I spent this weekend at a writers’ conference in New York City, where I met several journalists who told me they cover the charter yacht industry. Though they were all very nice, I have to say I was dismayed by their ignorance about the subject matter–and you should be, too, since they proclaim to be experts you can trust.

First up was an editor from a well-known luxury lifestyle magazine. I’ve been trying to break into this magazine as a writer for some time, sending pitches for stories about  trends in expedition charters and technological advancements that make cruising more comfortable. I couldn’t figure out why this editor was ignoring my pitches until this weekend, when I met her. I asked her what kind of yacht coverage she wanted. “You know,” she stumbled. “We like the yachts with sails. Oh, and the motoryachts, too, they seem really cool.”

Clearly, she had zero understanding of the articles she was editing. It’s not that she hadn’t liked my story ideas. She simply hadn’t understood them.

Next, I met a man whose area of expertise is Turkey. He’s quite excited about heading over there this week to spend a few days onboard Savarona, the 282-foot former presidential motoryacht that has a weekly base rate of $385,000 for 34 guests. He told me, quite breathlessly, that Savarona is beginning to take by-the-cabin bookings at about $22,000 per couple. By his estimation, it was the most glamorous possible vacation idea he could bring to his readers.

By contrast, my first thoughts were: If Savarona is taking by-the-cabin bookings, she’s moving out of the luxury charter business altogether. My guess is that’s because she was built back in the 1930s and, though refit in 1999, is having trouble garnering those 34-guest “proper charter” bookings now that newer super-size yachts like Sherakhan and Alysia have become available. Smart move on the owner’s part, I thought, charging couples $22,000 apiece and telling them they’re getting a phenomenal, luxurious deal. His take for a week will now be closer to $450,000, more than he was making running Savarona as a proper charter yacht.

Don’t expect to read that in this Turkish writer’s story, of course. He had no idea what I was talking about–probably one key reason the yacht’s owner invited him to cover the news in the first place.

Last, I met a woman who asked me what I wrote about. I answered, “boats that people can charter for vacations.” She cooed and gushed, “Oh, yes, well I write about luxury travel. I cover yachts all the time. They really are quite fabulous.”

I cocked my head and replied, “Really? I’m so sorry, but I don’t remember having seen you at any boat shows during the past few years.” I handed her my CharterWave business card.

Her face turned white as she told me she’d never actually been onboard a yacht, but that she’s a professional. “I can write about anything,” she said before abruptly turning away.

I tell you these anecdotes not to embarrass my colleagues, but to make the point that you need to be careful when deciding which information about yacht charter you can trust. We here at CharterWave really do know what we’re talking about. We attend boat shows around the world, we get onboard the boats we review and personally interview the crews we suggest, and we test brokers’ abilities by arranging our charters through them.

Having gotten yet another “behind-the-scenes peek” at the people who are out there as our competition these days, I am, frankly, quite certain you’ll come to value the information we provide even more. And as always, I urge you to question your sources and make sure they’re accurate before booking any yacht charter.

You really do have to know whose advice it is that you’re taking.

There’s an exciting trend building in the worldwide crewed charter market.

I say this based on the response I received from management companies this week for an article I’m writing about exciting charter yachts for the winter 2007 season. I asked fleet managers from Fort Lauderdale to Monaco to tell me which yachts they think are going to be the “hottest” come Christmastime. Every other year that I’ve written this feature, almost all of the yachts the companies suggested were available exclusively in the Caribbean.

This year, though, only one management company suggested that I review a Caribbean-based yacht. The rest of the ideas involved yachts that will be cruising in Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Western Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.

What a fabulous sign that crewed yacht charter is, indeed, starting to spread out beyond the traditional Caribbean and Mediterranean cruising grounds. Indeed, yachts are becoming available literally worldwide–with more and more cruising off the beaten path every year.

I couldn’t be happier about this continuing trend. The more places yachts are available for charter, the more people will want to charter again and again–and the more options we’ll have for luring even more charter guests off the big cruise ships and into the vacations of their lifetimes.

I’ve had about enough of gray skies and rain. The Nor’Easter that blew in here on Sunday is still dumping water out of the sky. Several of my neighbors’ basements are flooded. Our front yard looks like a duck pond.

I was doing okay with the rain, actually, until I read the recent blog post from the captain onboard the crewed charter yacht Charisma. His yacht’s page is part of a sponsored advertising package here on CharterWave, and when he started blogging, I suggested that he tell readers what’s going on with his yacht down in the Caribbean.

“People would love to know what a great time you’re having down there,” I told him. “Tell them all about the water toys and beautiful weather.”

Sure enough, he’s now blogging about how the weather up here is making the sunny, eighty-degree weather down there even better, because we’re sucking up all the nasty winds here on our end of the weather system. Cruising is calm, and he’s treating his charter guests to all the fun they can handle.

I guess I’ll just have to live vicariously through them by reading more of the captain’s blog posts. Maybe I’ll try reading them while wading through the small lake that used to be my front lawn…