was a sailing lesson) halfway between lake superior and Madeline island he began to instill fear and attempt to impress us with his bravado with a variety of stories, for example how coast guard arrest passengers on boats for steering to close to other vessels and reminded us we should not be drinking or carrying any weapons aboard a ship or they would promptly arrest us however since he knows all the local coast guards he feels comfortable carrying his .45 mm in his bag where ever he goes. After demanding he answer or questions to clarify his instructions he became irate and starting yelling at us saying he was the captain of the ship and he was the one who asked questions and if we didn't like it he would turn the boat around I promptly asked him to do so then he said If he turned it around we would lose all of our money ($1500) I yelled at him to turn the g'damn boat around and he calmed down and said it would be quicker if we put up the sails to return back to the docks, i assisted setting up the sail while the 10y/o was crying and my gf went below deck to throw up from the stress arising from the crazy captain. While assisting him in setting up the sails his personality changed as if someone just medicated him with happy sauce and he began pretending like nothing happened this really scared the child and myself, trying to act calm and promote a steadfast return to the docks I followed the captains instructions while fearing for my safety and the child, after 30 mins of bobbing and weaving with the wind in our sails we only made it a a third of the way back, realizing the captain was trying to milk the clock or keep us captive I gently insisted we needed to return, the captain then put up another sail and used the wind for another hour and finally got us back in to the docks. The entire returned trip could have been cut to 30mins if we just motored back in but captain wacko manipulated the situation and during that time attempted to cheer us up with positive anecdotal stories and even began snapping photos of us even while we asked him to stop and reminded him we were not enjoying ourselves. We docked and quickly jumped off the boat cursed at him and walked to the mangers office to complain, the lady listened to our story explained to us that captain John doesn't even drink he was just a bad match and wanted to reschedule a class with another instructor. We were thoroughly exhausted after being burned in the sun, traumatized from being held captive by supposedly gun wielding psychopath, we agreed and left their establishment. Knowing that they had a no refund policy I disputed charges with AMEX but also called superior charters and emailed them requesting a full refund. While waiting two days for them to respond I met another sailing instructor at a local bayfield restaurant told him about my story and he said that the captain john was a known wacko and superior charters was well aware of his lunacy. The next day i spoke to superior and they explained to me they normally do not do refunds but they could only refund the day I didn't use the lesson, i told them there was no way I was going to pay for that nightmare and nor was I going to go to their school again. oddly the lady asked me what I would do if I was her and I told her I would give a full refund to avoid having an angry customer that would seek legal damages against their company. The money was refunded. I caution anyone from doing business with this company and would gladly participate in any legal actiion against Superior Charters. read more

Great service, made sailing accessable to newbies and wow, sailing around the Apostle islands, anchored and watching a sunset, is simply amazing and soul satisfying. Our first charter was through Superior Charters. The owner was great about coaching us through the process and made it seem easy, helped us feel confident in arranging a captain that would teach us while we went on a 3 day pleasure sail. When we arrived, they quickly checked us in and showed us to our boat. We had some minor difficulties with the captain having a slightly different agenda than we were looking for, but even that was resolved before we left the pier. The sea caves are other-worldly. 34' Catalina was in overall excellent condition, only one minor issue where mold had taken to a life jacket that another guest had tucked into a back corner. Thanks Superior Charters! read more

There is no other charter company like Superior Charters. Boats, top notch. Cleanliness, spotless. Support and check out crew, professional and knowledgeable. Cindy and office crew, customer focused. We have been chartering on Lake Superior for almost 30 years and Superior Charters is always the first choice. We look forward to to another 30 years. read more

Superior Charters is Inferior Charters! We would not recommend going with this chartering service based on their lack of customer service. We chartered a 40 ft, three bedroom sailboat last summer for a 3 day trip at a cost of more than $3000. After boarding and unpacking all our gear, we learned the boat had mechanical problems. We had to transfer to a new boat and lost a day of sailing. After our trip we were told by their front office that we would be getting a partial credit. After six months of calls and voicemails we did not get one response, one return call from their owners to apologize or respond to our request for a credit. The failure to get a credit is one thing but no response to our call is unacceptable. A little professional courtesy would have gone a long way. After writing to the boat owners of the originally assigned boat, we finally got a letter in the mail from the Superior Charter owner a year after our charter reservation. The owner did not apologize but wrote that they have been busy with reservations and here's a $500 gift certificate to a future charter. We called her after receiving the letter requesting a call back. No call back again. We are giving them a one star for the captain that they contracted. She was great. We will never reserve with them nor recommend our friends to go with them. It's not worth the trip! Very unprofessional! read more