Sunsail: UK Reviews 308

What an amazing experience. Well organised with friendly staff who were easy to reach and quick to help when needed. The boat was modern, spacious, spotless, and well equipped, which all added up to a fantastic sail and a really memorable holiday.

Everything was very well organised and ran smoothly and support was readily available and prompt when needed. The boat was modern, spotlessly clean and well equipped, all making for a great sail and memorable holiday.

The boat actually worked pretty well. One night one of the AC failed, but otherwise no problems.
The base staff really let us down at the start, by not giving us the inventory forms before they went home for the night. This led to us sailing without around half the cutlery and crockery we were supposed to have, which made the whole 2-week cruise feel 2* instead of 4*. And at the end, they failed to tell us there was a water shortage in the marina. So we left our boat, with its nearly full water tanks (due to the efficient water maker on board), took our luggage to the store room, and then found out we couldn’t get a shower in the marina! And by then we couldn’t get back on board to use the boat showers.

This was one of our best experiences with Sunsail and I want to thank the staff at St Lucia for that! The boat was very well maintained, all supplies needed were aboard and Nigel gave us thorough briefing on the region. Loved the taxi to and from base - thanks Duan Fred! Don’t miss the Tobago Keys - thank you Michael (Me Alone in the Valley) Lobster King!

I booked through Boataround.com an Oceanis 46.1 in Corfu for the first 2 weeks of august 2026. The boat was only labeled as "Sunsail 23". I booked, paid the deposit, received the confirmation email from boataround that, as for their terms and conditions, is sent on behalf of the charter company, therefore Sunsail. I therefore proceeded to book flights, hotel rooms and even rented a car. Some 10 days later, while setting up all the details, I went back on Boataround.com only to find out that the price of the boat had been unilaterally increased by several thousands of euros. I immediately called Boataround and was told that Sunsail increased the price, probably due to the high demand for the destination, that it's no unusual. Needless to say that I protested, since I had a deposit paid and a confirmation of the booking received, but they insisted it is not their responsibility, that the change of price depends on what Sunsail was doing on the platform and stuff like that. Bottom line, I had to book another boat at higher price, took a month to get the deposit back (at least that), will never book Sunsail again: it is a totally dishonest behaviour to change the terms of a confirmed reservation and the only reasons I could still save my holiday is that I found out now and not in june, when the second payment was due. I bet I would have also lost the deposit at that point.

I will never ever book with Sunsail as the put us at risk with a boat that should have never been leased to anyone. Half our trip was wasted waiting on maintenance to come address all the issues. We had to listen to the generator running for hours.
Batteries had to be fixed and then fully replaced
Broken water maker
Broken fridge
Broken toilet valve
Broken shower drain valve
Broken gas gauge
No A/C
The most dangerous position we were in was they sent us out in high swells with a broken gas gauge. What if we had run out of gas and needed to motor out of danger. Sunsail knowingly put us at risk

The Antigua Sunsail team were the best I have experienced. The boat on arrival was immaculate the support when there were problems was exceptional.
The location at Nelsons Harbour is absolutely superb, it's unique, safe and close to local amenities.

We rented a 45’ Leopard, along with another family in January. Sunsail was great from the get go, from check in to our provisions being on board, to the briefing, their staff were very helpful a super friendly. We ended up hiring a skipper for a portion of our trip (Gilson, who was phenomenal and fun to have on board, highly recommend). Our entire family had a great experience sailing and reviewing our sailing knowledge and Gilson was patient explaining everything in detail/why we were making a particular maneuver or adjustment and what the outcome would be. Our boat was very comfortable and in good condition, no issues whatsoever. We had a great time visiting the islands, love all the locals in the BVI’s, so friendly, and the weather couldn’t have been better. We will be back again soon with Sunsail (this was our third family trip in last 9 years).

This was our first sailing experience and we had an excellent time in a 454 Leopard catamaran.
Hyacinth, the captain was fantastic. She was knowledgeable, made us feel safe and we really enjoyed her company.
Exploring the Grenadines was a brilliant introduction to sailing with a different stop every day on a beautiful island. Hyacinth recommended places to eat on every island and we had amazing food with Tobago Cays a particular highlight but Mayreau and Mustique great too. All wonderful.
We highly recommend this trip with Sunsail.

Good: Nice boat for a very reasonable price.
Bad: Spent an extra night in the marina for all the broken things to get fixed. Then had two more breakdowns during the week that we waited for hours for someone to show up where we were. Plus roaches on the boat. Sunsail only offered us a percentage voucher for an additional trip....like we want to take another trip with them after this experience...

Chartering is an expensive proposition, so time is money and we wasted valuable hours through no fault of our own:
1)We waited hours for an electronic chip to be delivered to enable our Chart Plotter to function, despite my pointing out something was wrong to several people.
2)We waited hours for a service man to repair our Air Conditioning system which could have been avoided if I was shown ahead of time how to fix a problem that frequently occurs when the boat heels.
3)The water tank wasn't full upon boarding, so I had to fill it myself.
4)Since we were told at the last minute that the transom propane grill was not operational and that the grill on the rail required charcoal, we did not have time to purchase any and therefore could not grill.
5)Important boat specific information such as the actual boat draft, whether the depth sounding was from the water line or under the keel, the size of water and holding tanks, how to verify functionality of the CO detection system should be posted inside each boat to save time.

There were other issues:
1)Two of the three toilet seats were totally loose,
2)There was absolutely no light in the cockpit
3)The propane tank was missing a strap to secure it in place
4)One of the two cockpit table leaves would not stay up
5) For some reason, the two of the head bowl backfilled when moored.
6)The Boat speed was not registering, if it was a paddle type sensor which typically fail, the navigation system should be configured to use GPS speed over ground for True Wind Speed to be calculated correctly.

Overall we totally enjoyed our chartering experience, but the deficiencies noted could have been avoided.

All good
Thankyou

Absolutely amazing experience. Moses was fantastic and when we had an issue with our jib he arranged for it to be fixed immediately in a different port. Thank u

I am really disappointed with Sunsail.

I recently joined Sunsail for my Day Skipper course at the end of September but the Instructor was in "end of season mode and wanting a holiday" (his words!!)
This course is expensive and was definitely not what I expected.
I am an ex dinghy instructor and have sailed a Moody 346 for many years so I have experience off sailing.
I had no feedback all week other than when I asked how my sailing was and was told fine. No other feedback.
We did not complete the course but I have no idea what I completed successfully as not been told.
DO NOT USE SUNSAIL

After a million emails I am still not getting feedback

This was my 8th BVI charter with Sunsail over the last 10 years. I used variety of monohulls, catamarans and a powercat.

Great base, awesome boat and the sailing area is easy to navigate, yet challenging enough if you want to test your skills.

Sunsail booking agents & base staff has been nothing but welcoming and helpful.

The Briefing and the boat handover were first class. The boat worked really well, no issues at all.
The sunsail team in the office were very helpful

We returned to Phuket for our third bareboat charter with Sunsail and the experience was once again fantastic! There is always something new to explore in the sailing grounds around Phuket, good food, good culture, great swimming/snorkeling, hiking and views that are unparalleled anywhere!
Our experience at Sunsail was seamless and such a pleasure. At the Sunsail base, Ash and Nicha were amazing in helping us, getting us ready for our arrival and departure from the base. The boat briefing with Imad and the chart review with Ash were extremely helpful, even though it was our third time sailing there! Returning the boat was fast and easy and we were all left with great vibes! We will definitely be visiting again! Thanks to everyone at Sunsail!

We sailed with Sunsail out of Zea in early October, 2025. We had a great time, but our skipper impacted much of our trip.
Positives: Our Robertson & Caine 454L was a fabulous catamaran. It was only 1 year old and was so roomy for our group. We used three of the cabins and had one for the hired skipper. The ability to walk from the front deck of the catamaran through the kitchen to the back deck was great. We discovered a couple of broken items after leaving port that the skipper repaired for us a couple of days later.

Negatives: We were disappointed to learn that a 7 day rental really only meant we had 5 days of travel. We were told repeatedly that check-in was 6:00 pm on the first day, which eliminated any sailing on day one. Our skipper told us when he arrived that we could have arranged for an earlier arrival. We also had to be back in port the night before checking out.

Our skipper was very sick. He had a very bad cold which caused us concern regarding potential infection. He finally went to the doctor on day 3 and did tell us that he tested positive for Covid (fortunately it was at a point where he was no longer contagious). He was somewhat surly/argumentative and slept in every morning (or had left the boat and was unavailable) until 9:00 am, so we had no hot water for showers in the morning.

We had originally wanted to go to the Cyclades, but our skipper wouldn’t even discuss that option with us. He claimed that weather totally prohibited that option. Moorings had told us that our skipper would contact us within 2 weeks of the trip to discuss our itinerary, but when we were in Greece and hadn’t been contacted, Sunsail told us this only applied to trips where you hire a full crew. He was very argumentative throughout most of our trip, but seemed to become more agreeable toward the end (perhaps because he was feeling better or was working for a larger tip).

We were only able to travel for one hour under full sail with no motor once during the entire trip. The skipper claimed it was because of the conditions, but there were other boats sailing. He claimed our main sail was damaged and could not be raised after the first day. We don’t know if this was the truth or he just didn’t want to bother with it.

The kitchen is outfitted with a Mr. Coffee style drip coffee maker and a very small French press. Our surly skipper argued with us and told us we didn’t know how to make coffee. It would have been much better if a Nespresso style capsule espresso unit (as you see in most of Europe) was also available. We discovered after leaving port that they do not launder the blankets after every trip. One of the blankets was badly soiled, so we made a point to leave it out for laundering upon our departure.

We invited our skipper to dinner on 4 nights and his response was that he “might” join us, so we never knew how many seats to have at the table. He did join us on two nights, and one night he spent almost the entire time on his cell phone. The final evening, we were going to give him his tip and per diem, but he never showed. The following morning, we never saw him at all, so we left his tip/per diem inside of the cabin and simply left.

2nd trip with Sunsail with leopard 42 from Agana . Last year from Corfu .
Base staff really helpful . At pick up and at drop off . Small issue mid week with gas bottle resolved quickly .
Arrival briefing really useful and knowledgeable local advise really helpful.
Boat in Hood condition with all systems working . Wish you had the option to add a code zero for the week but appreciate the reasons for not offering.
Great destinations and we were very lucky with the weather for our week in October .
Not in Sunsail control but the quayside berthing charges are very high . We paid 270’Euros for one night alongside at Hvar town . Cheapest was Jelsa for around £160. The demand is there but just feels unreasonable by comparison to Greece and even the UK .
Probably back to Greece next year due to berthing charges .
Sunsail 10/10

I am not an experienced boat person. Our Skipper, Martina, was wonderful and took great care of us while we were on the boat. She got us into some great places around the island. The boat was great and had everything we needed. We had a great time with friends.