Private Skippered Charters
Take the whole boat, bring up to ten of your favourite people, and let your skipper do the rest. Every Anchor Charters private hire is fully skippered by an RYA commercially endorsed skipper, with fuel, lifejackets and a full briefing included — the price you see is the price you pay.
Where you go is entirely up to you. A half day comfortably takes in two or three destinations, lunch at the Folly Inn, a swim in the shelter of Osborne Bay, an ice cream run to Cowes.
A full day opens up the whole Solent: Yarmouth to Portsmouth, Beaulieu River to Priory Bay, with a proper lunch stop wherever takes your fancy.
And for the days that don't fit a template — Cowes Week, the Bramble Bank cricket match, proposals, milestone birthdays — our bespoke charters are built entirely around you. Just tell us the day you have in mind.
Half Day Charter
From just £47.50 each ·
up to 10 people ·
fuel and skipper included
Morning 09:30–13:00 ·
Afternoon 13:00–16:30
Three and a half hours, the whole boat, and the Solent at your feet — for less than £50 a head when you fill your ten seats.
Choose the morning run and be sipping coffee in Cowes while the water's still glassy, or take the afternoon slot and finish your day golden-hour cruising home.
Either way, your commercially endorsed skipper takes care of everything; you simply choose the adventure — Osborne Bay for a swim, the Folly Inn for lunch, or flat-out across the Solent just because you can.
Half day favourites:
Cowes and the River Medina · Osborne Bay swim stop ·
the Hamble River ·
Hythe and Southampton Water ·
the Beaulieu River.
The price is the price: £475 includes your skipper, fuel, lifejackets and full briefing, with no hidden extras.
It's the perfect length for a birthday on the water, a family occasion, or simply the fastest afternoon your crew will have all summer. Pick your slot, gather your people, and we'll handle the rest.
Full Day Charter
From just £75 each ·
up to 10 people ·
fuel and skipper included
09:30–16:30
Seven hours, the whole Solent, and nowhere you have to be. This is the charter for crews who want it all — a morning blast to Yarmouth while the water's still quiet, a swim in the shelter of Priory Bay, a proper long lunch at a waterside pub, then home the scenic way past Osborne House with the sun behind you.
Your commercially endorsed skipper knows every harbour, anchorage and lunch table worth knowing; tell us the day you're imagining and we'll chart it.
Full day territory:
Yarmouth and the western Solent · Newtown Creek's seal colony · Portsmouth Harbour and the sea forts ·
Priory Bay and the Island's east coast — and, on the right day, the Needles themselves.
At £750 all-in — skipper, fuel, lifejackets and full briefing, no hidden extras — the full day works out at little more than £100 an hour for the entire boat, and just £75 a head with ten aboard.
For a milestone birthday, a family gathering or the best day out your friends will talk about all year, nothing on the Solent comes close. One date, one boat, one unforgettable day.
Bespoke & Event Charters
Up to 10 people ·
fuel and skipper included ·
Priced to your day
Some days don't fit a template — and the Solent's calendar is full of them.
Cowes Week The world's oldest and greatest sailing regatta, and the best view isn't from the shore — it's from the water, in amongst it. We'll put you close to the racing into Cowes for the atmosphere, and home after the fireworks if you wish. One week a year, one boat, ten seats: these dates sell first, every season.
The Bramble Bank Cricket Match Once a year, at the lowest tide, a sandbank in the middle of the Solent dries out just long enough for two yacht clubs to play the world's most improbable cricket match, and then the sea takes the pitch back. There are no tickets and no grandstand; the only way to watch is from a boat, anchored off the bank with a drink in hand as the players wade in. It is gloriously, impeccably English, and we know exactly where to hold.
And Every Other Great Day
Round the Island Race spectating.
Festival arrivals that beat every queue.
A proposal timed to the sunset off Osborne Bay, a corporate day your team actually talks about afterwards, a landmark birthday marked somewhere unforgettable.
Your route, your timings, your ideas — with a skipper who knows exactly how to make them happen.
We can dress the occasion from start to finish: drinks and nibbles on departure, a table booked at the right waterside spot, champagne on the way home.
Every quote is all-inclusive — skipper, fuel and planning — and priced fairly to what your day involves, so there are no surprises after the event.
Secure your date with a 20% deposit, with the balance not due until three weeks before. Call us to talk through your ideas, or send an enquiry and we'll come back within one working day with a plan and a price.
How It Works
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Book or enquire. Half and full days book online in under a minute — pick your date and slot, pay securely, done. Bespoke days start with a conversation.
Tell us your perfect day. Once you're booked, we'll be in touch to talk destinations, swim stops and lunch tables. Undecided? Your skipper's suggestions are half the value of the trip.
Step aboard. Arrive 15 minutes before departure for lifejacket fitting and a short briefing — then the Solent is yours.
In Safe Hands, Every Mile
Every voyage is in expert hands. Your skipper is RYA-qualified and commercially endorsed, with the kind of local knowledge of the Solent that only comes from years at the helm — every sandbank, every tide gate, every story.
Coded, insured, and ready for anything. Our RIB is fully coded for commercial operation — independently inspected and certified to carry passengers at sea — comprehensively insured, and equipped: lifejackets for every guest, VHF radio contact with the coastguard, first aid kit and full safety equipment aboard on every departure.
You're looked after from the moment you step aboard. Every guest is fitted with a lifejacket — properly, by your skipper, not handed one from a pile — and every departure begins with a full safety briefing that's short, clear and worth your attention.
And because no two days on the Solent are the same, your skipper plans each itinerary around the day's wind, tide and sea state: same great trip, always the right route.
Children are welcome from age 8, and every charter can be tailored to the pace of the people aboard — thrill-seekers and gentle cruisers alike.
The Solent Destination Guide
The Solent packs more into a few square miles of water than anywhere in Britain: royal palaces and secret creeks, sailing towns and swimming bays, four centuries of naval history and some of the finest pub moorings in the land. Here's where our guests love to go — organised by the charter that suits each best, with an insider's tip for every stop. Every itinerary is yours to shape; think of this as the menu, not the set meal.
Cowes & the River Medina
The spiritual home of world sailing, and everything a harbour town should be — chandlers and cafés, ice cream on the parade, yachts of every size coming and going. Cruise up the Medina to the Folly Inn for a pontoon-side lunch that's a Solent institution.
Insider's tip: go mid-morning midweek and you'll have the Parade almost to yourselves; during Cowes Week, you won't — and that's the point.
Pairs well with: an Osborne Bay swim on the way home.
The Hamble River
The busiest sailing river in Britain slows everything down to six knots and gives you the full parade: classic yachts, race boats, waterside pubs stacked one after another. Pure boat-watching heaven.
Insider's tip: time it for a rising tide and carry on up to the top of the river — the quiet upper reaches are the bit most visitors never see.
Pairs well with: a fast lap of Southampton Water on the way back.
Hythe & Southampton Water
The world's shipping on your doorstep: container giants, cruise liners and the ferry ballet of a great working port, with pretty Hythe — and the oldest pier train in the world — on the western shore.
Insider's tip: check the cruise schedule; departure days put 300-metre liners alongside you at eye level, which nobody forgets.
Pairs well with: our D-Day Heritage Tour route — ask your skipper for the stories as you go.
Perfect for a Half Day Charter
Osborne Bay
Queen Victoria's private beach, in effect — the sheltered bay below Osborne House where the royal children learned to swim. Drop anchor, swim, picnic, and enjoy one of the Solent's best views from the water, exactly as the Royal Family once did.
Insider's tip: the bay faces north-east, so it's at its calm, sunlit best on a south-westerly breeze — which the Solent supplies most days.
Pairs well with: Cowes, ten minutes round the corner.
The Beaulieu River
The New Forest by water — a slow, beautiful river winding past Bucklers Hard, the village that built Nelson's ships. Herons, curlews and, if you're lucky, the resident seal.
Insider's tip: the river reveals itself best two hours either side of high water; your skipper will time it without being asked.
Pairs well with: a blast along the mainland shore past Calshot on the way home.
Yarmouth & the Western Solent
A gem of a harbour town — crab sandwiches on the quay, boutique shops, a proper pier — reached by a glorious run down the Island's north shore past Newtown and Gurnard.
Insider's tip: book lunch ahead in summer; your skipper can recommend and we can reserve as part of any bespoke charter.
Pairs well with: Newtown Creek on the way, the mainland shore on the way home.
Portsmouth Harbour & the Sea Forts
History at full volume: in one run you'll pass the Victorian sea forts, enter the Royal Navy's home harbour past warships at their berths, and moor beneath the Spinnaker Tower at Gunwharf Quays for lunch and shopping.
Insider's tip: entering harbour, keep eyes left for HMS Victory's masts and HMS Warrior on the waterfront — the greatest naval skyline in the world, best seen from a small boat.
Pairs well with: a hold at the Spithead anchorage for the D-Day story on the way.
The Needles
The Island's iconic chalk stacks and their candy-striped lighthouse, rising out of the tide at the Solent's western gate. A proper sea passage there and back — and worth every mile.
Insider's tip: this is a conditions-dependent destination and genuinely better for it; when your skipper says it's a Needles day, cancel your afternoon.
Pairs well with: Yarmouth for a triumphant late lunch.
Full Day Charters
Newtown Creek
The Solent's secret: a National Trust nature reserve of silent saltmarsh and winding channels, five minutes and a hundred years from the main shipping lane. Anchor, swim, picnic — and keep watch for the seal colony.
Insider's tip: arrive over high water when the whole creek system opens up; it's also the calmest swimming you'll find on a breezy day.
Pairs well with: Yarmouth for lunch afterwards.
Priory Bay & the Island's East Coast
The Solent's answer to the Caribbean on the right day — a sweep of sheltered, tree-backed sand near Seaview, reachable only sensibly by boat, and rarely more than a handful of people on it.
Insider's tip: north-east of the bay the sand shelves gently for swimmers; your skipper knows exactly where to lie.
Pairs well with: the Appley Manor Escape — you're practically there.
Days the Calendar Makes
Cowes Week (early August)
The world's oldest sailing regatta, watched from the best seat there is — the water. Racing by day, Cowes buzzing by evening, fireworks to finish.
[Enquire for Cowes Week →]
The Bramble Bank Cricket Match (one tide a year)
A cricket match on a sandbank that exists for an hour — played since living memory between two yacht clubs, watched only by boats. We know where to anchor and when.
[Enquire →]
Round the Island Race, festivals & fireworks
One day, 1,000-plus yachts racing round the Isle of Wight; summer festivals with arrivals by sea; firework nights watched from flat calm water. If it's on the Solent's calendar, we'll build your day around it.
[Tell us your date →]