Capt. Nick Boin

Many people don’t initially consider Chicago to be a Coastal City, but it is. It has a thriving boat community, and it is the starting line to the longest fresh water sailboat race in the world. This is where I’m from. I love being from Chicago. I love city bike rides, the delicious food, and in the winter I loved taking vacations to somewhere warm and tropical. I remember always being amazed by the ocean and all the beautiful sea life.

After completing my degree in engineering I travelled around a lot but eventually I ended up finding a new home on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. This is where I got my first boat job crewing for snorkels and whale watches. I had never loved any job more, and my engineering background made me extremely useful. As my skills as a deckhand sharpened I jumped on the first opportunity to crew on a sail catamaran, the rest, as they say, is history.

Enrolling in captain school was my birthday present to myself. Shortly after completing captain school is when I met Lauren. We both loved the ocean, hiking, and adventure sports and it turned out we grew up not too far from each other so we naturally hit it off. We started racing on a mono haul sailboat together and formed strong bonds with our team. Lauren had caught the sailing bug too, With enough determination we knew we could use this skill to see the world. We are excited to be in the Virgin Islands and want to share our adventure with you.


Chef Lauren Wylie

As the first mate, chef and professional photographer on board C’est La Vie, I will ensure total guest satisfaction and more on charter!

Growing up on a lake in Wisconsin I always felt at home on the water. I’ve been water skiing and wakeboarding since I was 6 years old. In college I studied photography in Milwaukee. In 2014 I moved to Maui which was the best thing I could have done for my then budding wedding photography career. In my free time I took up all the awesome water sports that come with living on a tropical island.  I took a job on the boats just to get closer to the whales. But what I really found was a combination for my passion for the water and for photography onboard sail catamarans. 

My Mother’s side is Croatian, so I grew up cooking traditional Croatian cuisine but don’t worry my palate doesn’t stop there, I like to incorporate all different styles of cuisine in my cooking and am always up for any special requests guests may have!