El Grande

El Grande is the biggest boat in the fleet and the one to book when the group will not fit on anything else. She is a Magnum 32: 10.3 metres, twin 300hp Yamahas, and a deck that takes ten guests without anyone sitting on a cooler box. She works out of the V&A Waterfront.

What she carries

Ten guests, plus two crew. Her SAMSA certificate is unusual in stating the split explicitly: two crew, ten passengers. That is the number, and it is the ceiling.

Ten is the point at which a charter changes character. You stop being a group on a boat and start being able to run an event on one: a speech, a cake, a client presentation, a photographer moving around without asking people to shuffle.

Where she is allowed to go

Category B, registration DTR 887. Up to 40 nautical miles offshore, day or night, operating from an approved launch site or harbour along the South African coast in favourable conditions.

The twin 300s matter here. Ten people and a full day of fuel is a lot of weight, and she still gets on the plane quickly and holds a comfortable cruise into a head sea.

What she is used for

• Corporate charters: the default choice, and the reason she earns her keep
• Private charters: larger family groups, milestone birthdays, anything where the guest list grew
• Evening runs: the Table Bay circuit past Granger Bay toward the Milnerton lighthouse, with room for the whole party
• Family days: two families rather than one

For groups beyond ten we run her alongside other boats in the fleet, up to fifty people across the fleet for a big occasion. That is a genuinely different kind of day, and worth talking through on the phone rather than booking blind.

Booking her

Skipper, fuel, safety equipment and water aboard are included. A catering platter is quoted per head when you book, and a photographer or champagne aboard can be arranged on request.

Weather cancellations are always your choice: full refund or a new date. We make the call 48 hours out.