About us

BareboatSailingHolidays.com is the specialist bareboat agency desk of Sailing Holidays Ltd, the largest British-owned sailing holiday company. The company has been in operation since 1977 and is proud to send thousands of British sailors on a sailing holiday every year.

BareboatSailingHolidays.com is a yacht charter agent, sourcing yachts from a select pool of pre-approved yacht owners throughout Europe. We do not offer Sailing Holidays Ltd flotilla yachts.

We're proud to be British owned and operated (despite a few Kiwi accents here and there..) with our main office and staff located in North West London.

Check us out in the media

The Sunday Times: The best summer holidays for 2011 (no link now available)

The Sunday Times: The 100 best summer holidays for 2010 (no link now available)

The Daily Telegraph: 10 of the Best

The Sun: Wed in Italy for Less than Colleen and Wayne 

The Times: 50 Great Holidays under £500 (no link now available)

Your Financial Protection

Sailing Holidays Ltd is a fully bonded tour operator.

When you buy an ATOL protected air holiday package from BareboatSailingHolidays.com you will receive a Confirmation Invoice from us confirming your arrangements and your protection under our Air Travel Organiser's License number 2580.

In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking. For further information please visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk.

A Brief History of the Bareboat Charter Business

It had been the view of the Sailing Holidays that the flotilla business would feed sailors through into bareboat charter as they became more experienced. It was also thought that the flotilla sailors would look to bareboat in areas not currently served by the flotilla business. Both of these points of view proved correct with many of our flotilla sailors trying a bareboat charter for the first time with us.

Stemming from this initial interest from the flotilla clients, BareboatSailingHolidays.com has built its own clientèle as word of mouth and a bit of advertising here and there has spread the good word about our bareboat business.

Our Yachts

BareboatSailingHolidays.com is a yacht charter agent, sourcing yachts from very select yacht owners throughout Europe. With the support of Sailing Holidays Ltd has also come great responsibility in assuring that the yachts and people we use are of extremely good quality.

We travel numerous times a year to inspect the yachts and meet all the people involved. This travel involves taking a yacht surveyor and/or an engineer.

In chartering from us you can have the confidence knowing that the yacht and people are of the best standard around and that you have us here in the UK working for you.

Do get in touch if you have any questions, we look forward to hearing from you!

The History of Sailing Holidays Ltd

Sailing Holidays Ltd began life in 1976 as Flotilla Sailing Club. Barrie Neilson joined the company in 1979 as a flotilla engineer and subsequently worked as flotilla skipper for six years from 1980 to 1985 in Greece, Florida and the former Yugoslavia. In 1983 Heidi came out on holiday and decided that he needed sorting out; between them they decided to have a go at sorting the company out.

Fast forward to today and Sailing Holidays now owns approximately 150 yachts and is the only non-corporate flotilla specialist in the United Kingdom. Their clientèle remain 95% British (the other 5% are typically colonials!). Their niche is operating the best maintained boats in the industry on two week flotillas around some of the most beautiful islands in the world. They are also within only a 2-3 hours of flying time from the UK.

The holidays are highly addictive and the average customer has enjoyed between four and five holidays with us in the different areas. The longest standing client has been on more than 50 holidays (two a year!) and the next longest twenty-nine holidays! Several have gone on to buy their own yachts and cruise the world but most have to work for a living and so the  job is to make each fortnight special.

Barrie and Heidi are still fully involved with all aspects of the business (stress? what stress?) and enjoy their own holidays every year. They remain as un-corporate as you can get, preferring to remain in personal touch with their clientele. We know no better way to give your brain a break!

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