Planning your charter

Clients often ask how far in advance should they plan their trips and the answer is "it depends". Charters are a commodity like many other items -- if you want to charter at a highly sought after time like Christmas, New Year or Spring Break then you better plan weel in advance. Alos, if you have strict requirements of what you want -- a 60' catamaran for 8 guests that is no more than 4 years old that offers scuba diving as an example -- then you need to start early to get what you want. Plus the yachts that offer the best value for their target market will go quickly -- which means you better be ready to commit a minimum of 6 months in advance, but better to start a year out.

Normally in a down economy we find that you can leave it to the last minute to try & see if you can find a yacht offering a special to attract business. But the surprise of this year is the number of clients who are planning and putting down deposits for summer 2009 and winter 2010 NOW.

The total number of charter yachts has dropped in recent years, so that we now recommend trying to make plans early so that you have the yacht & crew you want for the dates you want.

That doesn't mean that you can't take a spur of the monet charter -- if you can be a bit flexible in your dates to take advantage of a break in the schedule of a popular yacht.

Keep in mind that the number of yachts available in popular styles -- newer catamarans, affordable power yachts or yachts that offer scuba diving are relatively limited and the best broker in the world can't conjure up more!