Heck, it’s an exciting thing to have a periodical as prominent as SmartMoney compare yacht charter against cruise ships. The magazine is part of the Wall Street Journal organization, has won three National Magazine Awards, and claims a circulation rate base of 800,000 people. That’s about 650,000 more people a month than read the largest-circulation U.S. boating magazines. It’s a major potential business boost to the great charter yachts available all over the world.

I was thrilled when I saw the headline “Ships: Out, Yachts: In” on Page 70 of the July issue. The subhead is: “More cruise vacationers are bypassing big-ship buffets and waterslides [sic] in favor of more intimate yacht-style sea trips. We look at the trade-offs.”

Yes, let’s finally see the benefits of yacht charter in black-and-white in a major magazine, I thought as I began reading. And then I turned the pages, growing more depressed by the word, until I threw the article into the trash with disgust.

Author Kristen Bellstrom not only fails to interview a single person involved in the actual crewed yacht charter industry, but also does a thorough job of proving that she doesn’t  even know the difference between a mini-cruise ship and a charter yacht. She falls into lockstep with the clever lingo of companies that use phrases like “yacht-style” in their marketing materials, all the while simply moving the cruise-ship business model of by-the-cabin bookings onto smaller ships to make them seem more personalized. As her industry expert, Bellstrom quotes a travel agent who refuses to book “small operations” because they lack consistency, with both the author and the travel agent apparently oblivious to the fact that there is an entire global industry of reputable charter brokers whose job is to inspect yachts, interview crew, and ensure standards higher than any cruise ship could ever hope to offer. One might imagine that an author writing a story of this nature might contact, oh, I don’t know, a company like Camper and Nicholsons International or Ocean Independence, each of which controls a fleet of more than 100 crewed charter yachts and strives for consistency and brand excellence. But no.

Most egregious to me, though, is that this SmartMoney article paints a portrait of charter yachts as boats where you book a cabin and then get stuck with a bunch of fellow passengers that you might hate. The very last sentence–the one left lingering in readers’ minds–is a quotation from a passenger who went on a 16-person boat full of strangers who ended up hostile toward one another. “You’re on a small boat,” the passenger says. “There’s just no way to get away from these people.”

Of course, on an actual crewed charter yacht, you cannot book just a single cabin. You book the whole boat, and you invite only the guests of your choosing. This fact, too, appears to be lost on the author and, most unfortunately, the reader.

This type of incomplete, misleading, and irresponsible publishing has serious consequences for the yacht charter industry. I learned of this article from my father, who is a SmartMoney subscriber. (The article does not appear to be viewable on the magazine’s website; all I can find is this series of links to mini-cruise ship companies under the headline “Benefits of Yacht Cruising.”) My father, after reading the article, told me that he thought it made a good point about people not wanting to get stuck on a little boat with passengers they dislike.

“Dad,” I reminded him, “don’t you remember when I arranged for our family to go on that 60-foot charter yacht? It was just us. Strangers aren’t invited when you charter a real yacht.”

“Oh yeah,” he replied. “That was a great trip. I wonder why the author of this article didn’t mention how that is possible.”

Exactly.

As you read this, 30-year-old Alexia Barrier is scheduled to be completing her first full day of a solo circumnavigation aboard the 60-foot sailing yacht 4MyPlanet. Leading charter company Camper & Nicholsons International is a partner in the 4MyPlanet effort, which is intended to collect scientific data that will help with ocean research and preservation.

Barrier’s itinerary was set to begin yesterday in Monaco. Her first stop is scheduled to be Cape Town, South Africa, followed by Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and New York City, USA. The transatlantic from New York to Europe is expected to put Barrier back in Monaco in mid-June.

A series of educational conferences about ocean conservation is planned in conjunction with Barrier’s stops along the route. Additional conferences are planned for after her arrival in Monaco this summer.

Camper & Nicholsons’ support of the effort is the latest in a number of actions the company has taken to “go green.” In 2006, the firm adopted “carbon neutral” business practices. Not long after, Camper became one of the first agencies to offer charter clients the option of offsetting the carbon effects of yacht vacations in tandem with the CarbonNeutral Company. Most recently, the company has begun to pull back on the number of printed brochures and handouts that it distributes at boat shows, instead making such information available digitally and on demand to charter brokers and media.

Hardly the usual yachting attire, but appropriate for a gala put on by Fraser Yachts to honor their top charter crews.

All of which is why I think it’s great that management company Fraser Yachts Worldwide holds an annual black-tie gala to celebrate the best captains and crew in its charter fleet. The yacht managers and retail charter brokers who work for Fraser often know these crew members better than anyone–they know how the crew treat their in-house VIP clients, they know how professionally the crew handle the business end of charter, and in general they know all the little details that separate a good crew from a great one.

When the votes were counted recently at the Yacht Club de Monaco, three charter yachts in the Fraser fleet took home top honors. Charter Captain of the Year went to Ronald Woods of the 139-foot motoryacht Paramour, Best Crew on a Yacht over 40 Meters went to Capt. Don Anderson and his team aboard the 164-foot motoryacht NewVida, and Best Crew on a Yacht under 40 Meters went to Capt. Ashley Benns and his team aboard the 124-foot motoryacht Coco Loco.

Capt. Ashley Benns and the crew of Coco Loco won Best Crew on a Yacht under 40 Meters.

I’m especially happy to see Benns and his crew on the list because I spent a horribly rainy week with them aboard Coco Loco in the Bahamas not too long ago. The sky went black a few hours after my plane landed in paradise, and the sun didn’t shine again until the morning I flew home. It’s under those conditions that you really can see whether a crew has what it takes to keep charter guests happy–and I was as comfortable as a favorite pair of slippers.

You might remember Benns as a recent CharterWave Captain of the Month. As he explains, he’s been boating all his life and has worked at virtually every job a person can have on a boat, including cook, steward, and engineer.

How nice to see all that hard work pay off with an honor like the one from Fraser Yachts Worldwide. Kudos to Benns, and to all his fellow winners.