02 · YOU AT THE HELM
Everyone's a host. Three flavours.
Pick the one that matches how you sail.
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CAT HERDER HOST
Your trip. Your crew. Your week.
You've already got eight friends and a date. You don't need the platform to find anyone — you need it to handle the page, the money, and the cancellation policy. Same boat price as broker-direct, sometimes with a small platform discount.
See the mechanics ↓ -
REP HOST
Your trip. Mixed crew. The people you'd never otherwise meet.
You've got the idea and half the crew. The hard part is filling the rest of the cabins with people who actually want the same week. BYOC does that — likeminded crew self-select via your trip's vibe and constraints. You earn Cash Back when the trip closes.
See the mechanics ↓ -
SKIPPER HOST
Your trip. You at the helm. Paid for the work.
You can handle the boat you've hired — RYA Day Skipper is the usual floor; owner-skippers often have nothing formal, and operators take the call. Sail your own week with a filled crew — your sleeping berth comp'd by the operator, skipper fee out of trip economics.
See the mechanics ↓
OR · JOIN A TRIP
Not ready to host? Join someone else's.
Sign up as crew and we'll tell you when a host lists a trip that fits your destination, week and vibe — before the trip goes public.
SIGN-UP OFFER €50 off your first trip, just for joining the crew list.
03 · A WORKED EXAMPLE
Meet Helen. She's a Rep Host.
Helen is an architect in Manchester. She sails most summers with the same five friends — except this year, two of them couldn't take Saturday-to-Saturday, and she still wanted a Croatian week in late August.
She listed the trip on BYOC in twenty minutes. Split base, Lagoon 42 or similar, vibe set to "quiet evenings, no-stag, first-timers welcome." The platform suggested a trip name (Dalmatian Slow Lane), generated the page, and gave her a shareable URL she sent to her four confirmed friends on WhatsApp. They reserved cabins in a day.
Within ten days, two applicants surfaced from the BYOC cohort — a couple from Berlin and a solo sailor from Cork. Both had passed her constraint filters before they appeared on her dashboard. She approved both with a click. The trip hit viability at week three. The platform collected deposits and balances on auto-rails. Helen wrote zero chasing emails.
She sailed her week. The boat was a 2024 Lagoon 42 from the same operator SailChecker books for whole-boat charters. Cash Back of €890 landed three weeks after the trip ended — her first hosting trip on the books, with two more queued for next season.
What Helen actually did: wrote the trip page. Said yes
twice. Sailed.
What BYOC did: everything else.
04 · ROLE MECHANICS
The details, per role.
Everything each helms person gets. Open the role that matches you.
CAT HERDER HOST Your trip, your crew. Toolkit, no cohort.
Your trip, your crew. Toolkit, no cohort.
For groups who've already self-assembled. You bring all eight people yourself; the platform takes the admin off your back.
- Trip page built for you — boats and photos curated from the operator catalogue
- Modern fleet only — yachts ≤4 years old
- Vetted skipper available from the BYOC pool — RYA Day Skipper or equivalent (operator-dependent)
- Pay-by-Bank checkout — 3-stage automatic (hold → deposit → balance)
- Auto-refund if the trip doesn't reach viability by D-90
- Same per-cabin price as booking via SailChecker direct
- Friends-only — no cohort surfacing, no Cash Back
REP HOST Your trip + mixed crew. The load-bearing tier.
Your trip + mixed crew. The load-bearing tier.
For people with the trip idea and half the crew. The platform fills the rest, takes care of the money, and pays you Cash Back when the trip closes.
Everything in Cat Herder Host, plus:
- Discoverable on byoc.sailchecker.com — homepage, filters, destination pages
- Crew constraint chips — set the tone (no-stag, LGBTQIA+, quiet-evenings, etc.) before joiners apply
- Avatar + nickname for the trip page — front yourself by handle, not surname
- Cash Back when the trip closes — 20% trip 1, climbing to 50% by trip 3+. See the maths →
- No host fee, no listing fee — platform takes only its operator commission
SKIPPER HOST Your trip + you at the helm. Sleeping berth comp'd, paid for the work.
Your trip + you at the helm. Sleeping berth comp'd, paid for the work.
For people who can handle the boat they hire. Operator decides what's needed — RYA Day Skipper is the common floor, owner-skippers with experience often have no formal certificate at all.
Everything in Rep Host, plus:
- Sail your week for free — your sleeping berth (the skipper's bunk) is comp'd by the operator. Guests reserve full cabins; you don't share a cabin unless you choose to.
- Skipper fee out of trip economics — you don't invoice your friends
- Skipper profile on the trip page — your CV is part of the social proof
- Insurance + paperwork handled by the operator
05 · THE PROCESS
How it works
- 1. Submit either form below — Chris replies within the day.
- 2. We set up the trip page together. Approved without uploads if your quals are on file.
- 3. You get a shareable URL — WhatsApp / email to your friends.
- 4. Trip confirms at 3 of 4 cabins reserved. You sail.
06 · FAQ
Questions you might be sitting on.
What if not enough friends fill the cabins?
Trip needs 3 of 4 cabins reserved to confirm. If it doesn't reach that by 90 days before the trip start, BYOC auto-refunds every reservation in full — including your friends' £100 holds and any deposits paid. No emails to write, no awkward conversations. The platform handles it.
What if I don't have a skipper licence?
No problem. Pick "BYOC-pool skipper" on the form — we assign a vetted skipper from our network. Qualification is operator-dependent: RYA Day Skipper is the common floor, owner-skippers with experience often have no formal certificate at all. The operator decides what's acceptable. Their sleeping berth comes out of the operator's all-in fee — guests still reserve full cabins.
Cabin or berth — what am I actually buying?
A cabin. Your own private room with a door, twin or double bunk depending on the boat. You only share if you bring a partner. Joiners from the BYOC cohort don't share your cabin — they book one of the other cabins.
"Berth" is a different concept that you'll see in operator small-print. A berth is a single sleeping place. The skipper's berth is the small bunk reserved for whoever's driving the boat — operators include it in their all-in fee and it doesn't take a cabin off your guest list.
What does my friend actually see when they click the link?
A trip page like this one — your trip name + vibe, cabin progress (X of 4 reserved), pricing, and a "Reserve for £100" button. Pay-by-Bank takes ~30 seconds via Revolut Merchant. They get an email confirmation immediately.
When does money actually move?
Three stages, all automatic. (1) £100 reservation hold when each friend books a cabin — fully refundable. (2) 50% deposit when the trip reaches viability (3 of 4 cabins) — triggers operator confirmation. (3) Balance at D-60 (60 days before sailing) — covers everything else. You see the live state on the trip page + on the Bitrix deal card.
What about cancellation?
BYOC's policy matches operator constraints honestly: full refund of the £100 hold until viability. After viability, the 50% deposit covers operator commitment and is non-refundable unless the trip itself fails (operator pulls out, force majeure). Optional cancel-anytime extension upsell at ~5–10% of cabin price gives you and your friends a fuller flexibility window. The page shows every refund condition before any money moves.
What's the difference between host guests and platform guests?
Your trip page distinguishes two kinds of crew:
- Host guests — friends you've invited directly. They reach the trip via the URL you've WhatsApp'd or emailed them. Your warm circle.
- Platform guests — likeminded strangers from the BYOC cohort who self-select via your trip's vibe + crew constraints, then reserve a remaining cabin. They reach the trip via the public homepage / discovery.
Both pay the same per-cabin price. The distinction is primarily about the Cash Back — if you choose to split, you decide whether platform guests are included or only host guests get a slice. Other implications (privacy filters, visibility, etc.) are open product design questions Chris is still working through; bring them up in conversation.
Can I share my Cash Back with the crew?
Yes — for organising hosts. (Skipper hosts earn Cash Back progressively across the trip stages rather than as a single end-of-trip payout — the mechanics differ.) At trip setup you pick how the share is handled:
- Keep — you take the full 20% / 30% / 50%. Default.
- Equal split — divide your share equally across paying crew. You pick the scope: just host guests (your own friends), or host + platform guests (everyone on the trip equally). Common for "this is for fun not profit" friend-group hosts.
- Custom split — you specify per-guest percentages. Useful if some friends did more legwork on logistics than others, or you want to reward your host guests more than platform guests.
- Donate — direct the share to a cause you pick. Sailing-related charities work; broker confirms eligibility.
You still do the building / organising work regardless of which option you pick. The choice is purely about who receives the deferred share when the trip closes out.
What if I want to back out before the trip page goes live?
Just reply to the confirmation email and say so. Nothing's locked in until your trip page is published with your explicit approval. The register-interest form here costs you nothing.