Is The Sailing Cruising Life For You?
Are you longing for open space and an overwhelmingly awesome sense of freedom? How about fresh sea air, beautiful blue waters, and lush green tropical islands? What about waking to an incredible sunrise and finishing your day feeling invigorated and alive? Join us for a week-long experience in the Caribbean to determine if it's time to make your sailing dream a reality.
Who Are We? Meet The Browns & Britican
If you haven't come across Sailing Britican before, we are the FIRST liveaboard sailing family offering bespoke sailing charters to specifically teach aspiring sailors how to become confident sailing cruisers.
To get to know us better, check out one of our 200+ YouTube videos. Buy one of our helpful sailing resource books, guides, or checklist collections (Visit shop). Also, spend time looking over our 400+ articles that are on our Sailing Britican website.
We’ve been sailing an Oyster 56′ (monohull) since 2014 and have done over 40,000 nautical miles circumnavigating the Mediterranean, crossing the Atlantic, and sailing the US east coast and the Caribbean.
In the past several years, we've had over 47 singles, couples, and families spend a week with us getting the fast-track fully immersive sailing cruising experience. For many, the experience has enabled them to get out living the sailing life quickly with far less effort. Why reinvent the wheel?
"We went on Britican outlining a five-year plan to go from our current situation with jobs, a house, and so forth to sailing cruisers. By the time we left Simon & Kim, our passion was ignited, a new plan was created, and less than a year later we have our boat. If you are serious about becoming a sailing cruiser spending time with these guys is a GAME CHANGER." K & K Cole, South Carolina
Captain & First Mate
The Boat
What We Offer
The Britican Experience is not like chartering a boat for a week. It's not a sailing school either. It's an opportunity to be fully immersed in the actual cruising lifestyle. To sail like a cruiser. To live like a cruiser. To hang out with other cruisers. It’s not about sailing to exotic white beaches, drinking gin and tonics at a tiki bar, or snorkeling amazing dive sites (although that is included).
The Britican Experience has been set up for you to get an honest look at what it’s like to keep a boat afloat...sail to beautiful destinations and operate as a couple or family (singles are welcome too) all the while picking our brains, about everything and anything, for 7, 10 or 12 days.
A great opportunity to try the lifestyle before buying into it! Depending on what you/your partner/your family are looking for we’ll create an experience on Britican that includes any or all of the following (just to mention a small sample). Each experience is created bespoke for our guests. We will teach you what you want to learn. We will show you what you want to see. And we will help you take a giant leap towards making your cruising dreams a reality.
Anchorages & Moorings
Here's a little taster of some of the sights you'll see when joining us on the Britican Experience. It's not all about learning and building confidence. This lifestyle is also about beautiful tropical views, wonderful local food, enjoying the cruiser community and living a fulfilling life.
What Will You Gain?
Some are looking for reassurance: "Do I really want to pursue this dream? Is it possible to make it happen?"
Try the cruising lifestyle for a week to determine if you really want to spend $10,000’s and $100,000’s on a boat. The number of people that we’ve met that get the boat, spend months and years fixing it up only to realize that they don’t like to sail or their partner hates the boat or it's just not what they expected are many. With the Britican Experience, you can gain an insight into the lifestyle to truly determine if it’s a ‘yes’ for all parties involved. Furthermore, getting experience will help you to determine whether now is the time to make your dreams a reality.
For others, it’s something solid to aim for.
The Experience offers the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feelings that come with living the dream. It’s hard to visualize a future lifestyle if you haven’t yet lived it. By spending time aboard Britican, you’ll taste the sea air, hear the sea birds calling, see the white tropical beaches lined with palm trees, and feel the warm sun on your skin. You’ll also taste vinegar and water (it’s the mixture we use to clean everything on the boat), hear the generator purring (to make us water, cook our food and keep our batteries topped up), see the underside of the hull (if the barnacles need to be cleaned off) and feel what it feels like when a job or task takes five hours longer than it should have.
Being a liveaboard cruiser is amazing but it's also hard work.
With the Britican Experience, you get to see the good and the not-so-good. And the not-so-good isn’t bad…it’s just different from what we’ve grown to know and understand. As I always say, you don’t know what you don’t know. Boy – when it comes to owning and maintaining a boat you really don’t know what you don’t know. The Britican Experience will help prospective boat buyers/owners/cruisers to bridge that gap.
The Costings
NOTE THAT WE ARE FULLY BOOKED UNTIL THE END OF NOVEMBER 2022.
From December 2022 to June 2023 we will be cruising around St Martin, Antigua, St Lucia, St Vincent & The Grenadines, and from July to November 2023 we'll be in Grenada. To book, provided spaces are available and your application process is successful, there is a $1,000 non-refundable booking/deposit fee for regular Britican Experience. The currency quoted is in USD. The fees listed below include room and board on Britican for one week with a custom-made itinerary based on you/your family's requirements. See below for exclusions.
Includes the forward v-berth and sole use of forward head.
One couple gets the forward double bed berth and the other couple gets the aft double bed berth. Price is per couple.
Simon is your only host thus making it a 'guys' experience. This option is for the guys that have wives that don't want to sail! The price is per person and up to four guys can book. If you're interested, apply now and we'll get back to you with the dates for the next guy's week.
Free with an accompanying couple (up to two children). There is a $1,000/child extra charge for those 13 to 18 maximum two. Those over 18 are $2,750 each maximum two.
April/May 2023 - The Oyster Regatta in Antigua. Price is per person. Includes shared berth accommodation, breakfast, lunch, race shirts, and all racing fees. In addition to the above exclusions are dinners.
November 2022 - Join us for an open ocean sailing passage including time spent preparing, provisioning, passage planning, and more. Upcoming passages include North America to Bermuda and then Bermuda to St Martin. Apply now if interested. Price is per person sharing a room with one other.
Notes: What is not included are flights, airport transfers, alcohol, excursions (dives, land-based tours, etc.), and any meals eaten out at restaurants. The first 50% is due one month before the experience and the 2nd payment is due one week before (less the deposit). The Experience is 7-days however we are happy to increase it to a 10-day or a 12-day experience. Prices are pro-rated on a daily rate. Note that Special Experiences, like race weeks or long open ocean passages, require a 50% deposit upon booking and may have different time lengths.
Guest Feedback
Frequently Asked Questions
A. Catamarans are great boats. We did not set up our Britican Experience to sell people on the boat but to sell them on the lifestyle. Around 95% of what you’ll learn from us will be the same whether you’re on a Catamaran or Monohull. But saying that, it’s the same with Monohulls – all boats are different and you’ll have to learn how the boat you want to buy is configured. In other words, every boat has a different setup. However, the principles of sailing and more importantly, the lifestyle, are the same no matter what boat you’re in. Furthermore, we know so many Catamaran owners that we’d be able to provide you with a look at Cats while you’re with us.
A. As soon as we confirm the dates that you want are free, you can pay the $1000.00 non-refundable booking fee. You’ll then have to pay 50% of the fee one month before the Experience and the remainder is due one week before you arrive.
A. No. We’re not here to teach by the book. We’re here to show you what life is like living aboard a sailboat. We’re here to give you a fly-on-the-wall look at what it’s really like to be a liveaboard cruiser. You will not find paper charts on our boat (although we do have them in a drawer). No one uses charts any more – all passage planning is done on a plotter or iPad nowadays. And we’re not going to drone on for a full day about how to use every safety mechanism on the boat (although safety is very important to us).
Hey – it’s important to know how to do things the old school way so we definitely advise people to get qualifications. Learn how to do a passage on a paper chart. Learn how to hold a flare in the right way. Learn what every night-time boat light configuration means. And when you want a real-life experiential situation, come join us and we’ll show you what living on a boat is like 😉
More Guest Feedback
"Sailing Britican was more than a vacation on the beach. For a week we tasted a new way of life we didn’t know possible. We couldn’t say it better than Margaret, our four-year-old “being on a boat is the life for me! Wind in my hair, not a care!” With the constant sound of crashing waves, a rocking boat, the sunsets and translucent waters glistening it’s a challenge to pinpoint our favorite moments.
Every moment of every day seemed to gel together helping us to forget our worries on land. Thank you to Kim and Simon for sharing their sailing expertise, introduced us to other sailing families, and a pace of life full of fresh and salty air! Their home is truly a dream, their sailing stories an unforgettable experience! They are generous people who want to share this life with all who dare to seek it. What a phenomenal experience for our family of five. Even our littlest member turned one on Britican, a memory we will cherish forever." Dorothy, Roger, Isla, Margaret & Patrick, Britican Experience February 2020
UPDATE: This family has their boat and they are full liveaboard cruisers. You'll find them sailing off the coast of California, Mexico, and Central America.
And More Feedback!
"We have been following Kim and Simon on YouTube for a while now. So when they introduced the Britican Experience program, we were excited for the opportunity to experience time with them as part of our research before we make the leap into this different lifestyle that we're considering. From the outside looking in, the Britican Experience might seem like any other charter vacation where you get to see the environment of living in a small space and the freedom of being able to pull up anchor and move to the next lovely tropical paradise. The Britican Experience is about immersing yourself in the life and culture of a boat community and the daily practices of having a floating home that moves constantly, the trade-offs you make for this life, and the peace and serenity of a much simpler existence. You are enveloped in the experience as soon as you meet them! When we met the Britican family it was as though we had known them all our life.
For us, the Britican Experience was really about a change in mindset. We became comfortable calling the boat our home, and it became routine to consider how to keep it safe, clean and comfortable. We dined with great people, ate delicious food, planned and prepared for passages, fished, stargazed, chased rays and turtles while snorkeling, raced hermit crabs, trimmed the sails, steered into harbors, and made decisions every day due to the changing conditions and environment. After not too long we were in the swing of things, embracing the need to be flexible, not making decisions based on a schedule, and realizing that a crimson horizon and a cool sundowner are perfect introductions to a lifelong excursion of blue-water bliss.
The Britican Experience is an affirmation, a reality check, a confirmation that this is the lifestyle and life that we indeed are going to pursue. It gave us the confidence that we could reach for and grasp what the Britican crew is experiencing every day.
With heartfelt thanks to Kim, Simon, and Sienna for their hospitality, patience, wisdom and, friendship- we look forward to sharing an anchorage together!" The Lander's Family. Britican Experience February 2020
UPDATE: This family is now living the sailing life. Follow them on their FaceBook page here: Sailing Erin Skye
More Guest Feedback
"First, I can say the experience is an excellent experience and you couldn’t meet nicer people. Simon and Kim customized the week specifically for our needs. We have experience with crewing our own trips thru charters but are restricted to daytime sailing.
Our longest trip prior to the Britican Experience was a one-way trip from St. Lucia to Grenada that was spread over 7 days. Our goal was to gain more offshore experience and understand how cruisers lived. Pulling the trigger on a purchase of a boat is not something you want to do without ample knowledge of the total experience.
Living in Kansas does not generally provide you with accessibility to the lifestyle, the Britican Experience was a great match for our needs.
Passage making - My goals for the passage was to learn and understand:
- watch schedules
- what do you do while on watch,
- can you sleep between watches
- if you get seasick can you function afterward
- will you acclimate to the motion after a few days
- and just observe someone with experience dealing with whatever happens
I had hoped for a challenging squall, moderate seas, and some brisk winds. I can say we met our goals except for the squall, however, I did not specifically request a squall. I’m sure if I had Simon and Kim could have arranged that as well as they accommodated everything we requested and went the extra mile to make the experience perfect.
The watch schedule was 3 hours on and 3 hours off, that worked well for me and I had no issues sleeping while not on watch, in fact I slept better than at home. While on watch we monitored location, heading, sails, wind, AIS, and took a hard look for traffic every 10 minutes. Once we found some traffic it gained all attention until determined it would not be a factor.
I did get seasick at night while attempting to read a Lat/Lon on an unfamiliar chart plotter to make a logbook entry, the 12 hours prior I was fine and 3 hours later I was back to 100%. The next night I spent much time looking at the chart plotter and the iPad for navigation and had zero issues with seasickness, so I feel pretty good with that.
The winds for the trip were a constant 25 to 30 knots on the beam for the first day and night with seas to match. The boat responded with confidence and had no issues with the conditions. We ran the first reef in the main the entire trip and would reef the genoa as appropriate.
Britican has powerful electric furling for the genoa, that was pretty sweet in the conditions and made reefing the genoa under load a nonevent. I felt completely comfortable in the wind and sea state and would have no issue on a longer trip. We arrived in Foulmouth harbor at night and I enjoyed using range lights and lighted buoys to make our path into harbor.
Getting to see the nav aids for real at night and making sure I understood all of what the chart had to offer was a great learning experience for me. Some of it was a bit confusing several miles out but all lined up as we got closer to the entrance." Jon & Jennifer Carr 2019