In September of 2018, Josh T. chartered a 2018 Lucia 40 on the Chesapeake Bay from Atlantic Cruising Yachts (ACY) who charters under the Waypoints.com.
‘Caught Looking’ is a 4 cabin charter setup and the boat was essentially brand new.
Bottom line up front: The boat sailed well, was outfitted with just about everything we needed, and we had a wonderful week aboard. The ACY staff was very helpful and accommodating of our itinerary.
Sailed reasonably well for a high volume charter catamaran. For all intents and purposes, it was essentially a new boat. Didn’t have the new boat smell, but there were ZERO issues and everything was functional which speak highly of the charter fleet manager at ACY.
We managed to see 8 knots on beam and broad reaches and motored at 6 knots with a single-engine which was nice when the wind wasn’t blowing.
Boat likes:
It’s beautiful inside with tons of storage space. It has lots of different areas around the boat with good separation which is great when you have a bunch of kids that all need to be able to get away from each other while still being confined to a 40′ boat.
I really liked the helm station setup which is sort of like the landing on a home with split level stairs. Halfway up is a spacious and comfy helm seat with a nice hard bimini cover for protection from the sun. Go the rest of the way up and there’s a lounge area for sunbathing.
Boat dislikes:
My only real complaint about the boat is that there are lots of sharp edges and corners with the latest interior designs. I like the modern look and the corners don’t need a huge radius, but they were literally pointy… like I’d want to put those little edge protectors on them as if I was baby proofing a home.
Not a big deal in the Chesapeake, but if I was heading offshore at all it seems like it would be a recipe for an injury or two.
The Atlantic Cruising Yachts:
ACY is pretty well known for their “boat as a business” seminars and business model and they are one of the largest FP and Jeanneau dealers in the US if not the largest. This was my first charter with them and I’d gladly do it again.
They have a very straight forward scheduling module on the website that shows the availability of each boat. Find the dates you want that are available, put in your info and hit submit. I was contacted the next day by a booking agent with a quote and they sent the typical document requests (charter resume, personal info requests, deposit requirements, and charter agreement).
After getting through the paperwork, I had a request and they were more than willing to accommodate. We wanted to sleep aboard the night prior and do the checkout that evening so we could get up and get underway first thing the next morning. They had no problem with that and had staff there to greet us and take us through the checkout after what I’d consider normal business hours.
They took us through all of the systems, did a chart review, and then we took the boat out for a quick spin where we raised and lowered all of the sails and I was asked to navigate to a specific point and back to test competency which would make me feel good about having a boat in a charter management program with them.
During our chart review, we talked through my planned itinerary and the charter manager offered his local knowledge and suggested anchorages and restaurants at various stops along our planned route.
After the charter was over, check-in was pretty easy. We pulled up to the fuel dock, pumped out and gassed up at which point we tossed the charter manager the keys and he put it back in their incredibly packed dock (they were getting boats in for the fall boat show and had boats tied to boats tied to boats…)
All in all, it was a great boat for our family of 5 and a great experience with ACY!
Josh T.
