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Jon Manafort has had the boating disease almost all of his 57 years. He caught it the summer he turned 10, when someone gave him a 6-foot dinghy. He was barely a teenager when he paid $150 for a 16-foot wooden rowboat with a foredeck and center deck, all theoretically powered by a 7½ hp Elgin . “Until you started it up and tried to go somewhere, it looked like a real boat,” he recalls, sitting inside Manafort Brothers, the Connecticut-based demolitions firm his grandfather created.
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The disease led Manafort from a 23-foot Formula to a pair of Chris-Crafts, an Egg Harbor , and finally a 43-foot Viking. He was satisfied until Viking launched a 50-footer he fancied, and he impulsively sold his 43—so fast that he couldn't get the new model in time for the 2000 season. That created a problem: “We were boatless,” he explains. “We wanted to go boating.”
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A friend suggested charter, and he next found himself aboard the 100-foot Burger Southern Star. “Never having chartered before, I didn't know what to expect,” Manafort says. “It ended up being a tremendous experience. Not having to run the boat yourself, worrying about dockage.”
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Manafort certainly wasn't the first person to be seduced by crewed charter, but he has since become one of the relative few to succeed quickly as a first-time charter owner. He forgot about the 50-foot Viking and instead bought the 90-foot Broward Independence—and set about learning the charter business. From that day in 2001 until this spring's purchase of the 105-foot Broward Independence II, he has come to personify everything experts say the owner of a busy charter boat must be.
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His story is a primer for anyone who wants to become the same.
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START SMART. |
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Manafort knew enough to investigate before he bought. That's good thinking: Tour as many charter yachts as possible at boat shows. Look at the upkeep, décor, entertainment systems, toys. Book a charter trip or two on the competition to see how professional crew should function.
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A great idea is to involve a charter specialist before buying the boat, Alex explains, to get a feel for her earning potential. “The brokers want to sell the boats, so they tell the owners anything to make the sale,” Alex laments. In reality, “only two or three percent of charter yachts make a profit. The rest make enough money to pay some expenses.”
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That's simply the nature of the business in almost all cases, charter is not about turning a profit. It's about offsetting as many of the owner's costs as possible.
Manafort understood this and bought a boat he could afford with or without charters. He chose the 1985-built, 90-foot Broward in part because her interior had been refit, which set her apart from other boats he saw in her class.
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And he immediately looked to charter specialists for help after closing the deal.
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JOIN A FLEET. |
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Manafort signed Independence into a fleet, where he fell under the wing of Bonnie Mims. She has since become the charter fleet manager at another reputable Fort Lauderdale company, where she continues to work with first-time owners regularly.
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“It's advising the owner to get the right insurance, to get the boat registered properly, to setting up a charter corporation for the boat with a good maritime attorney,” she says. “You have to spend the time to explain the facets, the contracts, how the rate breaks out.”
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After the advice come the questions. “What's the documentation?” Bonnie continues.
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“What flag is the boat? Where can she charter? How many people? Does she have a qualified captain that fits the flag of the vessel?”
After the questions come the regulatory acronyms: MCA, STCW, ISM. Without the help of an expert, most first-time owners simply get lost. “It used to be cut and dried,” Mims says. “You charter your boat, you make some money. But now, they've thrown in a bunch of regulations.”
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Most regulations deal with a boat's seaworthiness, safety features and crew training. They're good in terms of ensuring quality, but can be mind-splitting for owners just entering the marketplace. A specialist is like an aspirin in this respect.
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HIRE THE RIGHT CREW. |
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“You can have a brand-new, $10-million boat, and if you put people on it who don't know how to treat the client or don't know how to treat the boat or don't know how to act among themselves, it's going to be a nightmare,” Manafort says.
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He hired crew with charter experience, which can be a boon. Captains and chefs with strong reputations will bring clients with them. Deckhands and stewardesses with charter training tend to offer a higher level of service, which will keep clients coming back.
Some charter companies run crew placement services, and any decent charter specialist knows good crew from bad. Ask for help in compiling a list of qualified candidates, then do detailed interviews to find crew who fit with the new program.
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TREAT YOUR BOAT AS A BUSINESS. |
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The typical owner wants to use his new boat—during the high seasons, during holidays. That's fine, as long as he doesn't want to own a busy charter boat.
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“One misconception that I had when I started was that it could be a personal boat, and we'll just grab a charter here and there to pay some of the expenses,” Manafort explains. “But now I think it's got to be the opposite of that.”
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Independence booked five weeks of charter in her first season. That's halfway to the gold standard of 10 weeks in just one try, and the success is a credit to Manafort's restraint in terms of personal use. “He made the schedule available,” says Jennifer. “He would work around charters instead of blocking out his time first. He was very accommodating and flexible.”
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His eagerness to please clients also extended to outfitting. “You have to put things on the boat that you might not even enjoy,” he explains. “Toys, diving gear. You have to think like the customer's going to think.”
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That's also the logic behind his recent move up to the 105-foot Independence II. She has an additional stateroom, along with a hot tub, a more elegant decor and more toys to attract business.
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PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE. |
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To maximize charter potential, advertising is important, says Neil, a director who heads a management department in London . That includes working with a charter company to ensure brochures are attractive, having a presence on the Web, setting up “familiarization” trips for brokers and media, and getting the boat in front of the industry as often as possible.
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“In order to establish the yacht's reputation,” Neil says, “you're going to have to include her in one or two shows so that the industry can get to see the yacht, meet the crew, and see what the package has to offer.”
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Keeping a boat in brokers' minds is also paramount. “It's important for the captain to realize he has to pick up the phone and call brokers to get that business,” Bonnie says. “Get them aboard and let's have dinner. If you're in town, go by and say, ‘Hey.'”
Manafort's team at a Fort Lauderdale-based yacht management company is doing all of the above to make Independence II a successful charter boat.
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In the meantime, Manafort is satiating his boating disease at home by building a 30-foot aluminum workboat for gunkholing and cruising.
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He thinks a lot about all he's learned, and he insists that all who work for him put his knowledge to use. “Treat every customer like it's your only customer,” he says. “One, they're going to tell somebody else if they like it, and two, hopefully they're going to come back next year. If you keep getting the same ones back and then add a few more, eventually, you can build it into a real thing.” |
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Kim Kavin, editor of www.CharterWave.com
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