Use of Superyacht for Charity - Anyone heard of this?

buel10 · 12 April 2019 at 7:49AM

Hi all,
I am launching a charity event in a month's time, yesterday I was contacted by a Jay Patel of White Star Charter who offered a free 3 day use of one of his superyachts in Mallorca as a prize for our raffle that we are having.

I suspected that there must be a catch....

I found, not a catch as such, but the winner would have to pay the costs of £350 per day fuel, food costs, etc.

Link to the company here:
http://www.chartervalencia.com/elegant_star/_aboutus.php.html

I was wondering if anyone has heard of these people?

Thanks.

Hasbeen · 12 April 2019 at 9:10AM

buel10 wrote: »

Hi all,
I am launching a charity event in a month's time, yesterday I was contacted by a Jay Patel of White Star Charter who offered a free 3 day use of one of his superyachts in Mallorca as a prize for our raffle that we are having.

I suspected that there must be a catch....

I found, not a catch as such, but the winner would have to pay the costs of £350 per day fuel, food costs, etc.

Link to the company here:
http://www.chartervalencia.com/elegant_star/_aboutus.php.html

I was wondering if anyone has heard of these people?

Thanks.

So the lucky winner has to pay for flights to Mallorca then over a £1000?

Sorry wont be buying, in case I am lucky enough to win :rotfl:

buel10 · 12 April 2019 at 9:35AM

Hasbeen wrote: »

So the lucky winner has to pay for flights to Mallorca then over a £1000?

Sorry wont be buying, in case I am lucky enough to win :rotfl:

Yes, this was my point. But my question is what’s in it for them? Why would they do this?
Interestingly, I’ve seen some very disparaging remarks online about Mr Patel.

Owain_Moneysaver · 12 April 2019 at 9:53AM

buel10 wrote: »

Yes, this was my point. But my question is what’s in it for them? Why would they do this?

(a) publicity
(b) they get 3 days costs paid they probably can't sell otherwise.

It's not the point of a superyacht, but if it doesn't move out of harbour there shouldn't be any fuel costs, and there won't be any food costs if you advertise it as self-catering, although the usual terms appear to include a cook-housekeeper on board.

£350 per day is actually very reasonable assuming it's for the yacht not per person, as the yacht sleeps 8 guests.

If your charity has sufficient profile you might be able to get another business in the area (perhaps one of the yacht's existing suppliers) to donate food as a prize so you can make up an inclusive package.

Savvy_Sue · 14 April 2019 at 1:55AM

We've had safaris offered as auction prizes on a similar basis. It seems to have worked OK for us.

Mistral001 · 14 April 2019 at 11:52PM

I think the OP could have misunderstood what was on "offer" here. Surely the set up is that the charity pays the £350 per day. With such a glamourous, prize it could be easy to sell tickets worth three or four times that amount in sales of raffle tickets if the tickets were being sold to the right people.

Savvy_Sue · 15 April 2019 at 1:02AM

Mistral001 wrote: »

I think the OP could have misunderstood what was on "offer" here. Surely the set up is that the charity pays the £350 per day. With such a glamourous, prize it could be easy to sell tickets worth three or four times that amount in sales of raffle tickets if the tickets were being sold to the right people.

Ah, that is true. I think that is the deal with the safaris: we (the charity) pays up-front and recoup our payment with the bids.

Owain_Moneysaver · 15 April 2019 at 9:23AM

Mistral001 wrote: »

I think the OP could have misunderstood what was on "offer" here. Surely the set up is that the charity pays the £350 per day.

Depending on the charity's internal rules, charity registration, or gambling rules, it might be illegal for the charity to pay for prizes and all prizes might have to be donated.

yinhong · 18 April 2019 at 1:01AM

Hi, have recent experience of this offer.

Jay sets a reserve of £3,000 (which he takes home himself from the winning auction bid) and the charity keeps the 'profit' above that. And as mentioned above, the winning bidders still have to pay for flights, fuel, food, docking costs etc, which works out at roughly £100/person/day (excluding flights).

It is a genuine offer but we won't be doing it again as, in my opinion, it's not worth it for the charity, unless you are going to have super rich clients attending your charity event. In the end our charity only made £1,000, which I think we could have easily made without the prize.

Up to you to decide risks/benefit though.

Owain_Moneysaver · 18 April 2019 at 9:58AM

yinhong wrote: »

Hi, have recent experience of this offer.

Jay sets a reserve of £3,000 (which he takes home himself from the winning auction bid) and the charity keeps the 'profit' above that.

There are several big differences in law between an auction and a raffle, which can affect both the charity and the purchaser/winner.

Omega_Supreme · 17 October 2019 at 4:33PM

Hi Folks,

We were approached by this {Edited by Forum team} too. He's going by another name as well: {Edited by Forum team} (which seems like a p***take when you Google it)

Similar story to above: two yachts, crew complement, £2,950 needed for him to "donate" his boats blah, blah. Gave some spiel about how his sick child inspired him to give back to the community etc., but if that were true, I doubt he would be a) looking at this as a business model where charities do the leg work for him and secure bookings and foot the bill and b) involved with the long list of charities he claims to have "helped". This is clearly a guy using unthinking charities to provide him with clients.

A quick search also reveals that on GlassDoor, employees are calling him a {Edited by Forum team}. We had a copy and pasted email from him where he simply edited the company name and dates of our fundraising ball, which rang alarm bells but the AWFUL websites and links provided confirmed our suspicions. There's nothing here which looks remotely legitimate but I gather he is somehow making it happen and thus trying his luck on the rest of us.

Ultimately, from a point of principle, if you are raising funds, are you happy to tell everyone bidding that they aren't actually giving what they think to your good cause but instead paying a yacht owner who couldn't care less? It's also very misleading to everyone else who believes that you just raised £3k for what you do.

Use of Superyacht for Charity - Anyone heard of this?

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