Captain, 111-foot Kingship motoryacht China

Date interviewed: May 2010

How did you get into the charter yacht business?

I joined the Royal Navy in England at age 16, and I stayed for five years. One day, I saw an advertisement for a luxury motoryacht in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. It needed a deckhand, and the travel sounded good to me. I called the number, and the job was already gone, but they told me, “The captain is always looking for people.” That kind of crew turnover is a sign that I didn’t want to be on that boat anyway, and a month later, I got a job on a different yacht.

You’ve since worked on a mix of charter and private motoryachts. Which do you prefer?

Charter can be more challenging, but you get to see everything though the happy eyes of people on vacation. So that’s nice.

Your current command, the 111-foot Kingship motoryacht China, got a great deal of attention when she launched in 2006 as the first yacht built in China to MCA and Lloyd’s construction standards—but not much was said about her in terms of charter.

This boat was private when she launched. I was the build captain, and after we left the shipyard, we meandered through Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Oman, Dubai, and the Maldives. We got to the Mediterranean in May 2008, and we did advertise her for charter then, but really, she was used by the owner. We came properly to charter during the summer Mediterranean season in 2009, when we signed on with Fraser Yachts Worldwide.

As you know, that was a pretty lousy economic year for the charter industry as well as the world, and nobody had ever heard of our boat or even seen her, so we didn’t get any bookings. We haven’t done any charters as of yet, but the crew are really excited about it. We’re looking to mix it up a bit.

What kind of charters do you think would be ideal?

I think we’d flourish with family charters. The owner’s family is quite extended, so we’re good at that sort of thing. Even in the build, we paid attention to things that make a difference. For older people, we have a lot of stairwell extensions with low rises, so they’re easy to get up. And for children, we paid attention to where the push buttons are to open doors, so toddlers can't reach them and accidentally get outside. We have baby gates, too.

You can never fully kid-proof a boat, but we’re about as close as you can get. We welcome any age children onboard, even babies. Just don’t expect the crew to baby-sit. We have our own jobs to do.

How keen is the owner to get his first charters onboard?

For the right kinds of charters, we’re very interested. For family charters, the owner will discuss terms. The owner lives in Monaco, so that’s our home base. We think we're well positioned for the summer season.

China is part of the Fraser Yachts Worldwide charter fleet. She takes eight guests with six crew at a lowest weekly base rate of €70,000. Any reputable charter broker can tell you more or help you book a week onboard.