Our charter details

By Kim Kavin

Moving up from a 41-foot Halberg Rassy sailboat to a 136-foot Jongert sailing yacht is like graduating from a Honda Accord to a Bentley Arnage T. Well-placed strides are better than one blind leap, lest you end up with more machine than your skill or billfold can sustain. At least that’s been the experience of British businessman Ricky Haskell, who owned a Trintella 68, an Oyster 80, and a Jongert 100 along the way. His smaller boats taught him how to sail in general; the Oyster, how to sail quickly; and his first Jongert, how to sail in comfort. The 62-year-old has essentially been taking years-long test drives to determine what he likes, then imagining what bigger, better boat he will buy next.

Sitting aboard his new 136-foot Jongert just after sunset off Elba, an island between Corsica and the Italian mainland, Haskell made the surprising admission that he never actually test drives any boats bigger than his own. “Really?” I asked with a pregnant pause. “You bought this yacht without chartering another one her size to see how it felt?” The charter brokers dining with us raised their eyebrows and looked up at the man whose previous yacht had been a substantial 40 feet shorter. Haskell shrugged, smiled, and plunged his spoon into a steaming bowl of Thai broth with prawns.

He and his wife, Cathy, have never considered sailing’s ultimate triumph to be chartering or owning the biggest, fastest, or most expensive yacht in the world. Sailing, for the Haskells, is a way to escape from pressures ashore and see the world with friends. Every boat they’ve bought has added more space and features to make those desires a reality. “They’ve gotten bigger and bigger, and more and more comfortable,” Cathy says of the boats. “It’s a boy thing: Buy one, immediately start wanting a better one.” Ricky supposes that if he chartered boats bigger than his own, he’d be disappointed that he couldn’t keep them.

Now this couple who never charters yachts is hoping other people will want to charter theirs, to enjoy a bit of their Infatuation at a base rate of $70,000 per week. Their goal is to get eight to 12 weeks of charter a year to maintain the boat’s status as a business (“It keeps the tax man off my back,” as Ricky puts it) and to use the yacht as much as possible between bookings. After taking delivery of Infatuation in June 2004, they sailed off for a summer in Croatia; the yacht will spend the winter of 2004 in the Caribbean and then go back to the Mediterranean for summer 2005. During the next five years, they hope to pull into ports throughout the South Pacific, Australia, and beyond.

They built and staffed Infatuation with that personal journey in mind. As it turns out, they also happened to create one of the world’s most comfortable sailing yachts available for charter by four couples.

It’s 8:30 a.m., and Infatuation is anchored off Portovenere, at the southern end of Italy’s Cinque Terre. Ricky Haskell and Capt. Graham Newton are checking the charts. By 8:45, Ricky is at the outside helm, firing up the 650-horsepower MTU engine while Newton raises the hook. Just before 9, Cathy Haskell and the guests are in the saloon enjoying a buffet breakfast of cereal, poached plums, and eggs made to order. Ricky pops his head inside to gauge how long it will be before the dishes are cleared—when he’ll be able to raise the sails and let Infatuation heel over. “If everyone could finish breakfast straight away,” he says with cheerful excitement, “we can get on with it.”

 The sailing is what he loves, and he hired a crew that lets him be part of the action. “I don’t want a skipper who says, ‘Here, have a gin and tonic and go sit over there,’” Haskell says. “I’m involved.”

Capt. Newton’s easygoing personality is a large part of what keeps Haskell happy, and of what will keep charter guests happy, as well. People who charter sailboats tend to be different than those who choose motoryachts; the latter often watch DVDs while speeding from points A to B, while sailing is about letting your hair blow in the breeze and seeing the world pass by. More often than not, sailboat guests find themselves wanting to learn to take the helm, finesse the sails, sometimes even tie a knot or two. It is a challenge to find a captain like Newton who can shift from five-star service provider to patient teacher at a moment’s notice.
 The chef is perhaps as important as the captain in this respect; the best can do everything from seven-course dinners to basic barbecue, depending on the client’s wishes. “I interviewed a lot of crew,” Ricky Haskell says. “It’s a lot of trial and error. One chef, I got rid of the first day.”  That chef could only do fine cuisine. Ricky sometimes likes a heaping plate of plain old bangers and mash.

His new chef, Catharine Thomas, makes what he wants while creating a more exotic presentation for the other guests. In fact, she checks in with each guest individually before preparing the day’s meals, just in case someone’s tastes have changed. “I think she suffers me,” Ricky says. And so she will handle picky charter guests with ease, as well. 
 
About 9:30 a.m., Cathy Haskell is sitting under the cockpit bimini with a mug of tea while Infatuation’s guests mill about the helm, talking breathlessly with the captain about the time he got the 190-ton yacht up to a 14-knot cruise. Ricky Haskell takes the opportunity to wander below for some tea and toast. Across from the upper dining area in the split-level saloon, he stops at the chart table and pulls out a brochure of his current dream boat: the 174-foot Alloy Salperton.

“Look at her,” he says, ogling the photo of Salperton’s saloon. “You’ve got the whole cabin, a beautiful lounge. This is powerboat luxury. She’s got all the benefits, but still looks like a proper sailboat.”

He glances around Infatuation’s interior, and it’s apparent that his goal in building her was to pack in as much of that “powerboat luxury” as the yacht could hold. He doesn’t mean ornate décor; he means creature comforts, the kind many sailing yachts trade away to lower weight and gain speed. Infatuation’s high coachroof and wide seating areas let all eight guests spread out during meals, or find quiet spots to read and nap. Her master stateroom is large, but not so gargantuan that it steals too much space from the three guest staterooms. Her cockpit is designed with low-profile doors and a large, U-shape seating area around a table that will make even first-time sailors feel protected under way.

Salperton, in Ricky Haskell’s mind, adds even more of these comforts without ruining the boat’s profile. He can’t wait to get the pop-up tinted glass partitions that separate the inside helm from the saloon, creating a beautiful ambience on one side while preserving the skipper’s night vision on the other. 

“We are thinking that, if Jongert will build it, we can have a Salperton in four years’ time,” he says. It’s not that he doesn’t like Alloy as a builder, but that the yard is in New Zealand, much father from his home in Essex, England, than Jongert’s new facility in Holland. He wants to keep tabs on construction, since he plans to make good use of the yacht’s 8,000-mile range—nearly double Infatuation’s.

“She’s a bit more than I can afford now,” he says wistfully, “but in four years’ time…”

He finishes his last bite of toast, closes the brochure, and looks toward Infatuation’s cockpit. “Let’s get some sails up now.”

It’s just before 12:30, south of Livorno, when Capt. Newton sights dolphin playing in the waters dead ahead. Cathy Haskell and the guests race forward to watch them leap in Infatuation’s bow wake, then return with wide smiles to the cockpit, where stewardess Madeleine Johnson has set up the outdoor table for lunch. Ricky Haskell is in the saloon, his eyes on the computer screen. “I saw them from here,” he says sheepishly, caught surfing the Web. “I like to know what’s going on.”

Internet access is a big draw for businessmen who book charter yachts, so once again Haskell’s personal preference in adding the feature dovetails perfectly with market demand. There are a few things he added for charter alone: a Kawasaki Jet Ski that sits just forward of Infatuation’s transom, and safety features that will allow the yacht’s certification under the MCA Code.

The desire to get charter bookings and ensure guests’ happiness is evident in all the Haskells’ decisions, but is at a constant pull against their wishes to cruise the world with friends. It’s a struggle many owners face.

“The South of France, you’re virtually guaranteed to get a few weeks of charter in July and August,” Nigel Burgess broker Helene Reinders tells Ricky just before sunset.

“But it gets boring there,” he answers. “I want to see new ports.”

Cathy says she dreams of cruising past the Statue of Liberty. Limited charter business there, Ricky says, before mentioning his own dream cruises: to Istanbul and the Black Sea.

 “But it’s a bit of a gamble, isn’t it?” he says with a sigh. “You never know if the charterers will want to go where I want to go.”