Jan/Feb 2012 - Florida Yacht Brokers Association, Inc.

2012
AnnuAl dinner
Attendance Strong for FYBA Annual Meeting at Pier 66
Awards, Food, Music and Fun Headline a Highly Successful Event
Hollywood Glam was the theme of the Annual Dinner this
year, and guests arriving at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 for
the event felt as if they had stumbled onto the Red Carpet
at the Oscars instead. Fancy dresses
and gowns, feather boas, sequins, rhinestones and
pearls set the tone for the evening, along with
many tuxes and dapper bowties.
The festivities began, appropriately, with
cocktails on the Panorama Ballroom Terrace
overlooking Pier 66 Marina as sunset lit the
white yachts in their berths. After networking
over drinks and delicious passed hors d’oeuvres,
the members were ushered inside for the short
and succinct 2012 Annual Meeting, emcee’d by
FYBA Secretary Gary Smith of Sarasota Yacht
& Ship.
Smith introduced new FYBA Executive Director Ann Vernon, who
joked as she took the podium, “I’d like to thank the Academy.”
All joking aside, however, FYBA had its own prestigious awards to
present at the Annual Meeting. The audience burst into appreciative
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january/february 2012 | florida yacht brokers association | www.fyba.org
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By Gary Beckett,
Turnkey Communications
& Public Relations
applause as Bob Zarchen of Ardell Yacht & Ship Brokers was named
2012 Broker of the Year. A longtime FYBA member, former President
and current Treasurer, Zarchen said, “I’ve seen FYBA grow from a
hundred members with no permanent home to
the organization it is today.”
The 2012 Charter Broker of the Year Award
went to Robin O’Brien of Fraser Yachts. A
former luxury charter yacht crew member
for more than a decade, O’Brien knows the
industry she serves inside and out. (For bios of
the 2012 Charter Broker of the Year and Broker
of the Year, please see page 4).
Also honored at the Annual Meeting
were outgoing President Cromwell Littlejohn;
re-elected FYBA Board Members Bob
Zarchen (for the 19th 4
time), Jon Burkard and Jeff Erdmann; and
Incoming Board Members Whit Kirkland and Bob Denison. Special
acknowledgements went to FYBA’s 2011 Platinum Sponsors Alley,
Maass, Rogers & Lindsay; Moore & Company; Westport, and Willis
Marine; as well as 2011 Silver Sponsors ASAP Marine Documentation
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