I received an e-mail this week from a CharterWave reader who wanted my advice on how to sue her charter broker.

According to the reader, she booked an $80,000 yacht charter onboard a motoryacht, and the charter went wholly wrong. The contract she signed called for baby gates, which were not installed. The yacht’s air conditioning failed to function. None of the crew spoke English, as had been promised. She and her family had to disembark in an entirely different country than planned.

The reader says that she was in contact with her charter broker–one of the industry’s longest-serving and best-respected brokers, actually–throughout the trip, and that the broker consistently reassured her that her charter fee would be adjusted and her extra travel expenses would be reimbursed. Ultimately, that didn’t happen because the yacht’s owner refused the broker’s requests. So the reader decided she would hold the broker legally responsible for the problems, and she wanted my advice on how to do so.

I don’t hear a lot of stories like this one (which I take as a credit to all the excellent charter yachts out there), but when I do hear them, it’s usually because the charter client wants to sue the broker. The broker is the client’s contact person throughout the charter, and as such bears the brunt of the client’s anger when a yacht owner fails to live up to the contract he signed.

The reality, though, is that many charters–like this one–are booked using a contract written by the Mediterranean Yacht Brokers Association, known as the standard MYBA contract. In that contract is a clause that protects the broker against wrongdoing. It states that if there is a problem, it’s you, the charterer, against the yacht owner. When you sign this standard MYBA contract, you agree to go to arbitration against the yacht owner, not a court of law against the broker, should the charter go awry.

Now, you could certainly debate whether this is fair to the charter client, since usually, the only person the client ever deals with when booking a charter is the broker. But that question aside, I can’t stress enough how important it is for every client to read and understand every line of a charter contract before signing and stepping onboard.

This particular reader certainly has a case to be made against the yacht’s owner, but because she signed the standard MYBA contract, she will need her broker’s help in fighting that legal battle. The way the contract works, suing the broker is like shooting the only person in a position to document and verify your problems. Again, you might not think this is fair, but it is reality.

I feel bad for this reader, who is learning the fine print of the contract she signed long after the time when she signed it. If you’re planning to sign a MYBA contract–or any other kind of charter contract, for that matter–please read it and understand it before it becomes final. If there’s a clause that makes you uncomfortable, try to negotiate it out. It’s far easier to do so before a charter goes wrong than afterward, as this poor reader is learning the hard way.

A lot of the boating and luxury lifestyle magazines where my byline regularly appears get produced many, many months before they actually show up on newsstands. Today is August 19, and a few of my editors are already asking me to start work on features that will appear in 2009 issues.

One such request came in yesterday, from an editor who wants to know what the best new charter yachts will be in the Mediterranean at this time next summer. By the time the story runs in early 2009, it will of course be quite timely, but at this point, a lot of the managers at major charter companies aren’t even sure where their current fleet of yachts will be cruising next summer, let alone what yachts that are still being built in the world’s shipyards will be doing.

The editor’s request reminded me about what many, many reputable charter brokers say: that trying to book a charter yacht vacation more than a year in advance is challenging, at best.

With yachts that are already in charter, you never know what might happen in a year’s time (the crew could change significantly, or the owner could outright sell the yacht). With yachts that are still under construction, there’s no way to tell whether there might be shipyard delays and the like.

Any reputable charter broker worth his salt will be able to take an educated guess as to what yachts might be available a year from now, but on the whole, most will tell you that booking your charter vacation more than a year’s time out is less than an exact science.

Thus, if you’re looking at your calendar and trying to organize a charter vacation for next summer or beyond, yes, call a broker today, but be prepared to remain flexible about the details for a while. You will want to “roll with the yacht changes” that can be anticipated, so to speak, so that you will end up getting the best possible vacation for your charter dollar as your travel dates draw nearer.

I saw an article in British Columbia’s Times Colonist newspaper this weekend that reminded me just how little the general public understands about how yachts and charter brokers work.

This article describes the 194-foot motoryacht Senses, an expedition-style yacht that apparently just pulled into the harbor in the lovely tourist city of Victoria, Canada. I can understand why the locals are so excited. I’ve been aboard Senses, and she’s quite fantastic. Big, beautiful, and unusual, and certainly more spectacular design-wise than the cruise ships that regularly visit that area.

What caught my eye in the article was this passage, which the writer crafted after trying to find out who was onboard: “Ed Hamilton, the agent who acts as a broker for chartering the ship, would not identify the owner or the renter. ‘Our clients like to maintain their privacy,’ Hamilton said from his Maine office.”

Now, reading that as quickly as most newspaper patrons might, it sure sounds like if you want to book Senses, you call Hamilton, or at least that he was the broker who booked the charter that’s currently under way. I don’t know about that last part, and certainly, you could book this boat through Hamilton (one of the reputable brokers we recommend here on CharterWave), but he’s absolutely not the only broker who can charter Senses. He’s one of hundreds of worldwide brokers who have access to this yacht at the exact same weekly rate.

Yachts are like houses on the real estate market, in many ways. Yes, they are listed with one company–say Weichert, which puts a “for sale” sign on the lawn–but any Realtor from any other company can help you buy the house once it goes into the multiple listing service database. It’s the same thing with charter yachts and brokers. The yachts sign on with a single management company, which markets them for charter, and then any reputable broker can help you book them at the same listed base rate.

The main differences among reputable charter brokers are industry knowledge, personality and service style. If you want to stick with that real-estate analogy, consider that some Realtors know certain neighborhoods better than others, or how to deal with leaking backyard oil tanks better than others, but they all have access to the same houses. It’s the same thing with charter brokers. Some know different boats, destinations, and charter contract issues better than others, but they all have access to the same charter yachts.

It’s great that Senses, a well-deserving charter yacht, is getting so much attention up in British Columbia right now. I only wish the attention were a bit more specific when discussing boats and brokers, so as not to confuse anyone who might like to book a week onboard in the future.