Charter Management

In the wake of the spectacular growth in yachting in the last quarter of the 20th century, the charter market flourished. Specialist companies sprang up; some remained very local, while others had wider, even global ambitions. Among these yacht charter pioneers, there were two giants: The Moorings and Sunsail. They had long been fierce competitors but are now sister companies within the Travelopia group.
These two companies, founded in 1969 and 1974 respectively, have made a major contribution to the democratization of yachting by offering the opportunity to charter a yacht for one or two weeks a year in some of the most beautiful places on earth. In fact, it was by turning everything on its head (in other words, by putting the destination before the yacht) that former journalist and sailing enthusiast Loïc Bonnet launched Dream Yacht Charter in 2000. He used to say, ‘It doesn’t matter what the bottle is, as long as you get drunk’, - and he was probably right, because a little over 20 years of growth and many takeovers later, he is the world leader in the sector. Dream Yacht Worldwide (“Charter” has recently been consigned to oblivion) has 900 boats, while Sunsail/The Moorings has 700. Over the years, the fleet has evolved: it now comprises a majority of catamarans, with powercats gradually becoming more important. The problem is that the capital required to assemble such a fleet is immeasurable. Especially if you want to offer your customers the latest multihulls, so that they can benefit from the best equipment and the highest standards of modern comfort, without forgetting that catamarans and trimarans have to be as robust and reliable as possible to ensure customer satisfaction and a maximum operating rate.

It’s Just a Question of Time…

For their part, sailors have their own particular problems. Unless they are fabulously wealthy or retired, working multihull cruisers will rarely spend more than 4 or 5 weeks a year on the water, even if they are able to spend the whole of their vacations afloat. Buying a catamaran or trimaran is certainly an appealing proposition and technically can be quite interesting. It can be convenient to always have a multihull available with your own gear on board. But when your vacation period is limited, it takes a considerable amount of time to get the boat up and running again and then to winterize it. What’s more, in the space of a few seasons, you’ll quickly have covered all the destinations that can be reached in one- or two-weeks’ sailing from your home port - even if you can change ports. The marina, insurance and maintenance bills fall 12 months out of 12, when you’re only really enjoying your multihull for 3 or 4 weeks of the year. That’s where charter management comes in, as it offers a solution to these two problems. By entrusting your multihull to a specialist company, management leasing allows you to finance it while you wait to use it more intensively. The formula is far from new: it was ...