Nightmare Catamaran experience in Sardinia with World Wide Charter Agency
In April 2025, I rented a crewed catamaran through the agency called "Barcando". Among the various options they offered me, I chose the most expensive one because that boat had a permanent skipper assigned year-round, which gave me greater peace of mind. Let me clarify that the common practice of these agencies is to provide different skippers each time, which always carries the risk that they may not be familiar with the boat or take proper care of it, since they work on it for a week and then move on to another one.
So, I paid the rental fee to Barcando, and just four days before the start of my vacation, I received an email from another agency called "World Wide Charter", providing me with a series of details and the name of the assigned skipper. On the day of boarding, I found out that the skipper was not the permanent one, but a freelancer who works on different boats every week. Since we were already all on board and ready to leave, I honestly didn’t make a big deal of it at the time.
After two days, something outrageous happened: when the wind suddenly picked up, instead of checking that the boat was securely anchored, the skipper put on headphones and started watching the MotoGP Grand Prix on his phone! The result? The anchor loosened, and the catamaran ran aground on the rocks. But the worst part was that he endangered the life of one of the passengers by having him get into the dinghy to assist with a maneuver without giving him any instructions.
Long story short, the passenger had to jump into the water from the out-of-control dinghy, which continued moving with no one aboard to steer it—posing a serious risk of hitting other swimmers who were crowding the beach at the time. The skipper completely panicked and was unable to manage the emergency, putting the safety of both the passengers and other swimmers at risk.
At that point, we contacted World Wide Charter asking them to find another skipper, but their response was that, since it was high season, all the skippers were already booked. Eventually, they found one through a skipper Whatsapp group chat, though they didn’t even know him. He boarded with us the following day.
The first thing this new skipper told us was that he had never sailed a catamaran before and didn’t know the boat—but he had 20 years of experience at sea. In addition to the accident, we suffered another issue. When we boarded, the first skipper stored our empty suitcases in a compartment at the bow. We asked if that was a safe, watertight place, and he assured us it was. However, when we retrieved our suitcases on the last day to return home, we found them soaked with seawater!
To summarize:
Due to the total lack of professionalism from the first skipper, our safety and that of other swimmers was put at risk, and we lost an entire day of our vacation waiting for the second skipper.
Two suitcases—one worth €450 and the other €940—had to be thrown away.
Despite all this, World Wide Charter refused to take responsibility. They ruined our vacation, caused us financial loss, and completely washed their hands of it.
Avoid World Wide Charter at all costs.
14. juli 2025
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