I’m just back from the Miami International Boat Show, where traffic on the docks was a bit light to my eye but reportedly composed of serious shoppers as opposed to tire kickers. I’d like to put what I heard about the charter market into broad context for you first, before diving into details farther below.

Leading mid-range and large-yacht builders such as U.S.-based Sea Ray and British-based Sunseeker told me that they were selling enough new boats to consider the show “good for the current economic climate.” That’s a heck of a lot better than their tune at this time last year, when sales were all but nonexistent.

The brokerage market, too, seemed to have an air of hope in Miami. I spoke with the captain of a 112-foot Westport who told me that his motoryacht was now the least-expensive for sale in its class and getting serious offers from potential buyers. That, to him, indicated that the brokerage market has hit bottom and may be starting to turn around. His sense jived with my conversations with multiple sales brokers, who argued that now is the time to snap up the best remaining deals, as the brokerage market is poised to begin a slow but likely rebound.

With all that said, the sense that I got from the half-dozen charter fleet managers I met in Miami is that the charter industry, too, may be experiencing cautious optimism for the first time in nearly 18 months. The market for crewed charter appears to still be mixed according to many specifics that I heard, but in general, charter brokers’ phones are ringing again.

I was told that a good number of the charter inquiries coming right now are for the Bahamas during next month’s Spring Break and the Easter holiday in April. In years past, those dates would have been booked months ago and current calls would be for “last-minute” charters during the summer in the Mediterranean, but, as the managers put it, at least the calls are coming.

In terms of pricing, every charter fleet manager I spoke with confirmed for me that price negotiations are the order of the day, and that perhaps as many as two-thirds of the charters being booked today are coming at negotiated price reductions, extra days aboard, or some combination of the two. Some yacht owners are refusing to negotiate their prices at all (and some are still finding clients who book boats at full price), but the yacht owners who are willing to negotiate appear to be giving at least 10 percent to 15 percent off published weekly base rates.

Other charter yacht owners are giving more, but as quietly as possible. Charter fleet managers at several companies told me about cases where discounts were given as high as 40 percent to 50 percent off published base rates, but qualified their statements by saying the circumstances were particular to the specific yachts and clients involved. In at least one case, the charter client was required to sign a confidentiality contract in order to receive the sizable discount.

What does all this mean for the upcoming high season in the Western Mediterranean? It’s hard to say. I’m keeping my ear to the ground.

Stay tuned.