I was bopping around the website of Fraser Yachts Worldwide this weekend, and I noticed a new link from the home page to a section called Megayacht Cruises. This link was in addition to the link called Charter, and so the combination peaked my curiosity–as megayacht cruises are, well, charters.

As it turns out, this new Megayacht Cruises section is focused entirely around the idea of corporate charters onboard “super-size” motoryachts that accommodate 30 to 62 guests (proper charter yachts, even 200-footers, by law take no more than 12 guests). Not all of the super-sizers featured in this new section are managed for charter by Fraser, but Fraser’s reputable brokers have access to them (as with all charter yachts), and they’ve chosen to compile and market them in this new section as a corporate charter niche.

It’s interesting to me that the Megayacht Cruises section can be accessed both through Fraser’s website and through its own URL, just as Sunseeker Charters created an entirely separate website for its corporate charter clients back in April. It seems these companies believe there are more corporate charter clients to be found with stronger marketing, an idea that seems solid to me based on the statistic from the Camper & Nicholsons International Super Yachting Index that only 8 percent of charters booked in 2007 were for corporate clients.

Each of the five yachts that Fraser is promoting in its new section can of course be booked for personal charters as well, but given their size, they make sense as corporate entertaining vessels. It’s nice to see a growing industry effort to market them as such. I’ll keep an eye out for more charter companies that go this route in the future.

You may remember that I wrote a post back in January raising some red flags about a website called eYachtCharter.com. They didn’t take too kindly to my review of their site, including my concerns that they would accept any boat that called itself a “charter yacht” in their paid online listings. In response to my business-like critique of their site, the owners launched a fairly substantial campaign to smear my personal reputation all over the Internet.

Despite these personal attacks against me, I’m an honest and fair journalist, and thus am pleased to report here that the owners of eYachtCharter.com appear to be taking some steps to ensure that the yachts they offer on their website are actually living up to a certain standard of quality. Yesterday, the site sent out a press release announcing the creation of its Luxury Yacht Charter Certification Program–the only such program I’ve ever encountered from an agency not directly involved with managing yachts.

According to the press release, only those charter yachts that meet certain criteria will be listed for charter in the eYachtCharter.com directory. The criteria include having accessible captain’s and crew licensing and certification, appropriate vessel licensing and insurance, charter agent referrals, listing agent contracts, and more.

That sounds a heck of a lot more rigorous than what I was told six months ago when I asked how the yachts on the site were being qualified. The answer from the site’s marketing director back then was, “We have our ways.” It’s nice to see they are now correcting at least one of the problems I suggested were pretty obvious in their business model.

I’m still not crazy about the idea of you, as a charter client, trying to find your own yacht online without the help of a reputable charter broker who gets paid to know what’s going on beyond a yacht’s superbly airbrushed brochure pictures. Further, all the certifications and licensing in the world, in my opinion, are still no substitute for working with a broker who has actually stepped onboard the yacht to make sure everything is as it should be (see our CharterWave Special Report about the sinking of the charter yacht Lady Candida if you need proof of that).

Even still, I congratulate eYachtCharter.com on responding to my criticism and attempting to become a better online resource with this new program.

Now, if only I could get them to become better people and stop smearing me personally all over the Web…

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.