Review Detail

The FP 47 Saona with the 4 cabin + bunk room layout was fine. The loadout of this particular boat was less than ideal with pump toilets and no GPS Nav/chart plotter at the helm. Those are options though so not a show stopper.

Nothing in the Saloon stands out good or bad. It was all fine.

Our starboard aft cabin had a diesel smell but that was likely our boat's issues. One metal gas tank is exposed under the bed with quite a few connections which are where we think the smell was coming from.

The showers were less than ideal in every head. None of them had doors so the entire floor of the bathroom got wet. Better than a full wet head but most boats this size have shower doors and we prefer that.

Heads on the starboard side were in small doors in the shower walls. Port had them under the bathroom sinks. Both were easy to access and much better than some boats we've chartered. Not a fun chore but better when you can get to them easily.

FP separates the steering from the lines. Take a look at the pictures and the 360 walk-through if you want an idea of how it looks. It's nice that people are separated, giving each an area to work without being in the way. It does make single-handed sailing difficult.

The winches were all pretty high and annoying to work with for those under >6' tall. Our charter had one, single-speed, power winch for the main halyard. It also had no clutches for the jib sheets. That meant we needed better line awareness to ensure no one removed a line under tension. It's not totally uncommon, but pretty silly for a charter boat, IMO.

There were no lifelines across the bow which made picking up balls/anchoring easier. Those lines never seem like they do anything so we didn't miss them and appreciated less clutter when picking up mooring bouys.

The dinghy davit system was fine. No power winch on ours but still pretty easy. The FPs don't keep the dinghy as high out of the water as some so you need to ensure you pull it up as high as possible and secure it from swinging. Nothing major here.

The highlight, and reason we chose this boat, is the cockpit lounge up top. We would use the traveler to move the boom and then we had a great hangout spot with nice cushions and a breeze. Our boat was missing a cushion which is probably an issue with charter boats.

Hope Swift with Swift Yacht Charters helped us get this boat and she happened to be in BVI right before our trip. She got pictures of everything so we knew exactly what laid in store for us. That took a lot of concern out of the equation. I always recommend using a broker as it's one more person on your side if trouble comes up. No cost to the charterer and more leverage in case of issues. Win-Win