I chartered the Pagan Star for the week of June 15-22. This was not the first time I have chartered a large boat, having previously chartered boats in the Bahamas and Captiva/Sanibel. All of my prior experiences have been terrific, with very nice boats and great service. On this trip, my family and I drove 900 miles and arrived in Marathon to find the boat in awful condition. Although it was about 7:00 in the evening when we arrived, the inside of the boat was 85 degrees and reeked of diesel. There was mildew growing around all of the windows and one of the windows looked like somebody sprayed something all over it. The refrigerator was filthy, as were the inside of the oven and cabinets. The settee in the salon was covered in some sort of outdoor vinyl and was heavily stained. The icemaker did not work. There was water damage to the wood in various places, indicating that there had been (and probably still was) water leaks in the cabin. In short, the inside of the boat looked NOTHING like the photos on the website. Topside was not much better. There were large barnacles growing on the hull and the swim platform was partially broken. All of the wood looked extremely rough and a couple of the stanchon posts were loose. I immediately decided that there was no way that I was going to spend a week on this boat and I requested that the owner refund the deposit, which he refused to do. His attitude was, "Hey, this is a rental. What do you expect?" For approximately $400/night, I expected a boat in charter condition and the Pagan Star was most definitely not in charter condition. My family and I got back into our car, and drove to Key West to stay in a hotel. What an awful experience!
Pros: I guess it floats--otherwise, no pros
Cons: filthy--didn't want to sit down
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