Charter

New Gold-Plated Charter in Dubai

By Peter Janssen on December 5, 2023 Charter

If you’re looking for a gold-plated charter, consider the 136-foot AK ROYALTY superyacht, a 2009 Palmer Johnson. The hull was repainted earlier this year with custom paint containing real 24-karat gold dust that glitters in the sunlight. The yacht’s owner, Aaron Fidler, who founded (and sold) the high-tech company Furrion with his brother, said he wanted the yacht’s hull to match the color of his Lamborghini. The Fidlers had a Numarine 78 earlier, but Aaron Fidler said he always wanted a Palmer Johnson. He bought AK ROYALTY earlier this year (it had a traditional white hull then) and spent millions…

Aquador Joins PowerTime Boat Club

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2023 Charter

Sweden’s Nimbus Group is expanding its presence in the U.S., now providing its Aquador line to the PowerTime boat club for fractional ownership. Started in 1968, Nimbus now builds half a dozen different boat lines in Europe. Last March, Nimbus bought Edgewater Boats in Florida. Aquadors will be put in PowerTime locations in eight of the club’s ten states for fractional use. PowerTime, founded in 2020, is part of SailTime, founded in 2002. Michael Bohm, the CMO of the Nimbus Group, said the new partnership with PowerTime “is mutually advantageous, as it allows PowerTime to exclusively feature a boat that…

Six Great VRBO-Type Boat Rentals

By Peter Janssen on November 13, 2023 Charter

Here’s something to think about for the next time you’re traveling in the U.S. or overseas. Instead of staying in a hotel, stay on a boat. This is often simply a variation on the VRBO theme, but it works, and it gives you access to a lot of waterfront living that can make a trip memorable. Here’s a list of half a dozen boat rentals from around the world, collected by travelwaits.com. When thinking about a rental, check the reviews, the hosts, and the boat, and make sure the location is near the other business or sightseeing you want to…

New Christmas Market Cruises in France

By Peter Janssen on November 8, 2023 Charter

We usually think of taking European canal barge trips in the warm months, when it’s easy to get off and roam the countryside and nearby villages on foot or bicycle. But European Waterways has come up with a way to extend the season, creating new Christmas Market Cruises through historic Alsace-Lorraine, France. The inaugural cruises are this year, running through the end of this month and into December, and they’ll be on the 12-passenger hotel barge Panache. They’re all-inclusive, with luxury accommodations on board, daily excursions on shore, followed perhaps by a warm drink back in Panache’s salon and then…

Explore the Beautiful Waters of Palau

By Peter Janssen on October 11, 2023 Charter, Destinations

If you want to see some of the most beautiful water in the world, head for Palau in the western Pacific. An archipelago with 340 islands, Palau is a nation in Micronesia, east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea. If that’s a bit far for your own boat, you can book one of the 11 cabins on the 129-foot Four Seasons Explorer catamaran. It has a draft of just 5’ 2” so it can reach a lot of the diving spots that larger boats can’t, and it has two tenders and a dive boat that can go just…

A New Look for the New Tecnomar 142

By Peter Janssen on September 25, 2023 Charter

You won’t have any trouble spotting your boat at a crowded anchorage or harbor if you charter the new Tecnomar 142 that the company says looks like “a fantastic sea creature.” Whatever. It certainly doesn’t look like anything else out there. Part of the Italian Sea Group, Tecnomar launched the 142 power catamaran just in time for the Monaco show this week. It will be in the charter trade next spring. The yacht was built by Tasos Papanastasiou, the Cypriot founder of the XM financial forum, who named it This Is It, which actually covers quite a bit of ground.…

Cruise Through France on Kir Royale

By Peter Janssen on September 12, 2023 Charter

European Waterways just announced that it will start six-night tours of the Champagne region of France next May on its new hotel barge, fittingly called the Kir Royale. The luxury barge will have four staterooms, holding eight passengers, and five crew on its six-night excursions through some of the most beautiful regions in France. It also will stop along the way so that guests can visit some of the area’s most famous Champagne houses. The Kir Royale comes with a history. It served as a beach landing craft in the Second World War, then it was sunk and ultimately refloated…

Freedom To Open 400th Boat Club

By Peter Janssen on July 25, 2023 Charter

Freedom Boat Club, which claims to be the world’s largest boat club, just announced that it will open its 400th club next month in Jupiter, Florida. Freedom now has 90,000 members in its locations across the U.S., Europe, and Australia; about one-third are women. Cecil Cohn, the Freedom Boat Club president, said it would continue to expand its territory “as we continue to democratize boating by providing access and training to new boats.” Freedom has thousands of boats in its fleet; most are single-engine outboards. The idea is that you pay a one-time membership fee and then a monthly fee…

Where To Rent a Boat This Summer

By Peter Janssen on July 4, 2023 Charter, Cruising Life

If you’re traveling far from home this summer, you don’t have to go without boating. Indeed, there are now quite a few boat-rental organizations that will help you get your boating fix, no matter where you are. Condé Nast Traveler recently put together a list of some of these organizations, just to give you an idea of what’s possible. For self-drive day boats, it recommends Click&Boat that was founded by two sailors in France in 2013. It’s now one of the largest boat rental companies in the world, with 50,000 boats in 164 countries. Click&Boat is a peer-to-peer platform, and…

The Moorings Base in Tortola Gets a Facelift

By Peter Janssen on June 13, 2023 Charter

One of the largest charter operators in the world, The Moorings has just given its base in the British Virgins Islands a major face lift. The Moorings’ base there, in Road Town, Tortola, now has more than 300 charter yachts, power and sail, bareboat and crewed. And almost everything that has to do with making a successful charter vacation – the provisioning, restaurants, lodging and other amenities – has been spruced up, if not opened from scratch. The Moorings says it has a “rejuvenated fleet” in Tortola, with lots of new yachts, including the Moorings 4200, 4500 and flagship 5000…

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