Yesterday, I reported some of the major points contained in the newly released Super Yachting Index from Camper & Nicholsons International. Today, having had a day to chew on the data, I’m going to offer some analysis.

For the record, I am also continuing to ask questions of the team at CNI who compiled the report. As the answers to my questions come in, I may revisit this data yet again here on the CharterWave Editor’s Blog.

The assertion that jumped out most to me in the Index claims that about 200 of the available 830 yachts in the 80-foot-and-larger size range performed half of the 2,750 weeks of charter that took place in 2007. Put another way, that means 24 percent of the available worldwide fleet each performed about seven weeks’ worth of charters, leaving 76 percent of the fleet (630 yachts) that performed the remaining 1,375 weeks, or about two weeks of charter apiece.

If three-quarters of the yachts available for charter in the 80-foot-and-larger size range are, indeed, performing just two weeks of charter apiece, that is big news.

As a charter client, you would have no way of knowing this, but most charter management companies tell yacht owners that the “gold standard” of charter is getting 12 weeks of bookings each year. That’s also the mark a lot of captains say they are striving for when I meet them at boat shows. When they say they want four, six, or eight weeks of charter, they usually precede the number with the word “only.” It appears, if CNI’s data are correct, that “only” seven weeks of charter a year is in fact what the most successful charter yachts are doing–falling more than 30 percent short of what yacht owners and captains are being told is the definition of a successful year.

This same data could mean a couple of different things for you as a charter client. If, in fact, three-quarters of the yachts 80 feet and larger are booking only two weeks of charter each year, then there is either a heck of a lot more availability out there than (at least I) previously perceived, or there are a ton of yacht owners promoting their boats for charter without actually making them available.

If the truth is that 76 percent of these yachts are sitting idle, hoping to book 12 weeks a year but only managing to get two contracts signed, then you as a client have far more bargaining power when it comes to getting the vacation you want, where and when you want it, and at what price. The yacht owners need your business more than you need their specific yacht. That would be good news for you as a client, indeed.

On the other hand, if the truth is that these 76 percent of yachts are being advertised for charter without truly being made available for bookings, then you as a client are in a far worse bargaining position than the size of the worldwide fleet indicates. If there are just 200 yachts actually seeking your business, instead of 830 yachts that seem to want your business, then you are going to face much more limited supply when you make your requests to owners for contract addenda and price negotiations.

I’m honestly not sure which scenario is closer to the truth, but my educated guess is that each scenario is “a little more true” at opposite ends of the size spectrum.

A guy who owns a 180-foot motoryacht probably doesn’t care whether he books just two weeks of charter each year, since he can, well, afford to own a 180-foot motoryacht. He doesn’t need your charter business to keep his yacht, so it’s counted as part of the available fleet without really being available at all. You’ll have little luck negotiating anything with this owner, as he owns a rare commodity and has no incentive to bargain.

At the opposite end of this spectrum is the owner of an 80-foot sailboat, who perhaps saved his whole life to buy his boat. He does need your 12 weeks of charter business to offset his expenses, and he’s probably out there trying to determine how he could make his boat available for 15 weeks instead of 12 if more clients like you appear. You’ll often have good luck negotiating a charter deal with an owner like this.

In between these two kinds of yachts lies the bulk of the market, according to the CNI Index, meaning yachts in the 100- to 130-foot size range–where you’re likely to find owners who fit both mind-sets. So as fascinating as all these newly released data are to consider, the reality is that we’re right back where I so often start here on CharterWave: recommending that you work with a reputable broker who knows the owners and captains in all size ranges and can help you find the type of charter yacht that best fits your needs, financial and otherwise.

What an interesting question to try to answer, though, regarding how many yachts are actually out there performing how many charters apiece. I look forward to hearing what the team that produced the Index for Camper & Nicholsons says, as I have posed this question to them as well.

Last night, in the model room at the New York Yacht Club on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, the world’s largest charter company attempted to quantify the scope of the global large-yacht industry with statistics never before made available to the public.

The release of the first annual Super Yachting Index from Camper & Nicholsons International marked the first time that any company has released superyacht industry information of this magnitude, particularly in terms of charter data. The report, based on CNI’s internal research as well as industry resources such as the broker-only database called MYBAnet, includes the first-ever published data about things like the number of 80-foot and larger charter yachts in the world, the number of weeks being booked for charter vacations, and the average value of those vacations.

“We decided to do this because there is a lot of misinformation being given to the public about the superyacht industry, particularly in the lifestyle magazines,” explained Laurent Perignon, CNI’s director of marketing. “We also believe that the superyacht industry is no longer a cottage industry. It is quickly becoming a global industry, and all true industries make their statistics available to the public. As the world’s leading superyacht company, we wanted to take a leading role in this.”

Perignon admitted at the start of last night’s presentation that the Super Yachting Index was compiled without the assistance of any other large-yacht companies–CNI’s competitors–which he hoped would make their data similarly available for annual industry-wide indexes in the future. Also, this first index is based on information from the 2007 calendar year, which will become the benchmark for data compiled in future years. There is thus no yardstick against which to measure the index’s assertions or compare its pronouncements.

Still, with by far the world’s largest charter fleet, CNI has its hand in a fair percentage of the world’s large-yacht business. That means this first attempt to quantify the universe of luxury yachts is coming from a global leader in a position to take highly educated guesses in areas where hard data is difficult to compile.

I have read the entire 43-page report, which includes sections about everything from how large yachts are constructed to how the brokerage process works during a yacht sale. As you might imagine, I paid special attention to Chapter Three: The Charter Market–and was surprised by some of the numbers CNI has put forth.

Today here on the CharterWave Editor’s Blog, I am going to give you some of the raw data from the report, as there is a good bit to consider. Tomorrow, after I’ve had a chance to follow up with Perignon on a few questions, I will offer my analysis of what these data mean to you, as a reader interested in booking charter yacht vacations.

Here are some of the assertions from the CNI Super Yachting Index’s section on charter:

* There are 830 yachts available for charter in the 80-foot-and-larger size range. These charter yachts account for 20 percent of all 3,800 superyachts afloat.

* 60% of those 830 yachts fall in the 100- to 165-foot size range, making it the heart of the superyacht charter industry. Yachts from 80 to 100 feet make up 27 percent of the available fleet, with yachts 165 feet and larger comprising the remaining 13 percent of the fleet.

* 100- to 130-foot yachts accounted for 63.5 percent of the charter bookings in 2007. Yachts from 80 to 100 feet did 21 percent of the bookings, and yachts from 130 to 165 feet did 15.5 percent of the bookings.

* With a handful of exceptions, no yachts larger than 240 feet are available for charter, even though the largest private motoryachts being built today surpass 500 feet in length.

* About 75 percent of the 80-foot-and-larger yachts available for charter are motoryachts, with sailing yachts comprising about 25 percent of the available fleet. About half of those sailing yachts are at the small end of the superyacht scale, between 80 and 100 feet long.

* More than half of the worldwide superyacht charter contracts being written today are in euro rather than the U.S. dollar, which represented virtually all contracts just a few years ago. Given the current exchange rate, this indicates that charter is in practical terms becoming more expensive.

* The average duration of a yacht charter vacation is 8.75 days.

* Charter clients vacation onboard smaller sailing yachts longer than they vacation onboard larger ones, while the opposite is true of motoryachts, with the larger motoryachts inspiring longer stays.

* The 830 charter yachts 80 feet and longer performed a total of 2,750 weeks of charter in 2007. About 200 of the 830 available yachts represented some 50 percent of those 2,750 weeks of bookings.

* The Mediterranean accounted for 70 percent of all charter vacation destinations, with 56 percent of charters occurring in the Western Med and 14 percent of charters occurring in the Eastern Med.

* The Caribbean was the second-most popular destination, with 15 percent of charters occurring there. Florida and the Bahamas were next, at 7 percent combined, with New England trailing at 2 percent.

* U.S. and British clients booked 60 percent of the charter vacations that took place in 2007. Russians made up just 8 percent of the charter client base, but spent nearly twice as much money as any other nationality, booking larger yachts for longer periods of time.

* Corporate charters represented 8 percent of the bookings in 2007, with more than 90 percent of bookings for vacations–primarily by families.

* About half of the smaller yachts are booked within a month of the charter date, while charter yachts 165 feet and larger are typically booked from four months to a year in advance of the charter date. Middle-range superyachts are typically booked three to six months before the charter date.

* About 50 percent of people who charter a yacht will do so again, typically within two to three years. Some 30 percent of charterers go on to purchase their own yacht, while about 15 percent of charterers never return. [Note: These figures do not equal 100 percent.]

As I said, this is a lot of data to digest, some of it inspiring follow-up questions. For instance, I am curious to learn more about the assertion that just 200 of the 830 available yachts did half of the 2,750 weeks of charter in 2007. That would mean some 75 percent of yachts available for charter in the 80-foot-plus range are booking just two weeks of charter each year, a number that, as I told Perignon last night, sounds surprisingly low to me.

I’m also interested to ask about a few statements in the index, including one page that says there are about 100 retail charter companies worldwide that include hundreds of brokers, but that “bona fide charter brokers are usually associated with a large brokerage house,” such as CNI. In my experience this is not true, as there are plenty of reputable independent brokers (as well as brokers who make mistakes while being backed by major companies).

Despite these handful of questions, I believe Camper & Nicholsons International is to be commended for taking a leadership role in attempting to quantify the superyacht industry for the public. As those of you who are regular CharterWave readers know, I often have a dickens of a time trying to verify statements made by yacht owners and management companies because there simply are no public resources available. I also regularly am confounded by mass-media outlets that publish articles about charter that are outright wrong, and CNI did a good job of ensuring that many of those general-interest reporters were invited to last night’s presentation in the publishing industry’s Manhattan hub.

In short, this new Super Yachting Index has the potential, over years, to fill the longtime void created by missing and misleading information–especially if other large companies follow CNI’s lead in making their general data available for the index in future years. CNI’s effort to quantify the industry publicly is, in my opinion, a large step in the right direction for the future of charter itself.

More on this tomorrow, from an analytical instead of a raw-data perspective. If you have questions of your own about this report that you would like me to pursue, you may leave them for me in the comments section of this blog, e-mail me at Kim@CharterWave.com, or contact Camper & Nicholsons International.

As I go from yacht to yacht at the annual industry-only charter show here in Genoa, I make a point of asking where the boat will be moving after the summer Mediterranean season is over. Historically, the answer is “Caribbean.” It’s so common, it’s almost like a reflex.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time, at least one or two crew each day are telling me that they are likely to head to the Maldives this winter, followed by the Seychelles, both in the Indian Ocean. Apparently, there is a law in the Maldives that allows yachts to stay only for 31 days before their customs clearance expires, so the Maldives-Seychelles pairing becomes necessary to fill the entire season of winter months.

The reasons I’m hearing for this new trend are:

* There is not enough charter business in the Caribbean to support the expense of moving a yacht there from the Mediterranean. The cost to reposition some of the larger motoryachts for alternating Med/Caribbean seasons approaches $500,000, and this past winter, more than a few boats reported making the move without recouping the expense in charter revenue. Some say the U.S. economy is a key reason for that, with traditional Caribbean customers from America failing to book their usual number of winter vacations.

* A key, growing segment of the charter industry is in Russia and the Middle East, where more and more people can afford yacht charter–but do not necessarily want to fly across so many time zones to enjoy it. They prefer the islands and beaches in the Maldives because they are, as the Caribbean is for Americans, closer to home.

* Changing global weather patterns mean it has been rainier and windier in the Caribbean than in seasons past. I have no evidence to support this one, but I heard it from two different yacht crews, so it is taking hold as a rumor, at a minimum. I’ll do some research on this for you in the coming weeks to see whether it is, indeed, true.

* Experienced yacht owners and charter clients are tiring of the Caribbean. It has been the primary winter location for many years now, and people are looking to vacation someplace new. For many charter clients, the Seychelles and Maldives are an exotic, enticing option.

As any regular reader of CharterWave knows, I’m a big fan of yachts moving into new places. From my perspective, this is a good trend that is developing. It will allow more options for charter clients in terms of destinations.

Of course, plenty of charter yachts will still be availble this winter in the Caribbean, which will remain a lovely destination for many types of cruising vacations. To me, it’s just nice to know that anyone seeking a charter vacation has ever-expanding choices.