CharterWave eNews

February 2007

Now Uploading: CharterWave 2.0
It’s hard to believe CharterWave launched just three months ago. In that short time span, we’ve managed to become the most comprehensive source of editorial charter content on the Web—and perhaps in the world—with some of our articles and blog postings already ranking in the top three search results on major engines like Google and Yahoo.
And it’s just the beginning.
. During our first few months of operation, CharterWave editor Kim Kavin has traveled extensively to meet with fleet managers, yacht captains and charter brokers, collecting their ideas and opinions about how CharterWave can best connect the charter yacht industry with potential new charter clients.
Based on that thoughtful input, our site’s development team is rolling out CharterWave 2.0 throughout the month of February. We’re not taking away a single thing from CharterWave 1.0, but we’re adding a heck of a lot of new features that you simply can’t find anywhere else.
Major improvements include the addition of free editorial content—which will help educate much more of the general public about the idea of chartering. We’re also adding to our Crewed Yacht and Bareboat of the Month features with brand-new Captain, Chef and Broker of the Month features, thus giving CharterWave readers even more ways to learn about the people they can work with to create their perfect vacation.
Building on the huge interest in Kim’s CharterWave blog, which focuses on crewed yachts, we’re adding a separate Bareboats Blog by CharterWave expert Heather Freckmann (see below in this month’s eNews). We’re also giving charter experts the option of writing their own blogs as part of new advertising packages, which will allow brokers, owners and crew to tell the world what’s happening onboard their yachts and with their businesses every single day.
Some of our new advertising packages also include video downloads and electronic guestbooks, so CharterWave readers can see what yacht guests see when they get onboard and how they feel about their crew and destination by the end of a week’s cruise. We’re taking design cues from such phenomenally popular websites as My Space and You Tube, and then applying what works to the yacht charter industry.
These improvements and others will be rolling out in phases throughout this month, so as not to overwhelm the major search engines on a single day. We hope you enjoy all the new features CharterWave will offer by the end of February, and we look forward to hearing your ideas for how we can continue to improve with version 3.0 on the horizon.
Feel free to send your thoughts anytime to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Heather’s Bareboats Blog
Without a doubt, the most frequently visited page on the CharterWave website is editor Kim Kavin’s Crewed Yachts Blog. Some visitors return not just several times a week, but several times a day.
We hear your message loud and clear: You want as many blog postings as you can get! And we’re answering your call by adding a brand-new Bareboats Blog by our own expert, Heather Freckmann.
Heather grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan and has been on, in and around the water all her life. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism, she spent years as a commercial copywriter and magazine editor before turning to full-time freelance writing and editing.
Her work appears regularly in Sailing, Sport Diver, Voyaging and Lakeland Boating magazines, and assignments have taken her from the South Pacific, the Caribbean and Europe to spectacular tucked-away boating destinations in the Midwest.
She writes the CharterWave Bareboats Blog from her home in Door County, Wisconsin, one of the most stunning boating destinations in f the United States. Look for her posts to come online this month with the launch of our new home page.

Best of the Crewed Yachts Blog
CharterWave editor Kim Kavin began adding photographs to her Crewed Yachts Blog in January, with rave reviews from regular readers. In case you missed it, here’s one of the posts that drew the most fan mail last month:
Forget Footsie
Back in early December, I posted from the St. Maarten Charter Yacht Exhibition that some of the yachts were advertising themselves as “sleeps 12″ when, in reality, “sleeps 8 comfortably” was a more accurate description of the onboard accommodations. The post was called Pillow Talk.
I want to help you visualize this point with a photograph I snapped onboard a motoryacht at the Antigua Charter Yacht Show. This yacht promotes this space as sleeping six people comfortably:
Your eyes are not deceiving you. That’s two double-size beds jammed against one another at the foot, with two bunk-style Pullman berths above them.
Now, maybe if you’re a 12-year-old girl interested in a slumber party, this cabin indeed would sleep six people comfortably. But for grownups paying the yacht’s weekly base rate of $62,000 per week–about $6,500 per person with average 25-percent expenses included–I’m guessing the accommodations are going to be less than what you imagined.
This is the kind of detail I’m talking about when I suggest that you work with a reputable charter broker when booking a yacht of any kind, in any price range. It’s the job of the broker to get onboard these yachts and know every detail about them, including the configurations of the cabins and beds.
There’s simply no reason to end up in a cabin like this if you have something else in mind. Protect yourself by working with a broker, if only so that you don’t have to play footsie throughout the duration of your charter.

We’re Scouting for You in Miami
There’s no rest for the weary here at CharterWave. Just back from boat shows in Fort Lauderdale, St. Thomas, Tortola, St. Maarten and Antigua, our experts are on the move again—headed to scout out great charter yachts, crew and brokers this month at the Miami International Boat Show.
One yacht that we’re excited about seeing is the new 92-foot motoryacht Kathleen M, which we’ll be touring as guests of Churchill Yacht Partners. It’s a brand-new design from the builder Rayburn, and we’ll tell you all you need to know about how it stacks up against similar-size yachts in terms of charter amenities.
Look for CharterWave editor Kim Kavin’s First Impressions of her favorite finds to come online in March. Will Kathleen M make the cut? Stay tuned…

Crewed Charter Yacht of the Month: Java
Our experts had the pleasure of spending a night onboard the lovely 121-foot motoryacht Java on the Caribbean island of Antigua in December. After talking with the yacht’s owner about his investments in the boat, discussing guest treatment with the enthusiastic crew (shown at right), and sampling the chef’s favorite lamb-chop and eggs benedict recipes, we’re thrilled to feature Java as CharterWave’s Crewed Yacht of the Month for February.
In fact, based on our firsthand experience, we’re willing to say that this yacht—part of the fleet at Camper & Nicholsons International—just may be one of the best deals you can find in the crewed yacht industry. And we don’t make that claim about every ol’ yacht we review.
To read our full feature on Java, click here. To go straight to The High Five, click here.


Captain of the Month: Patrick O’Brien
In the age of instant celebrity, Capt. Patrick O’Brien is uncomfortable talking about himself. In a time when braggadocio is expected from the people who run the world’s finest yachts, he’s a downright humble guy. In an industry where everyone is always claiming to be the best, he praises his colleagues before even thinking about praising his own work.
So we’ll do the praising for him. Capt. O’Brien is one of the longest-serving people in the worldwide charter industry, having worked his way up from engineering jobs to his current position, at the helm of the gorgeous 169-foot motoryacht Dream. The yacht, for those who care about pedigree, is a Feadship—arguably the finest brand name on the world’s water’s today. Its weekly base rate of $240,000 to $280,000 should give you some idea of the kind of service guests expect when they charter with Capt. O’Brien.
He comes through every time and earned a reputation as a favorite at management company Fraser Yachts Worldwide. We like him a lot, too, which is why we’re naming him CharterWave’s Captain of the Month for February.
Read our full interview with Capt. O’Brien by clicking here.


Chef of the Month: Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Fisher almost fell off his own feet when he heard his name called as chef of the year during the Antigua Yacht Charter Show in December. He was surprised not just because his cooking beat out every other yacht chef’s entries in the entire boat show, but also because just a year earlier, he’d never even been on a yacht at all.
Such an impressively quick rise to fame certainly caught our attention, and we rushed onboard the 115-foot motoryacht Wheels to nab an exclusive interview for CharterWave’s readers.
To learn about Geoffrey’s path from downtown London restaurants to luxury crewed motoryachts, click here.

Broker of the Month: DJ Parker
DJ Parker is one of the most respected brokers in harbors and marinas worldwide. She started out working on boats herself, eventually becoming one of the first female crewed charter yacht captains in the Caribbean. Then, DJ took all she learned while serving charter guests onboard and moved herself ashore, where for years now she has used her insider’s perspective to book some of the most luxurious crewed yacht vacations available.
She recently left a major management company to go solo at her independent agency, Neptune Group Yachting. We want to make sure anyone looking for a reputable broker can still find her, which is why we’re naming DJ the CharterWave Broker of the Month for February.
Check out our exclusive interview with DJ by clicking here.

Bareboat of the Month: Jubilee
Quite frankly, the 29-foot sailboat Jubilee isn’t the nicest or best-outfitted bareboat we’ve seen. But in her home waters of the Apostle Islands in the Midwest United States, she’s about as good as most bareboats come—and that’s good enough for anybody seeking some relaxed sailing in a pristine, uncrowded cruising ground.
CharterWave bareboats expert Heather Freckmann’s review explains the practical realities of chartering a good but older yacht like Jubilee, and you’ll see from her feature that despite a few shortcomings on the amenities side, Jubilee offers a fine bareboat experience.
For that reason, we’re naming Jubilee our CharterWave Bareboat of the Month for February. You can read Heather’s full review by clicking here, or you can click here to go straight to The High Five.

Fleet and Management Company News
Here's the lowdown on new charter yachts and enticing deals, according to bareboat and crewed yacht management companies all over the globe.

Camper & Nicholsons International: We’ve got the first-look scoop on the forthcoming VvS1, the first expedition-style motoryacht built by the venerable Alloy Yachts. We first told you about VvS1 in the January edition of CharterWave eNews, and since then we’ve learned from Capt. Andy Grocott that VvS1 is being outfitted with tons of fishing gear including two live bait tanks, a processing station and two freezers. She’ll also have scuba gear, including a compressor onboard. An extra crew cabin will let a fishing guide or dive instructor join the regular crew at your request, and you can rest after a long day’s play at the full-size teppanyaki grill while the chef cooks up dinner right before your eyes. VvS1 is on track to launch in March, with six crew showing eight guests the waters of Tahiti, French Polynesia, Fiji and New Zealand before the end of 2007. Another detail you’ll read only here on CharterWave: Charter guests in New Zealand will also have access to the owner’s exclusive 18-hole golf course near Queenstown…

Emerald Yacht-Ship:
Taipan III, the 172-foot motoryacht, has safely arrived and is now available for charters in Phuket, Thailand. Also on site in Phuket is her sistership, the 63-foot Taipan IV. The big boat’s weekly base rate is $160,000 for 12 guests, or about $16,600 per person with 25-percent expenses included. The smaller Taipan takes four guests at a weekly base rate of $19,500, or about $6,100 a person with 25-percent expenses included.

Fraser Yachts Worldwide: One of our favorite yachts here at CharterWave, the 115-foot expedition-style motoryacht Surprise, has checked in from Fiji to report some upgrades to the boat that should make charter guests feel more comfortable than ever. Capt. Carol Dunlop tells us that all the interior carpeting has been replaced, as have all the bedcovers and cabin cushions. The tenders and yacht decks also got spruced up, and the already-impressive bridge added many new navigational features for exploring even farther off the beaten course. Plus, Surprise upgraded its Lifeline program, which gives charter guests 24/7 medical expertise from onshore at the push of a button…

International Yacht Collection: Looking to have more than just your average family fun this Easter? The 94-foot motoryacht Golden Times is available in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She takes eight guests at a weekly base rate of $37,000, or about $5,700 per person with typical 25-percent expenses included. That rate also gets you free use of the yacht owner’s 27-foot Boston Whaler tender, as well…The 121-foot motoryacht Victoria Del Mar is offering a special on any charters taken during the month of February: eight nights for the price of seven. The weekly base rate is $85,000 for 10 guests, or about $10,600 per person with 25-percent expenses included…

Merrill-Stevens: This Fort Lauderdale-based company recently launched a terrific new website. Check out our blog posting about it, or go directly to the new site to see for yourself… The 92-foot motoryacht My Fair Lady is heading from the Caribbean to the Virgin Islands this winter and has a few open weeks for charter bookings. The boat’s base rate is $30,500 a week for eight guests, or about $4,700 per person with typical 25-percent expenses included…

Northrop & Johnson: The 115-foot motoryacht Kapalua is new to the N&J fleet. Formerly known as Blind Faith, this lovely motoryacht takes eight guests at a weekly base rate of $42,500 (or about $6,600 per person with typical 25-percent expenses included). Kapalua will be in the Caribbean for the rest of this winter season… The 122-foot motoryacht Shogun has moved into a new home base in La Paz, Mexico—an unusual charter destination, for sure. Shogun takes eight guests at a weekly rate of $69,000, or about $10,800 per person with typical 25-percent expenses included. There’s also an additional 10% governmental tax that applies to charters in Mexico…

Southwest Florida Yachts: This Fort Myers, Florida-based company has added two new motoryachts to its bareboat fleet. Schatzi is a 42-footer, and SNAP’M is a 34-footer. Each boat has two cabins and charters for $2,877 to $3,597 a week, depending on the season. Even at the highest price point, two couples can charter one of these yachts for $900 a person plus expenses. That’s on par with even the least-expensive cruise ship deals… SFY also added a 35-foot sailing catamaran to its fleet this month. Firenze has two cabins and charters for a weekly base rate of $2,738, or about $685 per person for four guests during the high season…

Sunseeker Charters: A brand-new 121-foot trideck motoryacht has joined the Sunseeker Charters fleet. The Snapper, as she’s known, will be available in the Caribbean this winter and the Mediterranean during summer 2007… Look for four more brand-new yachts to join the Sunseeker Charters fleet this year, including two 90-footers, an 82 and a 60. Three new Sunseekers, including a 62 and two 50s, are also available for charter in the United Kingdom.

Bluewater Books Picks Up Have the Whole Boat
CharterWave editor Kim Kavin’s new book, Have the Whole Boat: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Charter Vacations, is now on shelves and available for sale at the premier boating bookstore in America, Bluewater Books.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled about Bluewater’s staff giving the thumb’s up to Have the Whole Boat,” Kim says. “To be accepted onto that store’s bookshelves is an endorsement of the book’s quality and content that’s unlike any other.”
Kim will join the Bluewater staff in the company’s Fort Lauderdale location for a book signing on April 12. Look for more details in upcoming editions of CharterWave eNews.

Crewed Yacht Features Added to the CharterWave Database this Month:
Java

Broker Interviews Added to the CharterWave Database this Month:
Carol Kent

Crew Interviews Added to the CharterWave Database this Month:
Capt. Patrick O’Brien, m/y Dream

First Impressions Added to the CharterWave Database this Month:
Alexis
Azzurra II
Ellix Too
Magpie II