Multi-family charters of a crewed catamaran cost about the same as a week on a cruise ship—and provide a lot more personalized attention.

These yachts are considered entry-level in the world of yacht charter. They do not have weekly base rates in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many high-quality, crewed catamarans in the BVI have weekly base rates that range from $8,000 to $14,000 depending on the size of the yacht and the number of crew. Even if you add an estimated 15 percent for additional expenses such as food, alcohol, and crew gratuity, the weekly base rates still only range from $9,200 to $16,100.

Two or three couples who are friends and decide to charter together can split these rates equally. Three couples aboard a $12,000-a-week charter yacht, then, are each paying just $4,000. That’s $2,000 per person, all inclusive—meaning all the snorkeling you want, all the sailing you want, and all the food cooked precisely as you personally like it. The per-person price for a multi-family charter is well in line with a high-quality cruise ship or even an inclusive resort that caters to guests seeking a luxury experience.
The only difference is not price; it’s personalization. With yacht charter, it’s just you and your friends on the yacht. You’re not surrounded by thousands of strangers the way you would be aboard a cruise ship or at a resort. And you’re not paying a nickel extra for that privacy.

Even better, with sailing catamarans, you’re almost always receiving an equal experience, too. While some larger yachts have a superior master suite and then other, smaller cabins, many sailing catamarans in the BVI have cabins that are equal or very similar in size and amenities. Nobody will feel as though they got a “lesser” experience for the same vacation investment.

Charter brokers can work with groups of any sizes to book charter yachts in this multi-family way. The split pricing can be written directly into the contract, or a single person can be designated the “lead charterer” and do the organization of funds on your end instead. As with so many things about yacht charter, the preference is yours.

Charter brokers also can talk to you about the cabin arrangements on various boats—say, if one couple is bringing children and another couple is not. Some BVI charter yachts are laid out specifically for these types of groups, allowing the adults some extra privacy and the kids a space that’s sized more for them.

No matter your personal needs, a multi-family charter can be a terrific way to try yacht charter at an affordable price. Just beware: You’re going to see some bigger, fancier boats while you’re there. You just may get hooked and want to charter one of those next.

When chartering a yacht, make sure you'll be able to use the personal watercraft that are included.

What many charter clients don’t know, however, is that in a growing number of locations, the use of personal watercraft is restricted. In some places, it’s illegal to use them at all because they are noisy and can disturb other boaters. In other destinations, the use of personal watercraft is legal, but you must have a license to operate them. Many charter-yacht contracts now include provisions that require charter guests to have licenses before using any personal watercraft onboard.

Charter yacht captains are therefore working on creative solutions for guests who want to ride personal watercraft during their vacations. Some yachts, like the 191-foot Proteksan-Turquoise Baraka, decided to forgo having the toys onboard at all. Instead, the crew works with shore-based companies that bring Jet Skis out to the yacht to collect the guests.

Other charter yachts are becoming certified licensing centers in and of themselves. The 139-foot Alfamarine Lady Feryal is one example. Her crew are certified to teach charter guests the basics and provide licenses so that they can use personal watercraft all week long.

Your best bet if you want to ride personal watercraft during a yacht charter is to first verify through your broker that the toys are legal to use along your scheduled itinerary. Sometimes, they will be legal on some days and not on others, such as when you cruise through the Tobago Cays national park as opposed to other regions in the Grenadines. Your broker and charter yacht captain can let you know how many days of potential Wave Running are in your future, and you can decide at that time whether it’s worth the effort to get a license.

Then, if your charter yacht doesn’t have a licensing center onboard, you can get licensed on your own before the charter begins. You will need to take a Small Powerboat Handling Class, which usually includes about eight hours of classwork, a written exam, and a few hours of on-water practice at docking, turning, running forward and backward, and holding steady against the wind. Local Power Squadrons tend to offer these classes regularly.

Online classes like the one offered through BoatEd.com include everything except the hands-on practice—which, of course, you can get with the yacht’s crew. Deckhands tend to be masters at personal watercraft use, since it is part of their job to teach guests how to use the specific models that each yacht has onboard.

Most classes provide graduates with a Safe Boaters Card that is accepted worldwide, and that never requires a renewal. Fees for the classes can be as low as $30—a worthwhile investment no matter the cost of the charter vacation itself.

Photos: Neil Rabinowitz

The Signature 58 comes with a skipper and chef, for a truly relaxing Tahiti vacation.

The Signature 58 cat will host a party of six in three private cabins with queen-sized beds and en-suite baths. Meals can be taken inside at the crescent-shaped settee or outside in the large aft cockpit and lounge. These meals are prepared by Pauline Barbat, your own chef, who will customize everything to your preferences. There’s no clean up duty either.

Meals can be taken in the large aft cockpit.

You can sunbathe in the trampolines forward or access the clear water from the wide swim platforms aft. The yacht is air-conditioned throughout and offers a TV and DVD player for anyone opting for indoor entertainment. However, if you’re ready to hit the water, you’ll find gear and equipment for snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, windsurfing and fishing. A dinghy with a large outboard even provides waterskiing or wakeboarding for the very active.

A week-long charter starts at $28,000 and the minimum charter length is five days. Didier Alphen, the professional captain, will suggest itineraries based on your interests and sense of adventure, so you can island hop between Huahine, Raiatea and Tahaa, or spend the entire time gazing up at the magnificent Bora Bora peak of Otemanu. You can stop and snorkel with manta rays or find a secluded anchorage where no one on a cruise ship will ever be able to visit. There’s just no substitute for the local knowledge that your crew will be able to provide, whether paddling up a lush narrow river, visiting Tahitian religious temples or marae, or getting to know the flora of Tahaa with a pre-arranged private botanical tour.

This indulgent all-inclusive adventure is the ultimate way to enjoy sailing in the many islands of French Polynesia, where the tradewinds always blow and the water is an enticing aquamarine. Best of all, the trip to this remote and exotic locale is only an eight-hour flight from Los Angeles with another 45-minute hop from the city of Papeete to Raiatea.

For more about Tahiti yacht Charter, read Tahiti: Ready for its Closeup

For more details, visit the Moorings website.

The Charter Yacht Show's venue at Antigua Yacht Club boasted a variety of charter yachts.

For the first time in memory, the most talked-about charter yacht in the show was a catamaran. Hemisphere, on display with Burgess Yachts, is the largest sailing catamaran in the world at 145 feet. Her sheer volume lured crowds to check her out, but her décor is what left them agog. Hemisphere boasts exotic woods, textured fabrics, and flat surfaces made of materials as unique as crushed egg shells.

A number of megayachts also had attendees excited. Among the new launches, the favorite was Numptia, a 229-foot Rossi Navi that also was on display through Burgess Yachts. Her stylish interior décor—as well as her jazz lounge, dedicated spa deck, and hot tub with waterfall-style jets—made her a difficult act to follow.

Among the sailing yachts, there was a great deal of chatter about the 180-foot Vitters Marie, which was presented by Fraser Yachts Worldwide. Not only is Marie an absolute stunner, but the crew fired imaginations by announcing a trio of one-month charters in the South Pacific to three separate island groups, all for a single family.

But the yacht that had the most people talking was the brand-new, 265-foot Feadship Air, on display with International Yacht Register. She is ultra-modern inside, nearly pure white with art installations that include scoops of Basmati rice surrounding a slab of marble. Her Dutch pedigree was of course impressive, as were towering canvases by renowned artists including Mark Rothko, but her highly personalized décor left many brokers wondering whether she would be appealing to more than a few potential charter clients.

In general, captains were optimistic about the upcoming Caribbean season—which means in this post-recession age they are happy to have two or three charters already on the books. Many yachts still had wide availability, including for Christmas and New Year’s, and captains were quick to mention a willingness to negotiate rates or provide guests with extra days onboard.

All in all, the show left an impression of wide availability among high-quality charter yachts—a great combination for clients seeking last-minute bookings and deals.

Tourists come by land and by bay to visit the outstanding Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Oxford.

So how do you get to know America’s largest estuary? For an out-of-town visitor, the Chesapeake can be overwhelming. The bay is nearly 200 miles long and anywhere from three to 30 miles wide. Its shoreline, depending on who’s measuring, is over 11,000 miles. About half of the bay’s 8,100 square miles of watery surface is in Maryland and half is in Virginia, and it is filled with rivers and creeks as it spills from the Susquehanna River source down to the Atlantic.

The coffee-colored Chespeake wetlands function as nature’s filter, cleaning the water with each tidal change, and they also serve as a giant nursery for young creatures of all kinds. Saltwater marsh flats are home to raccoon, opossum, water snakes and fiddler crabs among many other animals. Great Blue Heron, red-winged blackbirds, osprey, kingfishers and ducks are frequent visitors too.

With just a few feet of elevation, the salt marsh changes to a brackish or freshwater habitat where woody plants and wildflowers join a variety of rabbits, squirrels and muskrats. Spring and summer are the busy seasons when the marshes turn green as the cordgrass begins to grow and many birds return to the area to nest. Winter is the quietest season as critters burrow to wait out the cold.

Locals with the luxury of cruising the bay all summer have a favorite anchorage or frequently visited bit of river like the Little Choptank, but a visitor wishing to hit the highlights has to have a plan. The distances are long and there’s much to do in every cove.

Whatever your chartering approach, the four places listed below are well worth a visit. And be absolutely sure to make time for your departure city, Annapolis, before or after your cruise. Take a tour of the Naval Academy, visit the museums, or check out the annual sail and power boat shows. Without a thorough inspection of Maryland state’s capital, your Chesapeake experience is simply incomplete.

St. Michaels is a walkable town oozing with history.

St. Michaels
On a recent mad crisscross of the bay, we started in Annapolis and headed south to St. Michaels, a seaside resort approximately 25 miles away on Maryland’s eastern shore. Quaint sounds cliché but it’s accurate; St. Michaels is a must-see for history buffs and crab lovers. It’s also a great spot for amateur photographers because this place never takes a bad picture.

In the summer, the population of St. Michaels swells beyond its 1,500 residents and getting a guest dock is like winning the lottery. So you won’t be alone anchoring out on the Miles River in 15-30 feet of water. The town occupies one square mile, about 10% of which is water. It was chartered in 1804 but has been a settlement since the early 1600s. Today tourists come by land and by bay to visit the outstanding Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, which has eighteen acres of campus exhibits and restored boats on display.

Beyond the waterfront, the town is a collection of well-preserved Colonial, Victorian and Federal style houses, many of which are now bed and breakfast inns or restaurants. St. Michaels has been everything from tobacco trading post to shipbuilding center, as well as a seafood processing town when most of the population was employed in some aspect of oyster tonging and crabbing. It wasn’t until the 1970s that tourism became the mainstay of the local economy. Today, there are very few summer weekends when you won’t find some sort of festival, expo or event in town.

St. Michaels came under attack by the British in the War of 1812. Legend has it that folks, forewarned of the British progress toward their area, hung lanterns high up in trees and dimmed their own lights, which caused the British to overshoot in the night. St. Michaels gained the moniker “the town that fooled the British.” Who knows if it’s true or just a charming marketing tidbit, but regardless this compact waterman town is both walkable and oozing with history. Don’t forget your camera.

Dawn in Oxford, one of Maryland's oldest towns

Oxford
Around Tilghman Island and up the Tred Avon River is Oxford, one of Maryland’s oldest towns. There is a self-guided tour of historic houses including Bratt Mansion, once a part of the Maryland Military Academy, and Grapevine House which has a grapevine that was planted in 1810 and is still growing.

The Oxford-Belvue ferry, the oldest privately operated ferry in the country, has been running since 1683 and drops you (and your bike) off across the river in the flat countryside that leads back to St. Michaels. For bibliophiles, Mystery Loves Company is a great bookstore specializing in whodunits. After browsing, stroll the shady streets with a camera to capture the picturesque inns with their colorful signs.

There are lots of wonderful bistros and restaurants like Schooners and The Masthead, but save room for dessert, because you can’t leave Oxford without stopping at Scottish Highland Creamery. This ice cream shop is hardly more than a window-front but serves homemade frozen concoctions that we later deemed the best ice cream on the Chesapeake.

Inside the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons Island

Solomons Island
Across the bay and south lies Solomons Island, another former boatbuilding and seafood packing town that today is a tourist magnet. Jutting out between Back Creek and the Patuxent River, Solomons is connected to the mainland by a long causeway. Less than 1½ miles long and in parts just the width of a two-lane road, the island has a long wooden boardwalk that takes you up to the Calvert Marine Museum; there you’ll find the Drum Point screwpile lighthouse and narrated tours on a 1899 bugeye boat. In the 1880s more than 500 locally built boats made up the Solomons fishing fleet. By the 1930s the town specialized in building wooden pleasure yachts.

Rent a Segway to get around Back Creek to Annmarie Garden, a 30-acre sculpture park.

Anchoring in Back or Mill creeks is easy and there are dinghy docks everywhere, especially at the many waterfront restaurants like Stoney’s Kingfisher Seafood House, where the no-filler crab cakes are the size of softballs.

Reedville has a menhaden fishing operation that has been in business since 1874.

Cockrell’s Creek, Virginia
If you have time, stretch down across the Virginia state line to Cockrell’s Creek in the town of Reedville, where in 1874 Elijah Reed started a menhaden fishing operation that is still functioning today. The factory’s giant blue purse-seining ships can be seen casting nets out on the bay. You don’t want to be downwind of the factory when they’re “cooking” or processing the fish into oil. The smell is enough to make it worth re-anchoring if you mistakenly first set the hook downwind of the smokestacks.

The Fisherman’s Museum here is great, as are the vessels out back at their docks. To get there, walk along Millionaire’s Row and admire the Victorian mansions, built by those who made their fortunes in the menhaden industry. Afterward, grab lunch at the Crazy Crab which has both a dinghy dock and great fresh seafood. You can tank up at the fuel dock nearby on either gas or diesel, though the bathrooms are reputedly the scariest on the whole bay.

Another Chesapeake must is Tangier Island, where apparently time has stood still for quite a while. We tried to get there to but grounded in the shallow eastern entrance. Next time, we’ll be smarter. And next time we’ll also have a whole new itinerary of can’t-miss spots that will get us a little closer to being well versed—if never experts—on this terrific cruising playground.

View yachts for charter in the Chesapeake

The reliable and balmy trade winds of the Caribbean make it a favorite destination for sailors.

The trade winds originate off the coast of Africa, and have been known to carry dust from the Sahara desert all the way across the southern North Atlantic to the Caribbean Islands. They have a huge impact on the Caribbean Islands from Hispaniola all the way down to the ABC’s (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao), and their influence affects different parts of the Caribbean in different ways. Because they are further south, the Windward Islands (Dominica, Grenada, Martinique, and St. Vincent and The Grenadines) see milder temperatures during winter than the Leeward Islands (Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Nevis, Saba, Sint Maarten/St. Martin, St. Kitts and Nevis). The Windwards also have a more reliable breeze.

With their more northerly location, the Leeward Islands are more influenced by fronts drifting down from the mainland U.S., and can be slightly cooler and less windy, especially in the winter months. Because the trades are so reliable other effects can be noted as well. On mountainous islands the warm air is shunted up into cooler air, which produces rain. On islands such as Dominica, Nevis, and St. Lucia rain forests can be found, especially on their windward sides.

One drawback to chartering in winter can be the sheer number of fellow charterers who have all decided the same thing; that two weeks in the BVI in January is far better than two weeks in Chicago. Prices are higher, reservations are more difficult to get, and popular destinations are overcrowded.

Is there another time of year when the Caribbean is less crowded, less expensive, but still delightful? The simple answer is yes, and that time is in the summer, though you need to plan carefully so you don’t end up hunkered down in a hotel room watching palm trees get blown down and praying the power stays on as a hurricane roars overhead.

The two main worries of off-season in the Caribbean are hurricanes and the rainy season. Hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with the most active period running from mid August through the end of October. From May to July and October through December, the odds are definitely with you.

Hurricane probabliites for different Caribbean islands, from USA Today.

The hurricane probability table shown at left reveals the odds for individual islands. The best odds for a major hurricane strike in any given year in the Caribbean belongs to Antigua, which has a 6.7-percent chance. The lowest is Bonaire, with a 0.6-percent chance. Puerto Rico rings in at 4.2-percent, with the USVI scoring a 5.9-percent. In contrast, Miami scores an impressive 11.1-percent, and Cape Hatteras checks in with a 5.3-percent. See the rest of the list of hurricane probabilities for the continental USA.

Another way to virtually assure that hurricanes won’t mess with your charter, even at the height of the season, is to head “down island,” to islands such as Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Barbados. Those lucky few who live on boats in the Caribbean year round often head to those islands in hurricane season for that very reason.

The rainiest months of the year are May to June and September to October, but again, location is everything. The ocean temperature is cooler in the southern parts of the Caribbean due to upwelling (in which cold water rises to the surface as the wind pushes the warmer water south and west) and this helps prevent cloud formation, which means less rain and less likelihood of hurricane activity. The Caribbean islands which most benefit from this are Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.

A common misconception is the summer temperatures, which one would imagine would be much hotter than those in winter. But thankfully that’s not the case, and that, again, is due to those oh-so-helpful trade winds. The average temperature in Antigua in January is 83 degrees, but in August it’s only 88. The chance of seeing 100-degree temperatures is far more likely in the mainland U.S. than it is in the Caribbean, where such temperatures are mostly unheard of.

I’ve successfully delivered boats across the Caribbean Basin from Florida to Panama in August, from Tortola to New England in September, and from Sint Maarten to Panama in June, all safely and without worries, thanks to good forecasting and a firm grasp of the odds.

For more information about the Caribbean, or to find a yacht to charter, visit the YachtWorldCharters.com Caribbean page.

Expedition charter yachts (especially ice breakers) look more rugged than yachts designed to stay within range of civilization.

And then there are the charter yachts conceived for people who want to venture farther afield. Few memories compare with the once-in-a-lifetime experiences that an adventure yacht charter can offer.

Yachts built to cruise well beyond popular marinas are called expedition yachts. As with Hummers on land, these yachts can look downright militaristic compared with their everyday sisterships. Ice-breaking hulls, for instance, can give expedition yachts terrific power and safety ratings, but steel shaped to crack through frozen slabs will cut a far different profile than a composite hull that never touches water cooler than 60 degrees. The same is true for enclosed aft decks, which can be heated in colder climates for guest comfort. They look a lot bulkier than the more common, wide-open decks.

Expedition guests are encouraged to get out and enjoy their remote surroundings.

These types of rugged features serve several purposes. Functionality is of course the big one, but in addition, stronger-looking yachts can be a safety feature unto themselves. When you charter in far-flung locations, especially those well beyond the range of fast emergency response, it’s often better to have locals think you’re aboard a vessel that is far more than a luxury yacht.

Crew also need special training for expedition yacht charters. Most crew who join such yachts are adventurous by nature; for starters, they’re willing to commit to leaving home for at least a year, which is how long it can take for some yachts to get to and from the most remote locations.

Helicopters offer access to even the most remote mountain tops and fjords.

Crew on expedition yachts are often hired because they have special skills, too. In addition to knowing how to run the yacht and provide top-notch service, they may be master scuba divers, have offshore fishing experience, know advanced first aid, hold a helicopter or pilot’s license, or have other unique training. Such skill sets aren’t usually necessary for traditional yacht charter near tiki bars and calm beaches, but they are extremely important if you’re onboard a charter yacht offering, say, heli-skiing off the coast of Chile.

Thus, when selecting an adventure yacht charter vacation, it’s important to ask questions not just about the destination, but also about the yacht itself and the crew onboard. Determine what kinds of medical services will be available (some charter yachts carry defibrillators and subscribe to satellite-based systems that connect to doctors onshore). Find out what contingency plans are in place should you need to depart ahead of schedule (some expedition yachts carry high-speed tenders or helicopters). Ask what supplies the yacht has onboard for inclement weather (umbrellas are standard, but you may need survival suits in super-cold waters). The yacht’s captain should be able to answer all these questions, long before you arrive in a remote location.

Specialized adventures will vary depending on to the location you choose—including excellent fishing.

Once you’ve done your homework and selected an adventure charter, get out there and enjoy. Few memories compare with the once-in-a-lifetime experiences that an adventure yacht charter can offer. You may get to swim with humpback whales, or land a 200-pound marlin, or take a helicopter from the yacht’s sundeck to the top of a glacier for a picnic lunch. You may get to dance with natives in grass huts, or enter a shark cave 80 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, or sip cocktails from a glass chilled with chips of ancient glacial ice. With expedition yacht charter, the world becomes your playground. And if you enter that playground with the right equipment, you can have a heck of a lot of fun.

Photos courtesy Edmiston and Company.

The new Vision Hybrid allows silent cruising for family and friends along the gorgeous waterways of Europe.

One way to experience all this is to charter a crewed canal boat or barge – and from the reports we hear, in these adventures the chef is just as important as the captain (if they’re not one in the same). The other way is to bareboat (or “self-drive” as they say in Europe).

Le Boat, a leading bareboat company with over 1000 cruising vessels available for European waterway charters, has just announced some major fleet refurbishments for 2012, including the addition of hybrid versions of their Vision cruisers, which use powerful battery banks in combination with solar panels and plug-in power to reduce engine-running time and allow significant amounts of all-electric propulsion.

Two Vision models are available with slightly different accommodation arrangements, and with either hybrid or all-diesel power. Here’s a YouTube video of the Vision Hybrid in action.

From July through September 2012, and only on the Canal du Midi in southern France, charterers will be able to book a Vision with a captain and chef.

Le Boat, established 40 years ago, operates in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, England, Scotland, and Ireland. For more information on destinations, other vessels in the fleet, training and orientation, rates, and special offers, visit Le Boat.

For more information, read Le Boat Canal Cruisers: Smart, Sexy and Green

Sherakhan has separate belowdecks rooms for manicures, pedicures, and massages.

A handful of charter yachts have been offering onboard massages for quite some time. Since about 2008, though, in-the-know charter clients who are comparing yachts before booking them have begun to ask for spa services right along with snorkeling gear, surround-sound theater systems, and zero-speed stabilizers. Massages, manicures, pedicures, and even hair styling have fast become a standard amenity that top-tier charter yachts must offer to remain competitive in the global charter marketplace. This is especially true aboard megayachts in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, but the idea is also trickling down to smaller charter yachts everywhere from New England to the Virgin Islands.

The biggest luxury yachts are now being built with spas right onboard. The 228-foot motoryacht Sherakhan, which is part of the YCO charter fleet, has separate belowdecks rooms for manicures, pedicures, and massages, much like an onshore luxury spa would offer. The 196-foot Benetti motoryacht St. Ekaterina, which is part of the Camper and Nicholsons International charter fleet, has a bridge-deck level spa whose offerings and appointment schedules are available to charter guests via the television systems in their staterooms. The 207-foot Royal Denship motoryacht Force Blue, which is part of the Fraser Yachts charter fleet, has a spa and sauna area separate from the onboard gymnasium, again rivaling the spaciousness and amenities that clients could expect ashore at a luxury facility. Charter guests can also enjoy separate workout and massage rooms aboard the 204-foot Proteksan-Turquoise motoryacht Yogi, which is part of the Burgess Yachts charter fleet.

The 121-foot Crescent motoryacht Olga has more than one crew member trained in massagge.

Smaller luxury yachts are incorporating spa services—massages, in particular—by setting up professional massage tables inside gymnasiums and sky lounges at client request, during times of the day when those spaces typically are not used. The 131-foot Amels motoryacht Monte Carlo, part of the Camper and Nicholsons charter fleet, always has at least one stewardess in the crew who is trained in massage. The same is true aboard the 121-foot Crescent motoryacht Olga, which is part of the Churchill Yacht Partners charter fleet. Usually, Olga has more than one crew member who is trained in massage, so at least one masseuse can leave the yacht and set up the professional massage table on a secluded beach that guests visit via the yacht’s tender.

Even smaller crewed charter yachts have realized the business draw that spa services can be. Some, like the 72-foot sailing yacht Three Moons in the Virgin Islands, offer manicures and pedicures onboard, right in the open-air cockpit with a view of the surroundings. Others, including the 44-foot sailing catamaran Blue Bayou in the Virgin Islands, offer package deals that include romantic picnic lunches and spa services with partners ashore, promoted regularly through management company Regency Yacht Vacations.

Che also has an interior décor designed to mimic a spa environment.

In the future, charter clients can expect not only more charter yachts to offer spa services, but also those spa services to increase in scope. A handful of yachts are now incorporating pilates and yoga instruction into their daily offerings, with classes led on deck by crew members just after sunrise. Others are forgoing the decadent culinary offerings for which luxury yachts have so long been known, and instead offering clients a healthier approach. The 114-foot sailing catamaran Che, for instance, is part of the Sunreef Yachts charter fleet and employs a chef who is trained in macrobiotic cuisine. Che also has an interior décor designed specifically to mimic a spa environment, with natural bamboo woods and lightweight, minimalist fabrics throughout the guest areas.

If you are interested in booking a charter yacht that does not advertise spa services, a reputable charter broker can often help you arrange to have them added to the yacht’s program. Sometimes, crew quarters are available for a masseuse of your choice to stay onboard throughout the entire charter and provide spa services upon request. Other times, a broker can work with the yacht’s captain to arrange an itinerary that includes ports of call where luxury spas are close to marinas.

In fact, following the trend being seen aboard the yachts themselves, a number of marinas that cater to top-dollar yachts are now building luxury spas right into their facilities. The idea is for guests to step off the boat and walk only a few steps to a whole new style of relaxation as part of the luxury yacht charter experience.

MarineMax Vacations is launching a new charter base in Tortola that is expected to open December 15.

The program may be new, but the team members behind the scenes cut their teeth in other chartering operations and bring more than 10 years of charter expertise to the fledgling company.

“MarineMax chose Dufour Yachts for their reputation for durability, comfort, and performance,” said Raul Bermudez, vice president of the newly formed MarineMax Vacations. “We are offering a premium experience but we still expect to be competitively priced.”

With their new tag line, “Maximize Your Enjoyment On the Water.” MarineMax is focused on the total luxury yacht charter experience. Besides offering a choice of high-end boat models, MarineMax expects to differentiate themselves from other charter companies with personalized service, organized group activities, and tours. The target customer will be the serious boater seeking performance sailing on their tropical vacation. Additionally, anyone who may be shopping for a Dufour can now easily spend a week thoroughly real-world testing all that the brand has to offer.

The new boats will have more than $50,000 worth of modifications and amenities such as water makers and enhanced electronics. The initial order is for five Dufour 405 models and eight Dufour 425s, an older design newly built for this venture. The sailboat focus is a departure for power-oriented MarineMax, and the long-term plan is to also offer powerboat for charter. No brand has been specified yet but the company is expecting to offer 38- and 45-foot power catamarans.

The first base on Tortola is still being negotiated, and additional locations will be added in the future. In addition to complete charter services, MarineMax Vacations will also offer a yacht ownership program, complete with financing options. The base is expected to open for operations on December 15.

For more information, visit MarineMax Vacations.

– Zuzana Prochazka