Day One of the Genoa Charter Yacht Show has drawn to a close, with the onboard dinners finishing up as the clock here in Italy ticks past midnight. I'm just back from seven courses including a fantastic mango-coconut soup aboard the newly renovated 114-foot motoryacht 5 Fishes (more on her in the weeks to come), and am digesting not just my midnight meal but also the various bits of news that I was able to unearth here on the docks today.


In general, the brokers I spoke with all confirmed what I've been reporting for the past few months, that this year is better than last year for the crewed yacht charter industry, with some calling last year "catastrophic" and implying that just about anything would be an improvement. Phones are once again ringing and bookings are being made, but a good 80 percent of the brokers I interviewed today said that finalizing deals is more challenging than ever. Price negotiations continue to be common in all size ranges of charter yachts, and deals appear to be coming together closer to actual charter dates than in advance.


I did hear from two different yacht captains that they each had either serious inquiries or confirmed bookings for four- to five-week charters (single charters of at least a month), indicating that regular charter clients may be returning to the market after taking last summer off at the height of the global recession. I only heard this twice, which could just be a coincidence, but it struck me as noteworthy given how hard it has been for many boats to book even single weeks of charter in recent months.


The other news of interest on the docks here in Italy was about Greece, where the annual charter yacht show in Poros just ended. To a person, brokers who flew to Genoa from Poros all told me that they were highly impressed with the quality of the yachts they saw, with some brokers saying outright that after many years of improvement, some yachts in the Greek market are now on par with some of the finer yachts in the far more developed Western Mediterranean charter market.


However, that good news out of Greece was tempered by substantial confusion about the country's continuing economic problems and what they will mean for charter rates this summer.


You may recall this blog post that I wrote in mid-March after multiple, reputable brokers in the Greek market confirmed that the government was going to raise the VAT (tax) that charter clients are obligated to pay. Today, I ran into Marie Molls, the Athens-based broker for Burgess Yachts, who told me that her company belives that information is inaccurate.


Molls, who is the Burgess authority on the Greek market, says that no new VAT will apply to charter clients, but that instead a new tax will apply to the owners of yachts that stay in Greek waters more than 60 days. "We are supposed to have these things in writing this month," she told me, literally as news was flashing across my Blackberry about the European Union preparing a multibillion-euro bailout for the Greek economy, an obvious sign of continuing questions and concern.


I'll continue trying to get to the bottom of that issue, which, according to all brokers I've consulted, can mean an expense of thousands of euro beyond what guests and owners are currently required to pay.


I'll also have news for you tomorrow about some of the largest yachts here at the Genoa show, including the brand-new, 203-foot, much-discussed Benetti motoryacht Bistango, which I toured earlier today. The interior included a lot of gold leaf, black panthers, and horse hair. She is, I think, best described as "Versace on Safari."


You know you want to know more about that. Tune in tomorrow!

Written by: Kim Kavin
Kim Kavin is an award-winning writer, editor and photographer who specializes in marine travel. She is the author of 10 books including Dream Cruises: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Vacations, and is editor of the online yacht vacation magazine www.CharterWave.com.