Miami / Southeast · West Palm Beach
Private sails for up to six on Carpe Vita, a 42-foot Fountaine Pajot Venezia catamaran, from the City Docks in downtown West Palm Beach. Sunset and celebration charters, a summer anchorage off Peanut Island for swimming and snorkelling, and longer runs down to the Keys.
Carpe Vita is a 42-foot Fountaine Pajot Venezia built in France, and the pitch the owners make for her is the quiet: every charter is private, capped at six guests, and the point of the trip is the stretch after the sails go up and the engine goes off. Pickup is at the City Docks in downtown West Palm Beach, and after booking a guest gets a call to plan the day rather than a confirmation email and a dock time.
The seasonal product is a floating base rather than a cruise. The boat anchors off Peanut Island and runs guests out from the South Dock downtown or Sailfish Marina, and the day is spent swimming and snorkelling, floating in the shade between the hulls, or on water loungers off the back. The company also takes charters south to the Florida Keys. Cal and Marty Landau run it and both hold Coast Guard 50-ton master’s licences; they have lived in the West Palm area more than fifteen years, and Cal’s father, who caught what Cal calls sailboat fever in the 1980s, still sails on the boat at 98.
Featured Miami / Southeast · Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale bareboat operator working from its own docks on the Middle River, chartering sailing catamarans since 1979. A Lagoon 45 and a Bali Catspace 40, bareboat or captained, by the week to the Keys and the Abacos. A boating resume stands in for a certificate.
Miami / Southeast · Delray Beach
Beach cats rigged on the sand at Casuarina Road and A1A, Hobie Wave, Getaway and Hobie 16, pushed straight into the Atlantic. Walk up and sail, with a refresher from the staff if you want one, a captain if you would rather be driven, and dry storage for your own boat.
Crewed Miami / Southeast · Coconut Grove
A 40-foot Beneteau on Biscayne Bay, skippered by Rodrigo Burgos from South Bayshore Drive in Coconut Grove, with pickups at Key Biscayne or South Beach. Private day trips for up to six; overnight and multi-day sails down to the Keys take four, with reef snorkeling on the way.