Captain Yuri Trip 1 out 5 stars BEWARE

[wideopenoutdoors]

Update for clarification: Capt. Yuri was not our captain for this trip.

Recently i had the opportunity to go on a charter with Two Fish charters AKA Captain Yuri, it didn't go well and they are many things that happened that should be addressed. Many of you may have been on a Yuri trip and will read this and have doubts, but this is what happened to us. My father has been fishing on Florida's gulf coast since he was a child on both commercial and recreational boats, i have been raised similar and we have learned from my grandfather who has spent a lifetime running his own commercial boats. The other four guys were all very experienced fisherman. We are all extremely disappointed in the quality and quantity of fish and the unprofessionalism of the whole operation. We didn't pay this huge money for the problems we experienced nor a pile of yellowtails and a few medium sized wahoo and a single black grouper. We understand its fishing and things happen, but what we experienced was beyond this.


In November someone posted on a local FB fishing page that they had two spots open in his six person charter on Captain Yuri's new boat the "Magic" for December 13-15. I messaged the guy and said my father and I will take them we just have to get our work situations arranged. Once we had work figured out we messaged the guy  and he had the captain send us an invoice. We received an invoice that had dates listed from September of this year. We weren't going to pay a invoice for a trip that already happened so we had to have Yuri send a new invoice, with the corrected dates and we paid immediately.  We continued to prep and the week before we went we tried to call Yuri and ask questions, no response so we left a voicemail saying we were going on his charter the coming week and we had some questions and a phone number he could call us back at, never got a call back....

We head down the Thursday before and stay in Marathon. The Friday we were supposed to leave we make our way to the dock and are a little lost. We finally spot the "Lauren Jeane" at the marina but no "Magic". There's a man scrubbing the boat so my father goes and talks to him briefly. My father comes back and says "he said that Capt. Chris took the magic out with his family for the day and we are going on the "Lauren Jeane' and we can bring our stuff down. We unload the truck with all of our stuff and head down to the boat. The other guys had spent the night on the boat so they came out and we met them and talked about the trip and then they left to get some last minute supplies. We loaded our stuff on the boat and the guy scrubbing says we should be out by 2 P.M. We were supposed to be leaving at noon...



So my father and i check out the boat and were actually disappointed. The boat is in complete disarray, there's gear every, hooks, knives, trash, old food from previous trips, a 38 was just laid out on the counter in a gun bag etc etc. The wiring was a disaster, wires and breakers piggybacked everywhere, not insulated, stuff just thrown in around the wire panels and the open wires. The EPIRB was mounted about 8 feet up the cabin wall, good luck reaching that in an emergency... and it appeared to be a personal locator beacon rather than an EPIRB that's designed to be registered to a vessel. We were glad we brought our satellite communicator.   The guys come back and we tell them what we were told. My fathers getting pissed because we spent huge money for a trip that was supposed to be jam up and its turning out bad... So now its 11/11:30 so my father and i go to get something to eat from the Perry Hotels restaurant. As soon as we sit down someone comes by the boat and starts messing with it and explaining things to the other guys, thinking its the captain I go down there and try to join the conversation but he dismisses me and i have to follow him into the cabin to talk to him, I explain to him that we are after trophy sized Black Grouper, Mutton Snapper and Red Grouper. He responds "Well i'm a Mutton man" and dismisses me to go see about the high water alarm. I return to where my father his sitting and tell him. We finish eating and go back to the boat where another man has joined the mix. He says he is the usual captain since Yuri doesn't run as many charters anymore. He says the guy that joined earlier is going to be running the trip, and then says we will have TWO CAPTAINS. Ever see a ship with two captains....... He brings out a women and says shes captain in training (spoiler: this was a huge lie). Then the woman, Brandy, and the trips captain leave to go get food and bait.

The usual captain gets things ready on the boat while my father and i ask him questions.He says because of the regulations we cant keep grouper in the Atlantic and we can only have one days catch in the Gulf, everyone is super disappointed and pissed off at this point. When asked about the "Magic" he said it was broken. My father asks the usual captain about fire extinguishers and he gets an almost offended look followed by "there's one there and there". When he asks about a life raft he is told the boat wont sink.... The Captain and Brandy return with food and bait. The the usual captain comes to us and says there's a problem. The generator lost a leg and we had to wait for an electrician. The electrician finally arrives and diagnosis a broken breaker, he tells us tat its a 100 amp breaker with 50 AMP wiring, which tells us that there's a problem some where else. He fixes it and says be careful with the A/C and turn the ice maker off. The usual captain is ready to send us off around 4 p.m with the promise to stay out longer on sunday.

We ask the captain to high speed troll for wahoo and he says no and ignores us, some protesting later he finally agrees and we set out some lures on the south side of the Marquesas near Rebecca Shoals. We troll for a about a half hour and pick up two nice wahoo. The Captain hammers down and takes us south of the fort and sets the anchor out. When he set the anchor out he just pulled up to the coordinates and threw the anchor, no effort was made to actually anchor us over the structure or near the structure.We ask how deep and he says " All the way to the bottom" and ignores us. We ask him again and my father gets more forceful and he finally says about 78 feet. We don't do well at the spot and we catch  a few decent yellowtails and some red grouper we throw back. The sharks are terrible. We go to move and he just breaks the anchor loose with the engines and continues to throttle down to the next spot while dragging the anchor beside and behind the boat. I understand this is standard practice on many boats, however in 3-4 seas broadside its a bit risky. We continue to move spot to spot with the same type of result, the captain being increasingly difficult to deal with, at one point my father had to remind the captain that we brought zipties....


Around 11 we re all in the cabin eating dinner- which we had to cook- when we smelled electrical fire. Smoke started coming from the generator room. We ripped the door open and yelled at the captain to come down. The same breaker that was replaced and the one below it were melted and the insulation on the wires was burned and smoldering. The posts were broke off. The ice machine was still on, full tilt. The captain said he could fix it with a spare he found in the other engine room. We asked him to keep the generator off during the night bc it was cool enough to not need the A/C and during the day we would be more alert and able to respond faster if the generator caught in fire again. He ignored all of us and turned the generator on and went up to the wheel house...

We continued to catch decent sized yellowtails, a few muttons, lots of sharks and shark break offs. My father caught two stud King fish , by 10 PM Brandy disappeared to the wheel house and we only saw her a total of about 2 hours the rest of the trip. Around midnight my father went to sleep. Around 1 PM we were running about 17 knots through increasingly heavy seas dragging the anchor, when we caught a lobster trap.... I was standing in the cabin looking across the back deck through the window when the anchor lone whipped across the deck and the last 2 guys on deck desperately tried to save the poles in the transom rod holders from being broken or ripped over board by the rope. I ran out to help them as they yelled at the captain to stop. That's when we learned he was running with the auto pilot on and playing on his phone, either teris or watching a movie.... Now we are all nervous, running at night with no spotlight is dangerous enough, couple it with increasingly high seas, in a remote area where stuff could be in  the water and not to mention that the autopilot could trip out and try to turn the boat and flip us over if he doesn't catch it in time- being that its a catamaran, at least the radar was on even if he wasn't looking at it. We had to drag the anchor in while he reversed into the anchor and cleared it from the trap. We fished a few more spots with no luck due to sharks and poor effort by the captain. The seas were steadily building.

We finally went to sleep around 3AM frustrated and tired.

We woke up around sunrise and fished for a bit. It was extremely rough, 4-6 foot swells with the occasional 8 footer mixed in. My father became so seasick he had to lay in the bunk the rest of the trip. The captain continued to use the same tactics as the previous night, targeting patch reefs and rough bottom with limited effort into anchoring. He put more effort into finding fish and gave us some advice about how to target the areas. Finally we went in by the fort for about a half hour and fished and the we spotted a coast guard cutter in the distance, about 3 minutes after that the captain fired up the engines with no warning and hauled #### away, super shady. And back to the deep water we went. We only got a few nice muttons and a bunch of decent yellow tails on saturday, the night was a repeat with more raised tempers and the captain continuing to be difficult to deal with not putting in effort. When asked about going to the gulf side multiple times so we could keep red grouper he either ignored us or brushed it off saying stuff about us keeping more yellowtails. Saturday night was dismal, nothing brought to the boat, he kept us over sand claiming to not realize the current shifted our position......


The next morning my father felt better and we all told the captain we needed fish... He actually put in effort and we caught a few big amberjacks, a few huge muttons, and my father caught nice black grouper. Around 11, he said no more fishing and that we were going back.  We all got mad and said no, there's still time we will high speed troll, to this he got irritated but realized he was had to. We finally stopped to troll, after 45 minutes we caught one wahoo and then he immediately said that's enough and throttled down to key west.

When we approached the dock the engines and transmissions broke and we slammed into the dock. Yuri happened to be there so we confronted him when he came to check on the boat. It turns out that Yuri and his family took the "Magic" out while we were out. They did amazing and were even in contact with our captain the entire time, they caught a whole pile of fish and even had the audacity to brag about it when they saw us knowing we didn't do nearly as well as we had hoped and had a multitude of problems....

It turns out, his captains license wasn't valid and he was using the girls license, even though she slept the entire time. The captain ran the boat way to fast for the sea conditions, and didn't put in any effort to putting us on fish or paying attention to what was going on. . Everytime we moved the high water alarm went off and we had to pump the boat out, the generator caught on fire, and the engines started making serious howling sounds as the trip went on, making us extremely nervous given the amount of experience we all have and the things we know that could go wrong and end in disaster. At several points the captain set the autopilot ran us full throttle in super heavy seas and came down and hung out in the cabin, leaving Brandy at the wheel, whom was almost incapacitated. We felt like we were treated like tourists and that Yuri just sold the charter found a captain and washed his hands of us. When confronted at the dock  all Yuri did was defend the captains actions, even the dangerous ones and pointed to our medium sized pile of fish.  Not something I Would expect from someone like him....  

[Benni3]

Not good,,,,, but you can go fishing with me on the 29th in stuart,,,,,,,,

[Alto Mare]

You took a heck heck a change, considering what you saw in the beginning.
I'm glad all came back safe.

Your boat you signed for wasn't available, you should have asked for a refund and moved on.


Sal

[Maxed Out]

 Sounds like a scary ordeal. Glad you made it back in one piece.

I'm guessing if the boat was inspected by dof and coast guard, it would have failed miserably

[David Hall]

Wow, scary and dangerous.  Glad you all made it back to the dock safely.

[foakes]

I am certainly sorry to hear about your disappointing  fishing trip WOO --

You, your Dad, and the others were fortunate to not have a tragedy while on board.

This brings up other questions -- as well as cautions, that any of us have a responsibility to heed.

First -- you and your Dad obviously have deep experience on vessels and offshore safety.  Why didn't you and your Dad call it -- and not board the vessel?  The fish and the money already paid -- are not worth your lives.  From the disarray, sloppiness, lack of proper safety protocols, and no professionalism you observed -- not to mention the electrical problems...this trip was a time bomb waiting to explode.  One spark could have easily set off a tragedy.  Can't understand with your family's experience -- why would you even go out?  With the number of red flags you observed -- it is a mystery why you went out with that boat and crew?

Second -- At the end of the day, we are each responsible for our own safety, as well as that of our friends and family.  We cannot give that responsibility to others -- especially when our common sense knows better.  These obvious deficiencies -- never improve offshore -- instead they multiply into oftentimes hopeless, and life-threatening scenarios.

Third -- Hopefully you have documented this experience into an official concern and complaint with the USCG?  These types of issues are taken seriously -- and you could very well be saving other's lives by following through with an official complaint.

Whether on a vessel, plane, bus, train, or any other situation where operators are supposed to be responsible, safe, prepared, cautious, and experienced -- it is our responsibility, based on personal judgement -- that we need to rely on and listen to...

You were fortunate -- and I say this with no disrespect -- but rather so that others will also know that they have a choice when boarding a vessel like the one you describe -- or not.

Appreciate the report and your clear observations, WOO -- this will hopefully help others on our site to know that taking a vessel offshore with 6 folks and a girlfriend  -- needs to be approached with preparation, all safety's in place, all emergency equipment accessible and ready -- with competent, licensed, and experienced operators.

Best,

Fred

[Crow]

Sorry your trip turned out so badly. But, thanks for giving us a heads-up !

[conchydong]

Sucks that the weather, vessel and Captain were all bad. Fishing could be bad even under the best situations. I also would take Fred's advice and notify the USCG and the FWC if it indeed his license was invalid because any trip over twelve hours requires two valid licensed captains by law. Yuri has been in the business for a long time and he knows this. Sounds like the female captain was just there for her license and not to assist in any fishing activities.
At minimum, a partial refund should be given. Just go with the Yankee Capt. in the future, as I hear even the Andy Griffith Carters have gone down hill.

Scott

[alantani]

i see a coast guard inspection in his future......   

[jzumi]

That sounds terrible. When we get on a ship our lives are in the hands of the captain and everyone else who affects our safety.

Unfortunately, once you shove off there's little you can do.

Sorry you guys had such a poor experience.

[Gfish]

Wow, you still gave him 1 star. Bout 1/2 way through your detailed description, I was wondering about this "Ahab" like guy having a license, but you answered it near the end. Maybe you'll see it in the papers some day: "Mutiny on the Lauren Jeane"! Sorry dude, what a rip-off. I've been there before. Thanks for the documenting this and alerting us.

[Snapperwhipperx]

I am a captain Yuri Vakselis,  the captain and owner of Two Fish Charters. I would like to address the issues brought forth here by this client and offer my version of what happened.  Normally mechanical issues are rare, and our fishing ability and impeccable safety record can speak for themselves.   That is not to say we never make any mistakes, or always come back with limits of fish.  We always do our best to show everyone a good time and  do run a professional operation.  The original poster never spoke with me about most of the issues he brought up here.  I always take any complaints seriously and address any issues.  The only complaint I got at the dock was that the fishing was slow and the captain did not fish where they wanted to and not for species they were after. 
 
It appears that this client and his dad were not the people that originally booked the trip, and that group did not relay much information to them, which is provided to clients at the time of the booking.  This information is sent out in original trip confirmation, and includes directions to the boat and the departure time. Our departure time has always been at 2 pm, not noon.  This trip was originally booked on 5/12/18 on the "Lauren Jeanne".  Not sure why they expected to go on "Magic" which was purchased a month later.  In either case, per our company policies-  "Boat Assignments:  We reserve the right to switch assigned boats, either "Lauren Jeanne" or "Magic"  before the departure."

I spoke with a client that booked the trip originally the day before the trip.  We discussed the boat and captain assignment for their trip and I made sure they will be situated for the overnight stay on the boat.  I explained the overnight parking situation at the marina,  and gave them the captains ph# in case they have any issues.  If somehow I have missed your call and did not return your voice mail, that is my fault and I do apologize for that.

Our boats are always cleaned the hours before the departure by 2 cleaners that do that for a living.  If you were on the boat early and found it in disarray, that is normal, especially with people staying on it overnight.  It was not that way when you boarded for the trip.  I usually stress to the clients not to come too early, stay out of the way of the crew and not to load gear until all preparations are completed.  It just makes it more difficult for us to do our job.  Our boarding time is 1 hr before the departure and after loading the captain goes over safety equipment, operation of the boat, and usually explains what we will be fishing for and why.  We normally do not make a "Game Plan" before the trip because the game is always changing and we have to adjust to constantly changing conditions, weather, currents, water clarity, tides, etc.   I understand everyone is excited before the trip, but perhaps things would go much better for you if you would only be more patient?  After all, without patience, how is it possible to become a great fisherman?   We know everyone wants "trophy sized Black Grouper, Mutton Snapper and Red Grouper"  The truth is not many people have the skill to catch these consistently.  However, we are blessed with great fishery, and even very inexperienced anglers often have great catches if they pay attention and listen to the captain.   We don't need to know how much experience you have fishing because in the first 10 minutes we know exactly what your skill level is. Second guessing a local captain with years of experience will neither help your trip nor will help you learn anything new.
 
Now on to add the other issues.  The captain you are referring to is Brian, which has been fishing  Tortugas many years. He is in the process of renewing his captains license.  Brandy is a fully licensed captain and went along with Brian to comply with USCG regulations.  Apparently Brandy was sick with cold or a flu most of the trip that is why you only saw her 2 hours.

The EPIRB is registered to the vessel under my name, and is located on a wall, easily and immediately accessible.  The main cabin ceiling is 6' 6", EPIRB hangs below that.  We get boarded by USCG several times a year. Last boarding was this July.  These were no infractions.

The faulty electrical circuit breaker in question was the main generator breaker, 100A, properly sized for a 12 KW generator.  The reason why it failed was because there was a short due to vibration (and hard to see, that is why second breaker failed too) in one of the voltage regulator wires inside the generator electrical box.   There were no issues with the branch circuits on main panel. Although the wiring is 12 years old there were no "wires and breakers piggybacked everywhere, not insulated, stuff just thrown in around the wire panels and the open wires."
 
"no effort was made to actually anchor us over the structure or near the structure"  What structure are you talking about?  Sometimes we fish reef,  sometimes hard bottom (either small patches or miles long) sometimes we fish sand, sometimes we fish ledges or wrecks.  Each requires a different anchoring technique and holds different species depending if it's in the GOM or Atlantic.  

Dragging the anchor in between short hops under 3-4 miles is a standard procedure and is safe in any sea conditions.  Of course when it gets a little bumpy I do ask clients to keep their fishing rods away from the working side because occasionally the anchor line will rise above the gunnel and can catch the reel handle and pull the rod overboard.  I do not know if Brian relayed that to you or not.  We NEVER drag the anchor at 17 kts, always less than 9, because anything over that the anchor spins and twists the anchor line to the point that is not usable anymore.

"running at night with no spotlight is dangerous enough"  We do have and run with spotlights and  watch for lobster traps, especially when dragging the anchor.  The captain was not "watching a movie" or playing on the phone.  Occasionally when we do hook a trap, the lighter trap rope breaks and we continue on our way.
 
"not to mention that the autopilot could flip out and try to turn the boat and flip us over if he doesn't catch it in time- being that it's a catamaran"   Does this even deserve a comment?  50' x 22' catamaran 29,000 lbs running less than 16 kts, or 8 kts when dragging anchor?  Do you want to tell me again how much offshore experience you have son?  You keep complaining of the rough sea conditions and at the same time complain about not going to GOM (which is W of the Fort and would be significantly rougher). And who that has " been fishing on Florida's gulf coast since he was a child on both commercial and recreational boats"  gets sea sick in 4-6' on a 50' catamaran?   On top of that if you had amberjacks on board, they would have been illegal in GOM.
 
"When we approached the dock the engines and transmissions broke and we slammed into the dock."  Let me paraphrase, "upon approach to the dock, the shifter cable on starboard transmission did not engage in reverse."  I pulled up the on board video of the incident.  The boat gently drifted parallel to the dock.  It is a twin engine vessel, so it was always under control.  There was absolutely no damage.

"We all got mad and said no, there's still time we will high speed troll, to this he got irritated but realized he was had to. We finally stopped to troll, after 45 minutes we caught one wahoo and then he immediately said that's enough and throttled down to key west."    Again, rough sea conditions, rougher offshore in the Gulf stream and 4-5 hour ride back to the dock from the Fort.
"they caught a whole pile of fish and even had the audacity to brag about it"  I was not bragging but simply stated, when asked, that we did pretty good.  Anyone that knows me at all will tell you that I have no need for bragging.
 
I could go on an on, but frankly I am getting tired of writing and do not wish for this to turn into a pissing match.  There was no "ran the boat way to fast for the sea conditions", "the generator catching on fire", "ran us full throttle in super heavy seas", or "the engines started making serious howling sounds". Everything that happens on board is recorded on video, so there is proof of everything I said.
 
To the original poster, I am sorry the fishing trip was not what you expected. If you take another charter some day please have a little more confidence in and respect for the captain.  Maybe he or she would not become "increasingly agitated" and the outcome would be much different?

In 20 years of operation, and over a thousand fishing trips to the Tortugas, this is only the second time that someone was so disappointed in their trip, and I hope it will be the last.  

[alantani]

gentlemen, shall i lock this post now or are you going to keep things civil and respectful? 

[Alto Mare]

I have a feeling it might not.
This is not a court, I would move it.
I'm hoping capt. Yuri has replied to the original poster first prior to justifying what has happened

I'm not taking anyone side, I've run into some pirates in the past, but I've also run into some that actually fished alongside of me and all had a great time.


Everything could always be worked out, but they should do it between themselves first.

Just my opinion of course...


Sal

[nelz]

Interesting to read both sides of the story. Of particular note, the part about Brandy. I'm sure our minds were racing about that, but as it turns out, she was sick, very feasible in those seas. I'd have nearly died of motion sickness in that!