Q: WHEN MAY I BOARD MY CHARTER BOAT? WHEN DO I GO THROUGH A BOAT CHECKOUT PROCEDURE?(Our most frequently asked questions.) A: Our goal is to always have your boat ready for you to board the afternoon before your charter begins. This is done as a courtesy so you do not have to make hotel arrangements for the night and there is no extra charge. We also try to check you out on the boat the afternoon or evening before your charter begins so you are ready for a crack of dawn departure should that be your desire. Often, depending on our departure and arrival schedule, one can leave late afternoon or early evening for a not to distant moorage. Again, this is a courtesy Not A Guarantee. Occasionally there is a unforeseen issue that does not allow early boarding, such as a maintenance glitch; someone requested our maintenance day as a departure or return date to make their charter work; your boat was returned several hours late; 3 to 5 boats are all returned the same afternoon; or a boat comes back filthy and takes 10 to 12 hours to clean. We are very sorry if it turns out to be your boat, but it almost always is due to circumstances beyond our control and we will have your boat ready on the actual charter start date unless it is caused by a mechanical failure. Our cleaning crew starts cleaning the first boat back on a given day and then cleans the next boat available considering the next days departure schedule. In summary, about 95% of the time early boarding is available. If everyone were to return the courtsey by returning at 12:noon and be off their boat by 2:00pm we could provide early boarding 98%+ of the time. As you can surmise, we are unable to tell you when you will be able to board until after 12:noon the day before your charter departure date. We will have a primary and secondary phone number you can call after 12:noon for that days boarding and checkout schedule. For the 2006 season our primary operations people are Jim Clemmons @ 907-321-6820 and secondly 907-321-6821, either of which will try to help answering questions and resolve issues. Our Primary phone numbers are on our home page and included in our final payment received email. We encourage you to print either of the above and have available when arriving in Juneau. Q: WHEN MUST OUR CHARTER BOAT BE RETURNED? A: We require that you return to the harbor fuel dock by 12:noon to refuel and have your gear off the boat by 2:pm.(assume an hour for refueling) This allows us time to clean, do routine maintenance, and work on punch list items on all that days returning boats. This normally allows us to respond positively to each charter groups request for early boarding. It takes from 3 to 6 hours to clean a boat depending on size and assuming it comes back reasonably clean. It takes 1 to 3 hours for routine maintenance and about 2 hours to clean the exterior. With only one day for maintenance we must insist in "on time" boat returns. Without adherence to our return policy it is impossible to access and fix all punch list items. As punch list items aggregate no one is happy. Ultimatley the priviledge of early boarding would be jeopardized as we must have time to remediate punch list issues. We will charge a $40 fee for each full hour a boat is late. We do not want to collect a dime of this, we just need the boats back on time so we can provide a clean, well maintained, and fully functional boat to the next early boarding charter group. Q: WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DO I NEED TO CHARTER A BOAT FROM NORDIC TUG CHARTERS? A: Our customers must have power boat experience on larger boats, or someone in your charter group must have experience. Our top priority is safety and that obviously requires experience and competence. For those who need a brush up on basics, or simply need to learn the basics, we reccomend the following on line course at www.americasboatingcourse.com. Beyond that, give us a call and we can discuss several possibilities that could allow you to book a charter with us. We also have a short list of USCG qualified skippers that have years of experience in S.E. Alaskan waters. You can read each of there biographical sketches on our web site. Their services are available as charter boat skippers and each are familier with both Nordic Tugs, trip itineraries, and fishimg areas and techniques. They are willing instructors and you can learn hands on about safty issues and piloting a trawler in Alaska waters. Q: WHY DO YOU CHARGE AN INSURANCE FEE? A: In each of the past two years we have absorbed significant increases in our costs to insure the fleet. The outlook is for more increases according to our insurance folks. We have made a decision to take steps in the direction of self insuring and be even more cautious about who we allow to charer our boats. We also need to be prepared for the possibility of a significant increase in our deductible or insurance company refusal to underwrite bareboat charters completely. Our fee will be held in an insurance account to help offset increasing fees and to help support our customers for costs incurred over todays deductible amounts. Q: WHY DO YOU HAVE A MANDATORY "STAPLES PACKAGE"? A: We provide a mandatory package because of the following objectives: We are able to better control what products are used on our boats. For instance, we do not want bleach based products on board. We have had more than one negative experience because of bleach. (It is very expensive for a customer to replace a bleach spotted carpet.) We do not want thick multi ply toilet paper used. We have had waste tank mechanisms jammed because of its use. Dial soap leaves a a scum on our shower walls that is very difficult to clean after it dries. These are just a few examples. Suffice it to say we have specific reasons for most of the products we put in our package for your use. In addition, we have designed a data based formula that will determine how much of each item your charter will need based on the number of people in your party and the number of days in your charter. Additional benefits are: We know what you need; We buy wholesale; We prevent you from over buying, forgeting or running out of something; It will probably cost you the same or less than buying at local retail and save you shopping time. Case closed!
