Four or five brokers who attended the recent Genoa charter show came up and asked me, with great concern, to write something here on CharterWave about how competitive the market has gotten for summertime charters in the Western Mediterranean.

These brokers were all frustrated because they’re getting calls now, during the spring, from people who want to charter top-dollar megayachts this summer in popular destinations like France and Italy. The problem is, demand has increased so much for the most expensive charter yachts in these locations that they’re almost all fully booked before the summer season even starts.

And it’s not just the yachts that are booking up fast. Marinas, too, have only so many slips to go around for yachts that are 150 feet and larger. Some megayacht captains are booking slip reservations for summer 2008 right now, even before they have charters confirmed, on the belief that you’ll choose their yacht if they can guarantee you a spot at the trendiest marinas in Europe.

One charter broker told me she had arrived at the Genoa show with commitments for 2008 bookings from four separate clients who had chartered before. Each told her that if she found a good yacht for them in the $100,000-a-week or more price range, she should book it more than a year in advance because they didn’t want to take the chance of losing out on the opportunity.

The upshot is this: If you want a big-money luxury charter in the world’s premier destination for summer 2008, you need to call a reputable charter broker today. The brokers I spoke with in Genoa would very much like to help you, but they will be as frustrated as you if you wait until next year to pick up the phone.

I met a new charter broker at the recent boat show in Greece. She invited me to lunch onboard a yacht she represents, so that I could see for myself just how fabulous the food and service were.

When I arrived, I took out my notebook and asked her to tell me about the chef’s background. She gushed about how the chef was trained at all the finest Michelin restaurants in Europe, where he had earned five-star status.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I think I misunderstood you. Did you say this yacht’s chef has earned five Michelin stars?”

“Yes,” she exclaimed. “He is the best of the best, and everyone knows it!”

“The thing is,” I puzzled as politely as possible, “it’s impossible to have five Michelin stars. They only give one, two or three stars in the Michelin system.”

“Oh, that’s right,” she said, not missing a beat in her sales pitch. “He only has two stars from Michelin. But that’s because he’s young. They’re giving him his third star soon.”

Now, I knew this lady was full of you-know-what before I sat down to eat. And that’s when the proof showed up in the pudding–or, should I say, in the cold lamb chops, the red wine spilled all over another lunch guest, and the yacht’s steward offering seconds by holding up a platter across the table and yelling, “More, lady?”

This is a yacht asking about $61,000 a week for 12 guests. (At least in person; if you book directly through this woman’s website, the rate is listed at $66,000 a week–a nice extra personal commission for her, I’m sure.) And any true Michelin-trained chef would have walked off in disgust, just as I eventually did.

I spend a lot of time here on CharterWave urging you to work with a reputable broker when booking your yacht vacation. This joker–and the countless others like her that you might find online–are exactly the reason why.

I found myself asking a question at last week’s charter yacht show in Turkey that I have never felt the need to ask at any other show, anywhere in the world:

“How many generators does this yacht have?”

I must admit, I usually look at things like “number of staterooms” and “number of crew” when comparing yachts. But in Turkey, I learned, more than a few of the gulets–traditional sailing yachts that make up the bulk of the charter fleet–are advertising air conditioning when they do not have enough generator capacity to run it throughout the night.

So yes, these charter yachts technically do have air conditioning. But it will be of no use to you when it’s 105 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of August, because there won’t be enough power to run it when you’re anchored in a harbor.

It’s the first time I’ve come across this kind of false advertising permeating an entire geographic marketplace, and it reminds me yet again how important it is to book every charter vacation through a reputable broker.

Good brokers make sure you will get what you pay for, so you don’t end up hot under the collar, no matter what kind of yacht you book anywhere in the world.