CHARTER BOATING

Chasing the winds on the open sea aboard your own chartered yacht is a thrill being enjoyed by thousands of landsmen who head for the marinas of the Caribbean, Mediterranean or South Pacific to board yachts on itineraries ranging from days to months. Provided with all the amenities, bare-boat or with crew, yachting offers a chance to see the world the way it should be seen.

Everything went as planned. The aging DC-3 rumbled down the runway in San Juan, jerked into the air and began a slow, low left bank, eastward over the sea. The Caribbean revealed itself slowly, glistening in the late afternoon sun.

Forty minutes later, flying under the rainbow of a brief tropical shower, the pilot made another slow turn and we landed on the short, pockmarked runway of Beef Island Airport in the British Virgin Islands. Beef Island is connected by a bridge to the administrative center of the B.V.I. on Tortola Island.

A car was there to meet me for the 20-minute ride across the narrow bridge to a small marina. The big white Bertram yacht was waiting at dockside.

Capt. Leonard Flanders fired up the big diesels, and in moments we were heading into a stiff, warm breeze, pushing the swells of the outer channel, heading south for Peter Island.

“Lots of stories out here,” he said, as we picked up speed for the four-mile journey. “How much time you got?”

Ever since Sir Francis Drake sailed through in 1573, the British Virgin Islands have been the makers--and the keepers--of legends. For the last 10 years these islands have been known as a haven for some of the best luxury chartering around.

Literally hundreds of yachts are available, with itineraries ranging from hours to months. Almost without exception, the yachts of the British Virgins offer an uncompromising style and grace.

“Down here,” said Flanders, 41, who’s been working on the water since he was 14, “the sea is everything. We live on it and for it. It’s not just a business to us. We love it.”

Since 1971 Flanders has been a happy captain, running the charter flagship of the Peter Island Hotel and Yacht Harbour.

Peter Island is not only one of the great Caribbean hiding places (a 1,050-acre island with only 52 guest rooms), but it also offers one of the best yacht charters in the Caribbean.

Accommodating up to eight persons, Peter Island will rent you an exquisite four-bedroom villa called the Crow’s Nest, overlooking legendary Deadman Bay. Offering absolute privacy, the villa comes complete with two maids, gardener, swimming pool, all meals and unlimited use of the Bertram yacht. The price for seven days: $10,500.

Because Peter Island is nearly in the middle of the Virgin Island group, day and overnight trips to virtually all of the other islands are easy.

One afternoon Flanders opened the throttles and we raced to Little Dix Bay, the Bitter End Yacht Club, then over to the Indians--an island rock formation that affords terrific snorkeling--then back to Tortola.

t the Tortola marina,

dozens of workers were readying the 86 charter yachts managed by The Moorings, the Caribbean’s largest and most successful yacht charterer.

“We have a philosophy about our boats,” said Reuben Lawrence, an 11-year veteran with the charterer. “Take the kids to Disney World, but bring yourself here.”

The Moorings offers one of the largest fleets of yachts available for bare-boat charters. (A bare-boat yacht is one that’s chartered without a crew. Note: The Moorings will require you to display competency beforehand.) For those who want to sail away with a minimum of effort, they also offer seven luxury crewed yachts (skipper, crew, cook and open bar).

Across from the marina is the Wanderlust, a 65-foot trimaran that is the queen of the island’s charter sailboats. A luxury yacht accommodating 12, you get the ship with the islands’ best chefs (and menus) and a complete video system. After Paul McCartney chartered it for three weeks, he wrote a song about the boat that was included in his last album. (Six Miami Dolphins football players also chartered it and in the course of five days consumed 32 cases of beer, setting the unofficial B.V.I. record.)

When our Bertram pulled into the harbor at Peter Island it was joined by such chartered boats as the Camelot (a 51-foot Morgan Out Island ketch) and the Capricorn Lady, an immaculate 71-foot Trumpy yacht.

The Camelot was just back from a weeklong ($3,880) charter that had touched almost all of the islands. The Capricorn Lady was beginning a six-day trip to Nanny Cay, Virgin Gorda Sound, Jost Van Dyke and points east with only two passengers, a New York investment banker and his girlfriend. Cost: $8,500.

The Capricorn Lady is a magnificent ship with every conceivable amenity, plus the best gourmet galley in the islands. “With us,” owner Dan Gilman said, “menu planning is just as important as where we go. And while we may seem expensive, there are some yachts out here that go for $50,000 a week.”

The British Virgin Islands holds no monopoly on the true beauties of luxury chartering. A few thousand miles away, Harry Tzalas sits in his Athens office and ponders his choices. Tzalas’ company, Hellenic Marine Consultants, controls more than 1,700 yachts available for charter in the Mediterranean.

Being carried away by one of Tzalas’ charters isn’t inexpensive, with rates up to $10,000 a day for the Marala, a 180-foot mini-ocean liner complete with a crew of 20, a $1 million art collection and superb accommodations for only 12.

Regular Customers

Henry Ford II, former Beatles and a handful of world leaders are regular Tzalas customers. Every other year Greta Garbo charters a small yacht for herself and a woman friend.

“She is like everyone else,” Tzalas said. “She wants the simple things--to disappear in small bays where she won’t be recognized and can live a quiet existence. It’s funny--in the South of France, people will charter a boat just to show the world that they have chartered a boat.

“In Greece we have true lovers of the sea and fine yachts. In fact, when it comes to chartering luxury yachts, the Americans are replacing Italian nobility. Italians just don’t have the money anymore. They have the titles, but the yachts they are chartering keep getting smaller and smaller.”

Tzalas is not only a broker but a yacht owner as well. For the right price he will charter his Kyma Alpha, a 140-foot ketch, one of the most beautiful traditional sailing ships of the Eastern Mediterranean.

To book one of Tzalas’ yachts you can contact him directly (his Athens telephone number is 011-301-959-3712), but a much easier way to go would be through a U.S. agent who can facilitate all your paper work, including the handling of any special itinerary or provisioning needs.

Dozens of Charters

David Banta is one of the better California agents. His Charter Concepts at Marina del Rey--telephone (213) 823-2676--deals directly with such folks as Tzalas as well as with dozens of charter operations in the Caribbean and those offering luxury Pacific Coast cruising.

Almost all of Banta’s charters are crewed, and the fees cover everything--fuel, port costs, food and beverages, stewards, a chef, the crew and all sports. The sports equipment available on most of his yachts includes ski boats, trap shoots, scuba gear, a 50-videotape movie library and videotape recorders and cameras. Some even have helicopters.

“People create their own environment on a yacht,” he said. “It’s important to remember that you’re on a yacht, not a passenger liner. There is no cruise director to plan activities. The personalities of those who are aboard is assumed by the yacht.

“A yacht amplifies a person’s personality,” he added. “It creates energy in its passengers. If you are a big eater, you will eat more on a yacht. Some people on the most expensive charters eat hamburgers and French fries the entire trip. Other people eat pounds of caviar.”

Banta’s menu services are excellent. Planning for all meals means that each charter leaves the harbor loaded with great gastronomic wonders. Still, provisioning a charter yacht can be difficult. Recently Banta received an urgent message that one of his charters had run out of caviar. It was a serious logistical problem. Banta solved it. The next day, the expensive fish eggs were airdropped to the ship at sea.

The Best Time

Knowing the best time to charter a yacht is important. The Mediterranean, for example, can be a crowded place. Often, especially in summer, anchorages are filled, and if you’re one of those looking for true solitude off a hidden Greek island, you might have to wait for the best cruising month, September, when most of the tourists have left.

French Polynesia doesn’t have that problem, and luxury-yacht chartering in the Pacific remains one of the better-kept secrets. One of the most innovative and rewarding ways to see those islands is by chartered sailboat--in my case, an incredible 58-foot steel-hulled ketch.

Getting to Tahiti is easy--a night UTA flight from Los Angeles that arrives nine hours later at dawn. Arranging for a charter before you leave Los Angeles is relatively easy.

I was met in Papeete and taken directly to the boat. We spent the day provisioning the ship and touring the capital city of the Society Islands. The air was saturated with the pungent, intoxicating aroma of copra, which was being processed at a dockside plant.

At dusk we motored out, moving into the gentle swells of the Sea of the Moon. It was a clear night, and the moon silhouetted the ship as it rolled gently. The beautiful 42-ton ship was outfitted with every conceivable necessity for great chartering.

Long Stop on Voyage

Called the Danae III, it is owned by Claude and Claudine Goche, veterans of the islands. The Goches arrived in Papeete from West Africa 20 years ago on their 29-foot wooden ketch, Danae II. Tahiti was one of their stops on a long-planned family journey around the world. Their circumnavigation was never completed. They discovered Tahiti and stayed.

In September, 1971, after years of chartering and hard work on the smaller boat, the Goches built, then launched Danae III at the Papeete Yacht Club. With their two boys, Dominique and Richard, they’ve been chartering it ever since.

The ship holds six passengers--or a family of eight--in great comfort. Each cabin has a small vanity and washbasin. But most of a passenger’s time is spent on deck, helping to rig the sails, eating, sleeping and seeing the Society Islands the way they were meant to be seen.

“Tahiti has changed a lot, but not the islands,” Claudine said, as she prepared to serve a delicious lunch of melon stuffed with fresh crab, shrimp salad and imported cheeses. The best eating was in Claudine’s galley.

The Goches are avid scuba divers, and the ship is well equipped for underwater exploration. Early each evening, Dominique and Claude would string a net attached to the anchor lines across the current. Later, they would dive to retrieve the night’s catch--our dinner--an impressive variety of red snapper, beautiful parrotfish and surgeonfish.

Plenty of Equipment

Most of the Society Islands have no boat yards or repair facilities. So the Goches have equipped the Danae with two engines, two radios, two dinghies and--perhaps most important--two generators. Claude has even installed his own small machine shop below deck.

Each day was spent under the large red, white and yellow sails, idling along at six knots, passing islands and remote villages where the only concessions to the 20th Century are the corrugated steel sheets that cover the churches, an occasional gas-powered generator and a single gendarme--the police representative who serves as a gentle reminder of the control of the islands by the French government. History here is marked not by events but simply by the passing of time.

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The Danae III is just one way to pursue the ultimate South Pacific escape. The charter package is organized by Ken Jordan of Ted Cook Tours: In California, telephone (800) 432-7080; outside California, (800) 854-3413. The package includes hotels on either end of the sailing itinerary: the Hotel Bali Hai on Huahine at the start of the trip, the Sofitel Marara Hotel in Bora Bora, the Captain Cook Beach Hotel in Moorea and the Maeva Hotel in Tahiti at the conclusion.

Ted Cook offers a variety of arrangements, with the length and ports of the sailing itinerary, as well as the hotel selections, custom-tailored to individual needs. The chartering fee is per person (it doesn’t depend on the number of people in the group), and begins at $1,295 for a 14-day trip (six of which are on the Danae). The guaranteed fee, at this writing, includes all meals on the boat. It does not include air fare from Los Angeles or any inter-island air fare.

Kebir Yacht Service offers a boat similar to the Danae. Write them at P.O. Box 363, Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands.

Privately Owned Yachts

Tahiti Cruising and Tahiti Yachting are two associations of privately owned yachts available for charter. Some are available for bare-boat charter, but I don’t recommend that option for anyone not thoroughly familiar with the waters. Write Tahiti Cruising, P.O. Box 1604, Papeete. Tahiti Yachting is at P.O. Box 363, Papeete.

The Caribbean has more than 100 charter companies or charter captains. Luxury charters can be arranged through Virgin Islands Water Safaris, a division of Regency International Yacht Charters. They offer crewed yacht charters, deluxe five-star charters and bare-boat charter vacations. Telephone one of their agents at (800) 524-7676, or write them at Long Bay Road, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 00802.

In the British Virgin Islands, check with The Moorings. They have the most extensive selection of sailboats as well as attractive package deals. Their U.S. office can be reached at (800) 535-7289.

Off California Coast

Yachting off the California coast can be as scenic as at any other place in the world, and the Channel Islands, only a few miles off the coast between Santa Barbara and Newport Beach, are a good place to start. Charter Concepts is the place to check. It has two Southern California offices. One is at 13757 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey 90291, telephone (213) 823-2676 or (800) 221-2793, or from outside California, (800) 521-1678. The other office is at 423 Shoreline Village Drive, Suite C, Long Beach 90802, telephone (213) 491-1999.

Another charter company with local offices is Fraser Charters Inc. Its yachts are available as near as San Diego or as far away as Australia. Contact them at 2353 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego 92106; telephone (619) 225-0588.

For more information, an excellent source is the bimonthly magazine, Chartering, P.O. Box 11356, Marina del Rey 90292, in which are advertised worldwide chartering operations in addition to local luxury charters. There’s also Charter Data Bank International, which provides up-to-date information about luxury charter yachts, their locations and availabilities around the world; telephone (207) 236-8850.