The folks in the above photo are Sandy and Tom Taylor, who announced this week that they are officially opening a booking agency called Taylor’d Yacht Charters.

I’ve known Sandy for quite some time now, most recently in her capacity as the head of retail charter and crew placement for Northrop & Johnson. She left that job last year to join her husband Tom, former executive director of Northrop & Johnson, in starting their own business booking charter vacations for clients worldwide.

The Taylors have a combined 20 years’ experience in the marine industry, working at everything from yacht support to charter management at firms as large as Camper & Nicholsons International. They now plan to combine their big-company expertise with the personal service that a boutique company can provide.

They’re based in Natchez, Mississippi, and are members of the Florida Yacht Brokers Association. Plus, I can personally attest, they’re darn nice people.

For more information, check out their newly launched website.

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 independent charter agencies around the world go, there are few that would make me more proud as a new sponsor than Shannon Webster Charters.

I first met Shannon back in 2000, when I was onboard my first-ever charter yacht feature as the executive editor of Yachting magazine. We were in the British Virgin Islands, a place that she and her husband, Capt. Dan Webster, knew well from all their years of working as charter yacht crew. I was about as new and green as the water down there is blue, and Shannon quickly became both a knowledgeable mentor and a friend. I have relied on her insights into the worldwide charter industry for nearly a decade now, and she continues to be one of my most trusted resources for reliable information.

Shannon stopped working aboard boats and opened Shannon Webster Charters in 1989, building it into what today is one of the most successful independent booking agencies in the world. Her husband is still a well-regarded charter captain (see my review of the 120-foot Joanne, which he commands), and between them, they have developed a network of connections that is truly global.

That’s an important thing to have when you’re booking charter yachts from 80 to 400-plus feet on a worldwide scale, since it allows you to help clients no matter what they need, at any time, in any place. Shannon prides herself on offering that level of service, which is why so many of her clients have become repeat customers over the years.

I encourage you to check out the new Shannon Webster Charters sponsored page here on CharterWave, where Shannon and her staff plan to begin blogging soon with tips, news, and advice for anyone interested in crewed yacht charter.

You also can check out the website of Shannon Webster Charters by clicking here.