Is The Bluewater 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 don’t know who we are, check out one of our 200+ YouTube videos. 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 30,000 nautical miles circumnavigating the Mediterranean, crossing the Atlantic and sailing the US east coast and the Caribbean (twice). We’re a family of three.
Captain & First Mate
The Admiral
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 bluewater 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 can be 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 a full week.
Depending on what you/your partner/your family are looking for we’ll create a weeklong 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 bluewater 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 bluewater 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 a week 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.
And some of our guests just want to have a truly unique and wonderful experience.
We've had guests that don't want a boat but they do want to experience the lifestyle. In some cases, their partner isn't interested or it's just not economically feasible. That's fine too! We love to share our lifestyle with anyone interested in the bluewater cruising world.
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 actually not 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
To book, provided spaces are available, there's a $1,000 non-refundable booking/deposit fee. Currency quoted is in USD. The fees include room and board on Britican for one week with a custom made itinerary based on you/your family's requirements. 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 to a 10-day or a 14-day experience. Prices are pro-rated on a daily rate.
Includes the forward v-berth and sole use of forward head.
Includes forward v-berth and sole use of the forward head. A $1,250 reduction is offered if you are interested in sharing the berth and we can find another person interested in your dates.
Includes one or both of the bunk beds in the forward side cabin with shared use of the forward v-berth head.
Free with an accompanying couple (up to two children).
Antigua Sailing Week per person. Includes shared berth accommodation, breakfast, lunch, race shirts, and all racing fees. In addition to the above exclusions are dinners.
More 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 😉
And 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