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07-19-2021, 12:55 PM | #1 |
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 28
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Catalina Charter Review
I went on a 3-day, 3-night Catalina Island spearfishing charter guided by Al Schneppershoff Jr this June. I was very unsatisfied with my experience. The cost was 4 figures for my portion. Here are the issues I had with Al’s charter:
• Clients are expected to pull and drop anchor by hand the entire trip. The 30’ boat does not have a winch. There was even a diver 60+ years of age doing this deckhand work. Guide and Captain would not do this work. This is unacceptable for a professional, high-cost charter. • Al talked to me disrespectfully and unprofessionally on multiple occasions during the trip: o He called me “anchor boy”, and did stop when I made it clear I did not like that. o He asked all the clients what race their girlfriend/wife was. o He told me I need to take spearfishing lessons because I had not shot any fish by the 3rd day. Keep in mind that 3 other divers also went home empty handed. • Did not actively pursue fish. We continually went to the same locations which had yielded no fish on previous days. Zero attempt was made to try more productive locations. • Charter was unlicensed. We were asked to “pretend we were all just friends” because the boat was not authorized to run charters. • 2 pieces of gear were badly damaged/destroyed: o My float line got wrapped up in the propeller, after I had asked the captain if it was safe to deploy my float. I spent 30 minutes diving under the boat, trying to unwrap it until I was forced cut it free, destroying the line. Captain did replace the line, but not the integrated bungee. o The butt of my custom wooden speargun was split while bouncing around haphazardly on deck. The boat did not have a gun rack, bungee system or a bin to safely store guns. Safe gun storage is a basic necessity for a professional spearfishing boat. • Price was changed upon arrival at the harbor, and I ended up overpaying by $168. I would not recommend this charter to anybody. It was unprofessional, and certainly was not worth the high price. |
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