Since reporting here on Friday that Feadship has become the latest yacht builder to form its own charter division, I’ve been trying to make sense of exactly what the news means to you, as a charter client. I’ve asked questions of everyone from a high-ranking Board member of the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association (which promotes international charter-booking standards and ethics) to the man who will be running Feadship’s new operation (a former marketing director who says neither he nor his company have immediate plans to join any such professional organization).
Interestingly, both parties have the same opinion of what’s going on with yacht builders joining the charter industry in general. And from where I sit as an objective observer, it’s not necessarily a bad thing–as long as you are aware of how a yacht builder’s charter division can differ from charter companies when it comes time to book your vacation.
Feadship, as I mentioned, is just the latest yacht builder to open its own charter division. Others include Sunseeker, Perini Navi, Hargrave, and Benetti. Why do these boatbuilders want to be in the charter business? Because, by at least one major company’s measure, fully one in three people who charter a yacht will go on to buy one.
If a builder can help you to charter a boat they built, and keep you from talking to independent brokers about other yachts at the same time, then the odds are if you’re one of those future buyers, you’re going to buy from them. If you call Feadship, they’ll help you book a charter aboard a Feadship. If you call an independent charter broker, they’ll help you book a charter aboard a Feadship–or a Lurssen, or a Christensen, or any other number of yachts. You might decide you prefer another brand. That’s fine with an independent broker, but less than ideal for a yacht builder. There are literally millions of dollars at stake.
Now, in the case of charter, an estimated two out of three people who book vacations want nothing more than that: a great vacation. And if you’re a regular reader of CharterWave, then you know the boat is just the beginning when it comes to a great charter vacation. There’s also the destination, the crew, and a myriad other factors that should be tailored to your individual desires–hence my continual suggestion that you always book through a reputable charter broker who is a member of professional organizations and who will suggest multiple yachts that might suit you. Any yacht builder’s core business is construction, not charter. Booking through a builder instead of a broker means you’re putting your vacation in the hands of someone whose ultimate goal is to sell you a boat, and not necessarily to organize your perfect vacation.
If you’re in the market to charter because you want to try out different yachts before buying one, then you may be fine with a builder helping you instead of a broker–and a builder’s charter division may offer benefits that a charter broker cannot. In the case of Feadship, for instance, division manager D.J. Kiernan told me the motoryacht Harle is offering a charter contract that is simpler than the standard MYBA contract for “members of the Feadship family,” a contract that is “a little less harsh in ramifications if something were not to go right.” A charter broker can offer a standard MYBA contract to the Feadship charter division, and it can be used for vacations aboard Harle, but this other option is also available, Kiernan said, especially to someone interesting in chartering as a “try out” before buying a Feadship of their own.
These are the kinds of contractual quagmires that, frankly, you don’t want to get into if you’re simply a charter client–since the odds are you have far less money than the guy who owns the yacht, and you will, in fact, want the protection of a standard contract in case things go awry with your vacation. Different circumstances, indeed, and thus a powerful example of how working with an independent charter broker instead of a yacht builder’s charter division can affect you in the long run.
Now, having said all this, I’d be remiss if I failed to point out that the largest independent charter companies are beginning to align themselves with yacht builders. Camper & Nicholsons International has the same parent company as the yacht builder Mangusta. International Yacht Collection was recently purchased by Trinity Yachts. Fraser Yachts Worldwide is owned by the Azimut-Benetti yacht building group. All of the reputable charter brokers at Camper, IYC, and Fraser will tell you that they are part of independent operations and that they book far more styles of yacht than the ones in their own companies’ families. But are they truly independent? Of course not. At least not in the same way they were before they became partners with, or subsidiaries of, yacht builders, and certainly not in the same way as the small, independent charter brokers who are mom-and-pop shops without any such affiliations.
And this, at the end of the day, is the industry trend upon which builders like Feadship are seizing by creating their own charter divisions. If there’s going to be charter industry consolidation anyway, why should a builder bother buying or partnering with an existing charter company when it can just create a division? If people know and like the brand name Feadship, then why shouldn’t Feadship go after that charter business on its own, and keep the clients all to itself for future possible yacht sales?
Like I said, all of this is not necessarily bad–as long as you, as a charter client, understand what you’re getting into when you choose to book your charter through a yacht builder instead of a traditional, reputable broker. The reality is that chartering a yacht is a caveat emptor endeavor, and you should at least understand the underlying motives of anyone who purports to help you book a vacation. You may get excellent service from a yacht builder’s charter division, whether the person running it is a member of a professional organization like MYBA or not. The questions you should be asking, though, are about exactly what kind of service you need.
