Back in October, I posted this blog item about the 62-foot sailing yacht Conundrum, praising its owners for hiring better, more enthusiastic crew than the team I met when I wrote my First Impression review of the yacht. “It’s always nice to see a yacht owner correcting problems to improve the charters her boat offers,” I wrote.

The same sentiment now applies to the owner of the 110-foot motoryacht Le Reve, whose name means “The Dream” but that I wrote might be a charter nightmare because of crew problems I discovered last month when I got onboard for a First Impression review.

I’m thrilled to say that Le Reve’s owner, like Conundrum’s, has taken the step of replacing a less-than-stellar crew with one that has a good deal of charter industry experience. As I wrote in my review, the yacht itself is quite nice. I’m delighted to see that there is now a crew in place with the potential to be as great as the boat itself.

We don’t pull our punches here on CharterWave because we want you to be well-informed when researching different yachts, crew, and brokers. But we’re just tickled to be able to write good-news updates like these, when owners correct onboard problems to enhance your charter experience.

Kudos to the owner and new crew onboard Le Reve. They now seem to be setting a better standard for the charter industry as a whole.

The 65-foot sailing trimaran Promenade, at about 30 years old, is neither the newest nor the fanciest yacht that’s available for charter in the Virgin Islands. That’s why the owners and crew continue to go out of their way to add nifty amenities for charter guests to enjoy.

When I hopped onboard for a quick look-see in St. Thomas earlier this month, the crew were promoting the fact that the yacht has scuba gear and swimming noodles with this hilarious setup:

Even better, up on the front of the yacht, Promenade was displaying a new water toy that I haven’t seen onboard any other yacht, at any price. According to the crew, guests are in love with this inflatable thing, which floats attached to the back of the yacht at cocktail hour each night:

These are the kinds of simple things that really can make the experience onboard one charter yacht better than the experience onboard another. Kudos to the Promenade team for continuing to find new ways to help charter guests enjoy their vacation in the islands.

If you’re interested in trying out these water toys yourself during a vacation onboard Promenade, contact any reputable charter broker.

I received a very interesting letter in the mail yesterday from the owner-operator of a sailing yacht that was on display earlier this month at the industry-only charter show on Tortola, British Virgin Islands. I didn’t get onboard this boat during the show, so I’m assuming that this man got my name from the show’s directory of attendees.

According to the letter, this owner-operator received “a lot of bad feedback” about his yacht from brokers who toured it during the boat show. He is thus disappointed, and is writing in an attempt to clarify the way that he feels brokers and the media should describe his boat to potential clients like you.

He explains that his yacht is 35 years old, was battered in Hurricane Ivan two years ago, and is now up to what he considers “a reasonable standard for the charter business for the lower end of the market.” He goes on to say that this is his first year in the charter business, and that he’s willing to increase broker commissions beyond their normal rate if they send clients his way.

You’ve gotta love this guy’s chutzpah.

But you absolutely, positively do not want to charter his boat.

The reason that reputable charter brokers (and reporters like me) attend these boat shows is to see firsthand what condition the boats are in, how well the owners and crew compare within their price range, and how well the owners and captains respond to requests for improvements that will enhance people’s charter vacations. Many brokers have more than this particular owner-operator’s single year’s worth of time in the business. In fact, many have been inspecting charter yachts for more than a decade. They know what to look for on your behalf.

It’s yachts like this–that are below the standard, with owners unwilling to acknowledge that fact or make improvements–that you absolutely want to steer clear of when booking a charter vacation. And your best ally in that process is a reputable charter broker who knows what you should be getting for your money.