Kim Kavin
Kim is CharterWave’s founder and editor (members can e-mail her directly through   the Ask Our Experts page).

She is the author of Have the Whole Boat: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Charter Vacations, and is a regular contributor to boating and travel magazines including Power & Motoryacht, Voyaging, Offshore, Boston Whaler, Elite Traveler, Robb Report, and Stratos.

Before launching CharterWave, Kim was the executive editor of Yachting magazine, where she became one of the world’s premier experts in luxury crewed charter. She also spent about seven years working as a newspaper editor, and she is a graduate of the renowned University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Kim lives in Long Valley, New Jersey, with her PGA golf professional husband and their two nosy hounds, Floyd and Stella.



Heather Freckmann
Heather is CharterWave’s resident bareboats expert. (Members can e-mail her directly through the Ask Our Experts page).

She 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 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 lives in Door County, Wisconsin.



Elizabeth Ginns Britten
Liz literally grew up on boats, spending entire summers living aboard with her family. They cruised all over New England including Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Montauk, Sag Harbor, and Shelter Island.

Today, Liz has nearly 27 years of boating under her belt and still enjoys spending as much time as possible on the water. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and works in New York City as a full-time writer and editor for Voyaging and Power & Motoryacht magazines.

Her specialties include boating gear, boat tests, charter and cruising features, and human-interest profiles.

Alan Harper
Britain-based Alan Harper is the European editor for Power & Motoryacht magazine, the leading consumer marine magazine in the United States.

Alan also writes regularly for prominent boating magazines in Europe and spends time traveling worldwide onboard yachts of all shapes and sizes. In some cases, he is the first international journalist to step foot on brand-new models from top boatbuilders. In other cases, he’s happy to climb onboard a seasoned launch for a family vacation with his two young sons.

Betsy Frawley Haggerty
An award-winning newspaper and magazine journalist, Betsy Frawley Haggerty is the former editor of Offshore, a job she left to allow more time for cruising and writing.

She is a lifelong sailor who took up powerboating last year to explore inland waters, living for four months onboard a 34-foot trawler with her poodle, Nicky.

Her cruise, along the canals of New York State, will be the basis for a book called Fifteen Weeks on the Erie Canal.

Yvonne Michie Horn
Yvonne is a full-time, award-winning travel writer based in Northern California’s Sonoma County.

She has written from places like New Zealand, Burma and Europe about food, wine, gardens, golf, cruises, walking tours, and more. She says she “writes for the individual traveler with the goal of turning her insights, anecdotes, and personal adventures into features that will intrigue and seduce readers into taking the trip themselves—even if it is in their armchair.”

She is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers; the American Society of Journalists and Authors; the Travel Journalist Guild; and the Sonoma County Culinary Guild. She sits on the board of Sonoma County Wine Library Associates.