| |
A few years ago, an insurance company executive telephoned Nick Trotter and told him that he wanted to become a bigger fish in his business pond by arranging a “dream getaway” for his industry's top players. Trotter, asked for a corporate event budget in the several-hundred-thousand-dollar range. The executive said okay, just for this one-time event, to really make a splash and together they set about choosing five luxury yachts that would cruise together for a week in the Caribbean .
|
|
| |
 |
|
“He brought some of the executives from his company, and then the owners of other businesses who supply his business, and their spouses, and there were no meetings, no group activities, no nothing,” Trotter says. “You would never see his company name on anything at all—no bags, no hats, nothing like that, which they thought was cool, because it's very high class. Their goal was to show those people the time of their lives.”
Apparently, the executive got much more for his money than even he had expected. “They do have competition in their industry, but this helped them set themselves apart,” Trotter recalls with a smile. “Before we got back to the dock, he said, ‘I'm going to do this again for sure.'”
|
| |
So much for a big, one-time event. Yacht charter is just that good, just that memorable. And for that reason, it is becoming more and more popular as a corporate marketing tool. With increasing frequency, company principals are chartering luxury yachts in an effort to show their top clients—or would-be clients—the most personalized style of vacation getaway the world has to offer. In return for the sizable financial investment, they are receiving business loyalty beyond their wildest dreams.
|
|
| |
“The big problem with (corporate events) is trying to get all the high-level, busy people to go at the same time,” Trotter says. “And that's one of the things that (the insurance executive) has been able to achieve, because what he does is so good, people want to be there. This is invitation-only, and there is a business aspect to it. You have to be good enough to go. You have to produce. So it's the heavy-hitters, and when you get down to where the cutoff point on the list is, you don't want to be left out.”
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
THE COST |
|
| |
Realistically, the budget for a corporate event aboard luxury yachts can start around $300,000. There are two options: tandem charters, in which you book a half-dozen yachts simultaneously to accommodate eight or ten guests per yacht, or high-capacity yacht charter, in which you book one of the largest luxury yachts in the world to accommodate several dozen guests aboard one boat.
|
|
| |
The yachts that accommodate more intimate parties of 12 or fewer guests (which in this high-end marketplace means 80- to 245-foot vessels) have base rates from $20,000-per-week sailboats all the way up to $420,000-per-week motoryachts. They can of course be mixed and matched, perhaps with one pedigree-built megayacht such as a Feadship or an Amels (easily $200,000 per week for 10 guests) to really impress the crowd during dinners and parties. It can be chartered in addition to three or four more economically palatable sailing yachts, or smaller motoryachts from less renowned builders, that people will find perfectly comfortable and enjoyable by day for a fraction of the “big boat” cost. The downside, of course, is that only a select few guests will end up actually staying aboard the “best” boat, but that can be explained as a “best-of-the-best” decision.
|
|
The high-capacity yachts that keep everyone aboard the same yacht start around $300,000 for a weeklong charter. The most expensive in this category—actually, the most expensive charter yacht overall in the world right now—is the 280-foot Annaliesse , which takes 36 guests at a jaw-dropping $840,000 per week.
|
|
 |
|
| |
Other high-capacity yachts include the brand-new Sherakhan (a converted Dutch education vessel that takes 24 guests at about $400,000 per week), Christina O (the historic Aristotle Onassis megayacht that takes 30 guests for a reported $600,000 per week), and O'Mega (a brand-new, Greek-built 266-footer asking about $450,000 per week for 28 guests).
|
|
| |
Prices for any size boat are base rates that include the yacht and its crew, but not food, fuel, dockage or crew tip—extras that can add 30 percent to 50 percent. When chartering more than a handful of boats, it can mean very big bucks.
|
|
| |
 |
|
“If you take the boat, the provisions, not even the first-class (airline) tickets and land activities, these programs are easily over a million dollars,” says Suzette McLaughlin, a longtime broker. “(Yet) compare it to a five-star resort which these guys are staying at anyway apples to apples, it's not that much more.” |
| |
|
|
| |
THE RESULTS |
|
| |
And the payoff can be far grander. Trotter, McLaughlin and several other charter brokers say their clients initially want onetime events but end up booking corporate charters again and again—usually two or three years apart—not only because they find them “buzz-producing” in their given industries, but because they inspire business relationships to blossom in an unprecedented, highly personal manner.
|
|
| |
“It allows them to spend time with people in a way that they didn't imagine was possible before,” Trotter explains. “When you go to a resort and you're bringing people down with you, your major suppliers, and you want to have that important one-on-one time, it's awkward. You walk up to somebody on the beach and say, ‘How's it going?' It's not a comfortable environment to inject yourself into, and they might walk away. Or even after dinner, you have a drink and then people say they have to go home. What one of our high-level chaps was so impressed with was that in the evenings, they would sit on the (yacht's) aft deck and just enjoy it. It is a situation that can't be replicated anywhere else.”
|
|
| |
If group gatherings are the way you like to do business, your best bet is to book one of the high-capacity boats or to have at least one large motoryacht in your tandem fleet. Motoryachts traditionally have more deck space and larger formal dining areas than sailing yachts, and so are better for hosting group dinners or steel-drum-band cocktail parties. They're also better than sailing yachts in inclement weather when you have a large group of people, because they are beamier and thus feel less cramped in the interior bar, lounge, and saloon seating areas.
|
|
On the other hand, if your goal is to create more intimate parties, sailing yachts might be the route to consider. Under way, guests tend to congregate in the cockpit together as opposed to guests aboard motoryachts, who often spread out in the boat's various indoor and outdoor lounge spaces. With sailing yachts, you can still have everyone meet after sunset for a large group dinner or dancing at restaurants on shore, and your bottom line will be a bit more palatable since sailing yachts are generally less expensive to charter than motoryachts.
|
|
 |
|
| |
Trotter's insurance industry booked four sailing yachts and one motoryacht for his first event, keeping small groups together by day and inviting everyone to tender over to the motoryacht for dinner parties at night. The executive's upcoming second event is expected to include at least one motoryacht again—or possibly two—to raise the bar in terms of wowing his guests.
|
|
| |
Another way to enhance the experience is to change the destination. Good first venues for events like these are the Caribbean or the Bahamas. They're easy to fly to, and they're full of luxury yachts all winter long. As a second event venue, American companies might consider the Mediterranean during the summer. It's harder to fly to, of course, but is also full of luxury yachts during the warmer months and will likely include an itinerary with stops that many clients have never before visited (primarily the private, gated marinas along the Cote d'Azur where cruise ships are forbidden).
|
|
| |
 |
|
Other possibilities include New England and Alaska in the summertime, or the South Pacific between December and March. Those areas do get some luxury yacht traffic, but not nearly as much as the Caribbean and Mediterranean —and so would require more effort for event planning and, most likely, higher costs.
|
| |
Trotter has been planning the insurance executive's upcoming second event in the Caribbean for nearly a year—an amount of time both he and McLaughlin say is a minimum requirement for coordinating these complex, multi-yacht charters. Simply finding a half-dozen boats that are willing to cooperate with one another can take months; remember, luxury charter yachts are privately owned, not part of fleets like cruise ships or smaller bareboats. McLaughlin says two years' worth of planning is not unheard of when you're trying to arrange 10 or 12 yachts for one trip.
|
|
| |
“Everything to do with yacht charter is specialized, and this is a niche within that,” Trotter says. “This is real. This is yacht charter. This is not a setup. It's an exclusive experience.” |
|
Kim Kavin, editor of www.CharterWave.com
|
