Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - February 2020

58TH ANTIGUA CHARTER YACHT MEETING
Caribbean Charter Trade Evolution on Show
by David H. Lyman
Superyachts lined the docks at Falmouth
Harbour. No boats under 60 feet were
represented at this year’s Antigua show.
february 2020 CARIBBEAN COMPAss pAGE 10
Twenty-odd years ago I sailed into English Harbour, Antigua, on my Bowman 57
ketch, Searcher. I dreamed that yacht charting was to be my next career move, and
the way into this was the Antigua Charter Yacht Show. That dream didn’t play out,
but I did learn a few things. Mainly, I was not cut out to be a charter yacht captain.
At that 1997 Charter Yacht Show, there not a single powerboat or catamaran. The
wall at Nelson’s Dockyard was lined with 40- to 60-foot sloops, ketches and schooners,
all owner-operated, each run by a couple or a crew of three. While there are
still these small crew, serious sailing yachts available for charter worldwide, none
under 60 feet was represented at this year’s Antigua show.
When I sailed into Falmouth Harbour this past November, my jaw dropped. I
counted over 50 superyachts lining the docks at Falmouth Marine and the Antigua
Yacht Club. When I walked over to Nelson’s Dockyard to pick up my press badge, I
counted another 50 yachts,
but only a few had masts.
What has happened to
the yacht charter world in
the past two decades? The
boats have changed, I can
see that, but has the market
changed? I went in
search of answers.
I interviewed Paul Deeth,
the boat show’s chairman.
A native of Antigua, Paul
spent his youth skippering
private yachts, his and
those of others. He’s ashore
now, a hotelier running the
Admiral’s Inn and its restaurant,
Boom, in English
Harbour. “What’s changed?”
I asked.
“The size of the yachts
now available for charter.
Paul Deeth, Chairman of the Antigua Charter Yacht
Meeting, says, ‘Today’s guests are interested
in another kind of vacation experience.’
They’ve been getting bigger
and bigger each year. A few
years ago we had over 150
boats in the show. This
year we have 63 yachts in the show, but they are all much larger.”
“Has the market changed? Are the paying guests different?” I asked.
“Yes. Today’s guests are interested in another kind of vacation experience. They are
looking for a higher level of service and higher level of accommodations.” It looked to
me as if the superyachts in English Harbour were owned by the one percent, and it
was the two percent that could afford to charter them. At US$50,000 to $500,000
for a week, plus expenses and crew gratuities, chartering has largely become a rich
persons’ vacation option.
The year’s Antigua Charter Boat Meeting had 63 yachts registered. Of those, 17
were over 100 feet, nine over 200 feet. Twelve were multihulls and only 14 had masts
and sails.
“I counted more than a hundred yachts at the docks,” I said to Paul. “But you say
only 63 are in the show. What are the rest doing?”
“In recent years English Harbour and Falmouth have become a superyacht haven
in the winter,” Paul explained. “With deep water and room to maneuver, plus extended
dock space and shore services, many superyachts are based here. All are privately
owned. Some do charter, many do not.” In addition, I thought, Antigua is right
in the middle of the Caribbean’s prime cruising grounds.
The five-day show opened on December 5th, with a steel band playing as a lavish
dinner was served on the lawn at Nelson’s Dockyard. More than 500 people were in
attendance. These included 350 charter brokers, the people who sell and book the
charters. Each paid a US$175 fee, plus airfare and accommodations to be here for five
days for the opportunity to inspect the yachts. Added to these were the 175 vendors
who service the charter yacht fleet. These are wine merchants, shipyards, designers
and electronics installers and more. Add, too, the skippers from 63 yachts and
upwards of 300 crew from those yachts and there were nearly 1,000 people in town
for this year’s show. Oh, yes. Can’t forget the media. There were just ten of us.
“This is strictly a professionals’ event,” Paul explained; the public is excluded. “We
changed the name from ‘Show’ to ‘Meeting’ a few years ago to make it sound more a
professional gathering than a public boat show.”
Who really runs this charter business?
“It’s the agents, brokers and wholesalers,” Karen Shea told me. She’s been an
agent with Nicholson Yacht Charters for more that three decades. “The show is for
really for us, the brokers,” she told me over breakfast one morning..
Charter brokers come from around the world to visit the yachts, sample the chefs’
fare, and meet the captain and head stew to get a sense of each boat’s style and the
hospitality of the crew.
—Continued on next page
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