It’s with great sadness that I pass along the news here today that longtime charter broker Linda Owen has died.

Linda was one of my favorite brokers in the industry, with deep knowledge about sailing yachts and Virgin Islands boats, in particular. I often sought out her opinions at boat shows, and I came to consider her as much a friend as a colleague over the years.

I was thrilled for her just a couple of years ago when she and her husband finally bought the sailing yacht of their dreams, which they eagerly put into the charter industry. It was while I toured that yacht just two months ago on St. Thomas that I learned Linda had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Her battle with the disease was fierce and, perhaps mercifully, short.

As I say all the time here on CharterWave, there are some charter brokers you can trust and others you cannot. Linda was one of the brokers whom I trusted the most. I was always happy to recommend her to readers like you.

At a time when people calling themselves charter brokers are popping up faster than wildflowers, Linda helped to set the standards for what a reputable charter broker should be. She was an example for others to follow.

And she will be missed.

I just read this advertisement, posted by someone from Slovenia calling himself Akoprivec, on a website where freelance computer programmers look for jobs:

“We run a fast-growing, multilingual worldwide web directory of boats for charter. … Our vision is to become the biggest yacht charter directory on the planet by 2012. … What we need is to find a partner with great experience in the past to promote our website to yacht charter companies and yacht charter brokers. How you find them is up to you…”

I’m seeing a lot of things like this popping up around the World Wide Web. Even computer programmers in Slovenia recognize that online readers face a dearth of independent information about the charter industry.

I of course saw that same media hole beginning to open a few years ago, which is one of the main reasons I launched CharterWave in October 2006. Here’s the thing, though, and it’s very important for you to understand:

I built CharterWave in a way that helps you find the most reputable brokers and boats within the charter industry. These new websites all aspire to cut the brokers out of the process and connect you directly with the charter yachts.

That way, computer guys from places like Slovenia can take the cut of your money that used to go to a knowledgeable broker who might actually be able to help you find the best possible charter vacation.

The same thing happened to travel agents a decade or so ago, when cruise ships first started taking direct bookings and removing the agents’ ability to influence which cruise you booked. Without a travel agent there to tell you, “Ship A is better than Ship B,” the cruise ship companies have removed the last bulwark between you and their marketing slogans. You can go to their websites and book direct, based on price alone. That’s exactly how they like it, even if it means you get a worse vacation in terms of value.

These new websites attempting to build databases of yachts are trying to move the charter industry in that same direction. Yes, some of them also list brokers, but they are almost always willing to list anybody as a broker who will pay a fee. There is nobody policing whether the brokers on these sites are actually reputable. As I’ve told you in the past, I regularly receive invitations to sign up with these websites, and I’m not a broker at all.

The race is on, then, to win your attention online. Many of these websites are banking on the fact that if they can get to you first, you won’t notice what you’re missing. They’re the hare in the proverbial race.

I’m proud to be the tortoise. Yes, CharterWave ranks highly in a lot of search engines, and that’s important. But more important to me is my belief that the race for your attention is longer than just a single click. To my thinking, any serious charter customers doing research online will appreciate a more comprehensive, authoritative website when they see it. Think of the Wine Spectator site, with all its expert reviews, versus a wine store’s list of thousands of bottles for sale.

These new websites sprouting up are nothing more than lists of yachts with prices attached. They tell you nothing–because they know nothing more.