Charter broker Sue Flammia–the last remaining retail broker in the Fort Lauderdale office of Merrill-Stevens following the division closings in early March–has left the company to join International Yacht Charter Group.

Flammia’s move leaves Merrill-Stevens without any retail charter brokers in the United States, where the company had both a retail charter division as well as a charter yacht management division until last month.

Merrill-Stevens charter director Marta Iglesias and broker Natascha Weber remain available to book charter vacations through the company’s office in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Iglesias told me today that Merrill-Stevens will continue to have a retail charter division, though at this point, the only in-house brokers will be located in Spain. The company is considering its options for the Fort Lauderdale office.

International Yacht Charter Group (a CharterWave sponsor) is a Florida-based retail charter booking agency. President Janet Bloomfield is growing the company quickly and luring talent from longstanding charter companies, most recently bringing aboard Patty Wilson, who formerly worked for The Sacks Group Yachting Professionals.

Flammia told me this morning that she has already started working for International Yacht Charter Group, and that her departure from Merrill-Stevens was amicable. During her transitional phase to International Yacht Charter Group, she hopes to continue supporting the clients who booked charters with her while she was still under the Merrill-Stevens banner.

As part of the marketing campaign for the second edition of my how-to-charter book, Dream Cruises, I have been doing my fair share of radio interviews. Most recently, I was featured on a show called AuthorTalk with a host who asked a lot of general questions about the basics of booking a first charter vacation.

These are the same kinds of questions I receive via e-mail from CharterWave readers on a regular basis, so I thought it might be helpful to post a link to the podcast here.

It runs about 20 minutes long, with about 15 of those minutes devoted to yacht charter. The other five minutes, which are toward the end of the interview, are about my experiences in publishing the book itself.

Enjoy!

The biggest European charter show of the year will begin in less than two weeks, in Genoa, Italy, where one of the motoryachts I’m most looking forward to seeing is Lauren L. Previously known as Constellation, she just completed a refit that, among other things, added a helideck, a new deck for tender stowage, and about 5 feet to her overall length (to 295 feet).

Lauren L’s new master suite encompasses some 220 square feet of living space with a balcony, as well as the private conference room for six people shown in the photo above (courtesy of management company Liveras Yachts). There are an additional five new cabins onboard, making Lauren L capable of taking 40 guests (with 36 crew). Overall, the refit increased her interior guest space by some 43 percent, the team at Liveras Yachts tells me.

Other work during the refit included the addition of a health and beauty center with a sauna, steam room, gym, aromatherapy area, relaxation room with aquarium, beauty salon, and hair/nail salon. No doubt this addition is thanks to feedback Liveras Yachts got from charter guest experiences in the extensive health salons onboard its 280-foot sisterships Annaliesse and Alysia (only the latter remains in charter today).

Lauren L’s refit also included an extension of her sundeck–a k a “deck 6″ if you’re counting–which now houses a bar and hot tub, as well as proper yacht-style teak decking. Also outdoors, on deck 4, is a new outdoor dining and sitting area.

From what I can tell based on pricing, the renovations have made Lauren L the new star of the Liveras Yachts fleet. Alysia’s current weekly base rate is 696,500 euro, while Lauren L’s weekly base rate is 770,000 euro this summer in the Mediterranean. That’s about $1.2 million per week (before food and fuel) at today’s exchange rate, or, with all 40 guest beds full, about $4,300 per person, per day.

Must be one incredible refit. Like I said, I can’t wait to see for myself the first full week of May. I’ll of course report back for you here on the daily blog, and I’ll have a full First Impression review online soon.

In the meantime, if you’d like more information about the newly refit Lauren L, contact any reputable charter broker.