December - 2009 - Yacht Charter Worldwide

Archive for December, 2009

Booking a Charter? Watch Brokerage Deals

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Ads on BrokerageBoss.com show drastic price cutting that could affect future charter reservations.

Stories on BrokerageBoss.com show drastic price cutting that could affect future charter reservations.

One of the most interesting comments I heard during Antigua’s industry-only charter yacht show came from Terry Hines, the charter marketing director for International Yacht Collection (and a longtime industry player whose views and insights I have learned to trust). Hines made the comment during a public presentation about recent changes to the MYBA charter contract that many reputable charter brokers send to their clients. While talking about future bookings and explaining how the MYBA contract protects charterers in the event of a yacht’s sale before a charter can commence, Hines quipped: “Every retail charter broker needs to be watching the brokerage markets very carefully right now.”

The comment was based on what she is seeing both within the International Yacht Collection yacht sales division and across the yachting industry as a whole: Some owners dramatically dropping the prices on their yachts for sale, hoping to find a buyer fast as the global recession lingers. Such sales, of course, could hinder or outright cancel any charters that are planned for dates after a new owner takes control of any given yacht.

Since I heard Hines’s comment two weeks ago, I have taken her advice and watched the brokerage markets carefully. And, as is usually the case, she has turned out to be absolutely correct.

Just this morning, the BrokerageNews blog reported that Merle Wood not only just signed the 191-foot motoryacht Islander for sale, but also immediately dropped the yacht’s asking price by $5 million, from $24.95 million to $19.5 million. Islander is currently being marketed for summer 2010 charter by Peter Insull.

Last week, I reported that RJC Yachts had dropped the asking price on the 147-foot motoryacht Aquasition by $1 million, to $12.9 million, while continuing to offer her for charter this winter. Also last week, BrokerageNews reported that Merle Wood had announced a sale price drop on the 102-foot charter motoryacht Liquidity, from $2.299 million to $1.695 million. On December 11, BrokerageNews reported that International Yacht Collection had announced a $1 million sale price drop on the 155-foot charter motoryacht One More Toy, now offered at $21.8 million.

For charter clients, I think this perspective on the interlinked charter and brokerage markets offers two smart lessons to be learned.

First, ask your charter broker whether the yacht he or she is currently recommending for your vacation is also for sale and, if so, whether there have been any recent announcements of price drops. That will help you understand whether the yacht’s owner is seriously trying to sell the yacht at the same time charters are being booked.

Second, take a hard look at any charter contract before you sign it, and make sure it gives you recourse in case the yacht’s owner sells the yacht before any travel dates that you book. The phrase “liquidated damages,” as I understand things from Hines’s presentation, is the key to ensuring that you are in fact protected.

Tags: brokerage, Brokerage News, charter
Posted in Charter brokers, Yacht Charter | Comments Off

More on Discounts and Deals

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

reader-feedback

I received an interesting e-mail from a reader about my discounts and deals post. I reported that I had heard some interesting talk on the docks at last week’s industry-only Antigua charter yacht show about discounts of more than 15 percent being a possible sign that something is wrong with a charter yacht or its owner’s finances.

In this reader’s opinion, that theory sounds wrong. He wrote:

“Maybe this is the economist in me, but I think the market dictates the price of a yacht charter. If your boat is not booked for a particular week, it is probably too expensive. There is a price that someone will book the charter. If that price covers the costs of the charter, plus costs for maintaining the boat, and a profit margin worth the time/effort to set up the charter, the owner should consider chartering. How much money is an owner going to make with his/her boat sitting on a dock? Zero. Think about it: If two boats were identical, who would not pick the less expensive charter? I might even feel more comfortable on the discounted boat that is chartering more because at least I know they are making some money.

“I think similar to the housing market, yacht owners (and maybe brokers in this case) are trying to keep profit margins of years past. Unfortunately, it will probably take a few years to return to those levels. If you don’t cut your price to levels that are selling today, your home and yacht will remain vacant. Maybe the owners of the discounted yachts are just savvy!

“I agree with you on the value of a broker but I am surprised there are not more charters being offered on eBay. To find the true value of something an auction is usually the best bet. If I was a boat owner, I would consider calculating the minimum cost I would accept for a charter, putting an unbooked week on eBay, and setting the minimum cost as the minimum bid. If no one bites, you sit and wait for better times.”

My Personal Two Cents

I would be curious to hear how longtime charter brokers feel about this reader’s opinion. Me personally? I would never, ever, ever book a crewed yacht charter through eBay or any other online auction service. My top three reasons:

I don’t want to give my money directly to the guy who owns the yacht. I want a middleman with an escrow account and strong knowledge of maritime contracts, including those that cover itineraries crossing international boundaries (say, from France into Italy).
You can’t smell an online listing. A lot of yachts look great in pictures, but when brokers actually go to inspect them, they stink. I trust a good broker who has been on the yacht far more than the guy who created the website full of pretty pictures.
Price is not my deciding factor in what makes a great charter yacht. My number one consideration is a yacht’s crew. I would take an older yacht with a top-notch crew versus a new yacht with an unseasoned crew any day of the week. Again, crew is not something that can be accurately evaluated in an eBay listing. I want to know more than the crew’s resumes. I want to know how the captain has dealt with previous charter clients. I want to know how the captain has acted when problems have arisen during past charters. I want to know how the chef’s food actually tastes. No online listing can tell me those things in an unbiased way, since it is the yacht owner placing the listing. Only a broker who has been onboard and spoken with previous clients will have the real details, good and bad alike.

One more thing I’d add, regarding the idea of a yacht sitting idle because it is “overpriced”: That’s okay with some yacht owners. Private yachts are not hotels in Disney World. Owners don’t want anybody and everybody getting onboard for a charter. Many yacht owners are as diligent in vetting potential charter clients as the clients themselves are in vetting the yacht. Many yacht owners don’t need charter income. They offer their yacht to keep the crew busy and the yacht in good working order.

If I’m being honest, then I must admit that these points of mine sound awfully similar to what travel agents used to say about hotel and airfare bookings in the days before Expedia.com. And certainly, this reader’s opinions will be shared by many people who enjoy the ease of booking their own vacations online. The Web is changing the way all of us think about doing everything, including selecting charter yachts for vacation.

Tags: Charter brokers, discounts, eBay
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On Discounts and Deals

Friday, December 18th, 2009

antigua-show-variety-2009 One of the things I heard a lot of talk about at last week’s Antigua charter yacht show was discounts. And not in the way I’ve been hearing about them during the past few months. As you know if you follow my blog, deals and discounted rates have been flooding the crewed charter market for a little more than a year now, as yacht owners try to adapt to the financial pressures of the continuing global recession. Brokers have been pushing for deeper and deeper discounts on behalf of charter clients, and though not all yacht owners have obliged, a good number have. The talk on the docks last week was different because, instead of all the brokers saying they wanted to negotiate the biggest discounts possible, I began to hear some brokers saying that if they saw a yacht offering more than a 15-percent discount, they would think twice before trying to book it for their client at all. One broker from Ocean Independence put it to me this way: “If the discount being offered is more than 15 percent, something is wrong. Either something is wrong with the boat that is making it desperate to charter, or the owner of the boat is desperate for money. Either of those things is bad for my charter client. I don’t want to send my clients onto boats that might be falling apart, or whose owner cannot stand financially behind the charter if something goes wrong.” I thought about this comment in the context of a conversation that I had with Capt. Warren East aboard the 73-foot sailing catamaran Wonderful, which has earned a strong reputation in the charter industry during the past few years (and which looks terrific following a recent makeover). Capt. East told me that his yacht has four weeks of charter booked for the upcoming Caribbean season, plus three inquiries for additional bookings. “That’s obviously not the level of business we have done in years past,” he said, “but we’re hanging on. The bigger problem is that we made so many concessions last year. We were chartering at nearly half price. We need to get the rates back up toward normal so that we can continue to maintain the boat to the expected standard, but now some of the brokers are coming back and wanting those same discounts. We can’t give them and still provide the same level of experience for the client.” This particular broker and this particular captain were discussing two sides of the same coin: quality. The past year in crewed yacht charter has been very much about clients trying to get more than they paid for. The coming year, I think, might turn out to be about ensuring that you actually get quality for your charter dollar or euro.

Tags: Antigua Charter Yacht Show, charter, discounts, Ocean Independence, quality
Posted in Charter brokers, Crewed Yacht Charter, Yacht Charter | Comments Off

The Yacht Insider: Green Is the New Gold

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Typically, the biggest, newest yachts get all the attention at the annual, industry-only charter yacht show on Antigua because, well, they’re the biggest, newest yachts. But that’s not what brokers and crew are talking about on the docks. This year, for the first time, I’m hearing a swell of conversations about even the most gold-plated yachts going green.

At the 2009 Antigua Charter show, it's all about going green.

In the span of my first two hours at this year’s show, three charter brokers told me how impressed they had been last month, when the entire Tortola charter fleet banded together to provide filtered water in reusable cups instead of bottled water in plastic containers. Before lunchtime today, owner-operator Dennis Barbeau of the 60-foot sailing catamaran Diamond Girl II told me that he was preparing to install solar panels to cut down on generator use. I then ran into Trish Cronan of Ocean Getaways, who invited me to join the newly formed Environmental Committee within the professional charter broker organization CYBA International. My last yacht tour today was aboard the brand-new, 198-foot CMN Cloud 9, where Chief Engineer Stuart Laidlaw proudly showed me the yacht’s onboard sewage treatment plant—which ensures that solid waste stays out of the world’s waters.

Stuart Laidlaw shows off the waste treatment plant in the engineroom of Cloud 9.

Stuart Laidlaw shows off the onboard sewage treatment plant aboard Cloud 9.

All of this in just the first eight hours of the boat show, and absolutely industry-wide, from the smallest sailboats to one of the largest motoryachts.

“I want every charter broker to educate their clients about plastic water bottles,” Cronan told me as she described the new CYBA committee. “I want them, instead of having their clients suggest bottled water, to request charters aboard yachts with filtration systems—which of course will then encourage more of the yachts to get those systems.

“After that,” she continued, “the next item on my list is carbon offsets.”

These agenda items are not entirely new to charter, but this is the first time I’ve heard them being discussed on an industry-wide scale by so many people. Early leaders included Camper & Nicholsons International, which manages the world’s largest fleet of crewed charter yachts and has been on the carbon-neutral bandwagon for several years. Retail agencies such as BoatBookings offer carbon-offset calculators on their websites. A London-based company called Yacht Carbon Offset is a sponsor of this year’s Antigua show, hoping to get even more companies to do the same.

To my eyes, the wave of charter industry support for environmentalism appears headed for a crest in the next year or two, perhaps worldwide. That’s exciting stuff. I truly cannot wait for tomorrow.

Editor’s Note: Kim Kavin is an award-winning writer, editor and photographer who specializes in marine travel. She is the author of six books including Dream Cruises: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Vacations, is editor of the online yacht vacation magazine www.CharterWave.com, and writes the blog at www.BrokerageBoss.com.

Tags: Antigua Charter Show, charter broker, crewed charter, environment, green
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Looking Back on the Battle of Salamis

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Battle horns blared in a narrow bay on the east coast of Salamis Island, on the Saronic Gulf less than ten miles from Athens, in late September 480 B.C. Drums beat below the decks of more than 200 Greek triremes. Each warship was about 130 feet in length with only an 18-foot beam, and powered by 150 men manning three banks of oars. Rams were mounted at the bow just below the waterline, deadly to the Persian triremes at the mouth of the bay.

The ALEXANDER ACHILLES, a traditional Greek motorsailer, makes history come alive. She is available for charter in Athens.

Today, Salamis Island and the bays and coves of the Saronic Gulf are a major cruising ground for crewed and bareboat charter yachts. The nearby Cyclades and the Dodecanese islands spread across the Aegean Sea like jewels, and boaters from around the world come to experience the pleasures of yachting in these waters. The quaint fishing villages, historic sites, and the beautiful beaches are all part of the experience of yachting in Greece, where history is everywhere, making it easy to imagine that September so long ago when the fate of the Athenian state hung in the balance.

As the Greek fleet advanced, the ships were outnumbered almost five to one. The army and navy of Persia, under the command of King Xerxes, had recently sacked Athens, burning much of the city to the ground. Despite the poor odds the Greeks were willing to fight for their homeland, surging forward at a ramming speed of 10 knots, anxious to face the sea-hardened Phoenicians who served as crews aboard many of the Persian triremes.

“At once ship smote on ship with brazen beak; A vessel of the Greeks began the attack, Crushing the stem of a Phoenician ship,” wrote the famous Greek poet and dramatist Aeschylus in a poem entitled The Battle of Salamis.

The sound of splintering hulls and screaming men carried away on the rising wind. In the confines of the bay, the Greek battle line ran nearly from shore to shore, preventing a flanking maneuver from the Persians. Themistocles, one of the Greek co-commanders, had counted on this advantage. Now it was paying off.

“The Grecian vessels were not unskillfully smiting round about; the hulls of ships Were overset; the sea was hid from sight, Covered with wreckage and the death of men; the reefs and headlands were corpse filled.”

The Persians retreated and the still outnumbered Greeks pursued. The breeze freshened, kicking up a chop that hindered the lighter-built Persian triremes. The Greek vessels were heavier and more lethal, giving the crews the upper hand. The battle raged as the Persians rowed to their strongholds at Piraeus and Phaleron bays.

This Sun Odyssey 50 is also available for charter out of Athens.

Nearly half of the Persian fleet of 1,200 ships had been sunk or captured. Losses were also heavy on the Greek side. The Persian army of more than 100,000 men relied on the navy to transport supplies, and with much of the navy destroyed, Xerxes knew the war was lost. He withdrew.

Many historians say that the Battle of Salamis was one of the most important in Western history. The Greek victory laid the foundation for the prosperous Athenian Empire, or Delian League, which later contributed so much to Western civilization in philosophy, mathematics, science, medicine, and democratic ideals. Had the Greeks lost the Battle of Salamis, would those contributions have been made? No one knows.

At the start of the fighting, Aeschylus wrote of a “mighty shout” that came from the Athenians: “Come, O ye sons of Greeks, Make free your country, make free your children, Your wives, and fanes of your ancestral gods, And your sires’ tombs! For all we now contend!”

As it turned out, they may have contended for much, much more.

Editor’s Note: David W. Shaw is the author of seven nonfiction books, including a historical account of Flying Cloud, America’s most famous clipper ship. For charter info in this area, view the Greek listings.

Tags: Alexander Achilles, Athens, charter, Saronic Gulf, Sun Odyssey 50
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New Charter Option in Chile

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

charter yacht Atmosphere in Chile Edmiston & Company continues to surprise me with new-to-fleet boats offering truly unusual charter experiences. This past summer, I told you about the 194-foot motoryacht Senses becoming available in Madagascar. At that same time, I wrote about the 226-foot motoryacht Tia Moana seeking charters in the Tuamotu Islands. More recently, I posted about the 120-foot motoryacht Sheleila being available for charter at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Now comes word that Edmiston is moving even farther afield from the traditional Caribbean and Mediterranean charter grounds, with a 28-guest boat called Atmosphere that is available for charters in Chile.

As you can see from the photographs that the company provided, this charter experience is being marketed as anything but standard. The tenders include no fewer than five jet boats, each 23 feet long; 36 fishing skiffs; and at least a pair of Bell 407 helicopters that will allow guests to enjoy heli-skiing, dining atop glaciers, and more. Hot springs and salmon fishing can also be part of the itinerary, along with kayaking through the raw, natural surroundings.

Charters will run round-trip from Puerto Montt, which is a port city of about 150,000 people in southern Chile. Edmiston describes it being similar to locations in Scandinavia, and says that both commercial and private flights can access the location easily.

Available charter dates run Saturday-to-Saturday, and just four weeks of availability remain between now and February. The rate for 28 guests with 32 English- and Spanish-speaking crew depend on how many helicopters and fishing guides you request.

For more information, visit the Edmiston & Company website.

charter yacht Atmosphere in Chile

Tags: Atmosphere, Chile, Edmiston & Company, Puerto Montt, South America
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Aboard the New Feadship, Trident

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Trident was dubbed the "Queen of the Show" in Fort Lauderdale.

Longtime charter broker Ann Landry of Northrop & Johnson recently spent three days aboard the newly launched, 214-foot Feadship Trident, which is making its Caribbean charter debut this winter. The yacht went straight from the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show—where it was dubbed “Queen of the Show”—to the Bahamas, where Landry was aboard as a guest of management company and builder Feadship.

Here is my exclusive interview with Landry about this head-turning new charter yacht. Special thanks to Feadship for providing the photography.

Ann Landry

I’m curious about how well this trip was organized, because it was done by Feadship’s charter division—which has only existed since January 2008 and was not publicly announced until June 2008, and which was begun by a person without any serious yacht charter experience.

D.J. Kiernan of Feadship Charter was our host, and I felt like he knew what he was doing. He has been doing this for more than a year now, and he has hospitality industry experience, and he’s just the kind of guy who is so personable and pleasant, you can’t help yourself in trying to help him.
A lot of people don’t know this, but he was a moving force behind establishing the Young Professionals in Yachting group to help people learn. He’s a smart guy. He’s a fast learner. And he’s an earnest, pleasant person.

charter yacht Trident saloon

How about Trident? Is she as jaw-dropping as all the media reports indicate?
She’s gorgeous. She has a Donald Starkey interior with warm, neutral colors, and then he’ll throw in a beautiful, bright-red pop in the main saloon that becomes a focus piece. There is interesting art, too. I’d call it contemporary. Not minimalist or modern, but contemporary. And the carpeting is exquisite. It’s custom made in a neutral color with patterns laser-cut into it. The patterns are just gorgeous, and they feel so wonderful under your feet.
There are some exotic woods, which are also nice, and the dining room table runs fore and aft, instead of the usual athwartships. The yacht is just huge, so it can accommodate that. There’s a serving bar in that same space, too, which is nice. The table very comfortably seats 12.

The layout indicates that there are three outdoor dining areas, as well.
That’s right. There is a small seating area for morning coffee or afternoon hors d’oeuvres on the main deck aft, full dining on the upper deck aft, and dining on the top deck. All of the full tables seat 12 guests, which is the number that Trident takes for charter.

charter yacht Trident master Are the cabins as large as the other guest areas?
I shared a twin cabin with another charter broker, and it was very spacious.
The master is palatial. It’s on the main deck. I distinctly remember a mirror in the master bathroom that has a frame studded in Swarovski crystals, maybe one-carat sized crystals. It’s not at all ostentatious, and the quality is incredible.

Was that your favorite detail on the boat?
I also liked the furniture on the top deck. It’s to die for. It has wood frames with chrome steel tubing legs. You lift up the backrest, and it has slim, tubular, chrome-steel supports for the backrest. The chairs at the dining table adjust that way too. It’s just beautiful.
One other thing I want to remark on is the office. It’s on the starboard side of the main deck and abuts to the master suite, and it has two entrances. You can enter the office without going through the master cabin. I used the office, and it’s huge. There is a ton of natural light and really large windows.

charter yacht Trident dining On a yacht of Trident’s caliber, I would expect a top-notch chef. How was Simon Jones?
He was excellent. He’s British, and he previously worked aboard the the 50-meter motoryacht Odessa, so he has big-boat experience. Before that, he achieved one Michelin star as head chef at L’Escargo in the SoHo section of London. He’s just phenomenal.
The galley aboard Trident is really big, a full-on, industrial-size, industrial-equipped galley. It’s all the space that he needs to create just about every kind of food. I thought his vegetables were the most gorgeous. He did asparagus and spinach that was to die for. He also did very well with fish. Everything I tasted was delicious and plentiful. We had a lot of choices, and we were able to try as much or as little of everything as we wanted. Nobody had even the hint of a complaint.

When a yacht is more than about 175 feet long, as Trident is, I find that you don’t see the captain all too often. Did you tend to interact more with the crew?
That’s right. It’s a crew of 14 on Trident, so guests will mostly be dealing with the stewards, stewardesses, and deckhands.
Calum Taylor is the steward on Trident, and he was fantastic. He knocked our socks off. He did most of the serving. Everything was perfect all throughout the yacht. The chief stewardess, Maya Patel, has only worked on Feadships, including the 197-foot Paraffin, the 234-foot Utopia, and the 200-foot Secret. She’s a British native who recently lived in Canada, and everything was perfect. The second stewardess, Teresa Dalton, she’s from New Zealand and also was good. She helped Calum with the serving. Everything was just perfect.

I understand that weather kept you tied to the dock at Atlantis Resort and Casino, which means you probably weren’t outdoors enough to meet the deckhands in-depth.
Yes, sadly, we didn’t get a chance to know the deckhands because the boat didn’t move, and we didn’t use the water toys. But in general, I really liked the crew and the boat a lot.

charter yacht Trident lounge Does the level of elegance aboard Trident make it ideal for adult couples to charter as a group? Or would a family be okay on this boat?
I would say that it could be a family boat, but the twin cabin is plenty big for adults. It’s huge. The only thing that makes it any different than any others is that it has two beds in it instead of one.

Plus, there are seven cabins in this boat as opposed to the usual six, so even though you can take only 12 people because of charter regulations, you can use all seven cabins.
I mentioned how palatial the master is. The VIP is also on the main deck, and it’s really, really nice, too. The windows are bigger than in the cabins on the bottom deck. And even on that deck in our twin cabin, I felt by no means that we were in a cave or anything. There was lots and lots of natural light.

To be honest, I would even recommend Trident for corporate charters, because of the quality of the boat and the service. It couldn’t fail to impress your clients if you were a business owner.

Tags: Ann Landry, Caribbean, D.J. Kiernan, Donald Starkey, Feadship, Northrop & Johnson, Trident
Posted in Charter brokers, Crewed Yacht Charter, Motoryacht, Superyacht, Yacht Charter | Comments Off

Inside Scoop on Four Aces

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

charter yacht Four Aces I snagged an exclusive interview yesterday afternoon with Mark Elliott, a 20-year veteran charter captain who is now a yacht sales and charter broker for International Yacht Collection. He recently helped to orchestrate the sale of the 183-foot Benetti motoryacht Allegro to a new owner, who rechristened her Four Aces and put her into the IYC charter fleet.

The sales deal just might be the biggest ever in terms of large-yacht trades, and one result is that the Benetti is now entering the charter market for the first time under command of a seasoned charter captain and crew.

“She never chartered as Allegro, and she will debut as Four Aces in December at the Sint Maarten charter show, so she truly is new to the market,” Elliott told me. “We are very excited that Capt. Will Keiser, formerly of the 156-foot CRN motoryacht Azzurra II, is now in command of 13 crew aboard Four Aces. He is well seasoned as a charter captain, and several of his experienced crew from Azzurra II came with him to the new boat. With 14 total crew and 12 guests, the service level will be awesome.”

Elliott told me that Four Aces has an “amazing layout,” including a main-deck master suite that is bi-level. Up about a half-dozen steps from the main sleeping area is a private viewing room with doors that open onto the foredeck.

“The new owners are in the gaming industry, so the boat will play a bit off of that,” Elliott said. “You see the name Four Aces on the boat itself. The staterooms will have similar names, like Royal Flush.”

Keiser and crew are currently filling the yacht’s garage with water toys in preparation for a debut season of charter in the Caribbean, followed by summer 2010 in the Mediterranean. The lowest weekly base rate this winter is $380,000, and the base rate for next summer is $420,000. (Note that the Mediterranean rate is in U.S. dollars, which currently are a better bargain than the euro that are the base currency for most charter yachts in the Med.)

Also worth noting is that Four Aces will tow a 33-foot Intrepid tender for fishing and water sports.

Elliott is available this time of year through either the Fort Lauderdale or Sint Maarten offices of International Yacht Collection.

Tags: Benetti, Four Aces, International Yacht Collection, Intrepid, Mark Elliott
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Archive for December, 2009