Sweet Surprise
I recently had the pleasure of spending a night onboard the 80-foot sailing yacht Melinka in Antigua, in preparation for a CharterWave feature that you can look for links to beginning in January. Melinka is a lovely yacht, built to sail well in regattas and races while still offering a true gentleman’s club feel onboard. Her crew is terrific, all well-experienced and quite personable. The yacht’s amenities are delightful, the chef cooks well, and I was completely at home onboard. I believe many couples who enjoy traditional sailing vacations will feel the same way.
All of which makes it interesting that if you or your friends went looking for an 80-foot sailing yacht to charter, you’d have a hard time finding Melinka on any website or in any catalog of available yachts. She is one of those charter yachts whose owners reserve quite a bit of usage time for themselves, thus leaving only a few weeks a year for charter bookings by brokers who are, shall we say, “in the know.”
I’m lucky to know charter broker Sandy Carney of Sanderson Yachting LLC, who set me up with Melinka after filling me in on the yacht’s three to five weeks of availability for Caribbean charters each winter. The rate is $24,000 a week for six guests–all-inclusive, according to Capt. Forrest Shropshire–in destinations from the Virgin Islands all the way down south to the Grenadines.
That’s good stuff, and stuff that I’d never have known about had it not been for my work with Rhode Island-based Sandy Carney (whom you can reach at sandy@sanderson.cc). The experience is further evidence of just how important it is for you to work with a reputable charter broker when booking your next vacation. Even if she can’t get you the yacht you think might be best for you, she just may have a sweet surprise up her sleeve that you otherwise never would have known existed.