Iceland Volcano Disrupts Charter Worldwide
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The continued eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano on Iceland is affecting the yacht charter industry worldwide, with airline cancellations leaving yacht crew, charter clients, and charter company managers stranded.
Antigua Sailing Week, a popular annual charter event that was supposed to begin its races this Saturday, has postponed Saturday's races until further notice. A note on the event's website states that many of the scheduled participants are "stranded in Europe" because of the Iceland volcano, and organizers thus want to allow an extra day for travel.
That extra day seems like an awfully small window to Alex Berl, charter manager at Nautor's Swan USA East in Newport, Rhode Island. She has been workin
g since August 2009 to organize a pair of 56-foot Swan sailing yachts for charter at Antigua Sailing Week with 30 clients from London, none of whom can now get flights to the Caribbean.
"They've sent me a large amount of money in deposits, and they've invested even more in shoreside accommodations, and now they can't get to Antigua," Berl told me by telephone yesterday afternoon. "Plus, the boats are spending a ton of money getting ready for the races."
Trish Cronan, a charter broker who owns Ocean Getaways in Florida, e-mailed me from the Virgin Islands, where a 16-yacht charter that she organized is scheduled to begin today. The crew from one of the yachts was on holiday in the United Kingdom and had flights to return to the islands nearly a week ago, but have not been able to get out. The charter guests are in the islands and ready to board the yacht, but the crew are not there.
"Fortunately," Cronan told me, "I had another sailing catamaran standing by. And now we're having to accommodate even more guests, because some of the clients who have been in St. Thomas doing the land portion of the event were supposed to fly back to Europe before the charter portion began. Since they can't fly back, they're now coming on charter with us instead."
Halfway around the world in the Middle East, effects are being felt as well. Rupert Connor of Luxury Yacht Group in Fort Lauderdale has been working to place a crew member from Nice, France, into a job aboard a charter yacht in Dubai. "He's been trying to get a flight for five days," Connor says, "and the captain gave him an ultimatum: Get here tomorrow, or I'll give the job to someone else."
The crew member, who was authorized by the yacht captain to pay for a coach-class ticket, instead bought a first-class ticket on his own dime because that was all that was available. "A-plus to the crew member in our eyes for making it happen," Connor says.
Meanwhile, in Florida, Derek Holding at International Yacht Charter Group reports an inquiry for a transatlantic charter, with the client figuring he could sail under the ash instead of trying to fly through it.
"It wasn't a doable request," Holding says, "since crossing the Atlantic on a yacht isn't exactly quicker than waiting for ash clouds to clear."
Charter Brokers, Managers Also Affected
Industry brokers and managers, too, are being displaced by the air travel disruptions. Adelheid Chirco, charter director for Ocean Independence, e-mailed me yesterday afternoon from Sicily, where she just completed a familiarization trip aboard a yacht for six retail charter brokers.
"Three of them got home with no problems, two got only back to Rome and then had to rent a car to get to Northern Italy and France, and the one who has to get back to London is really doing a long trip," Chirco says. "First she will go on Monday evening by ferry from Palermo to Naples, and then she will travel by way of coach with a group of 48 children also trying to get back to England. That is a funny, 40-hour trip in front of her."
At the Ocean Independence office in Fort Lauderdale, charter manager Daphne d'Offay is trying to help clients from the United Kingdom get home after recently completing a charter in the Bahamas.
"They have two guests that tried to leave Monday who are stuck in Cuba, and seven guests who tried to leave yesterday who have found flights through Ecuador to Miami, at least. They were originally told that they would not get home for two weeks. Their flight tomorrow from Miami will take them to Madrid, where they will sit tight until they get another leg home eventually."
Trying to travel in the other direction is Matt Emerson, charter marketing division manager for Camper and Nicholsons International in Fort Lauderdale.
"He has been stuck in Amsterdam since Thursday and is trying to make his way down to Nice via car, then on to Barcelona for a flight on Saturday," says Barbara Dawson, a charter broker in Camper's Palm Beach office, said via e-mail yesterday. "What a nightmare!"
Future Charters at Stake
Charter broker Ann Landry of Fort Lauderdale-based Northrop and Johnson says the volcano's ash is holding up the airplane that contains final contracts for a charter she just completed booking for later this year.
"My Fed Ex packet with original contracts that need the yacht owner's signature in Greece are held up at an airport in Switzerland," she says. "I hope it makes it to Greece eventually. I'd hate to go through the whole exercise again."
President Jennifer Saia of The Sacks Group Yachting Professionals in Fort Lauderdale is also having a deal for a future charter held up by the Iceland eruption.
"I'm trying to work with Tom Debuse, a charter manager for Camper and Nicholsons, but he's stuck in Morocco where he was on vacation with his family," Saia says. "We are trying to book a big charter on one of his central agency yachts for my clients, but he's only got access to his Blackberry."
Saia also says two charter brokers from The Sacks Group's office in Sint Maarten were not able to attend a charter yacht show in Croatia because of the restricted flights, and that she now wonders whether the annual charter yacht shows in Italy and Greece will be affected in early May.
Those boat shows, as well as the upcoming one in Turkey, are where leading charter brokers inspect yachts before offering them to their clients for summer charters in the Mediterranean. If brokers cannot get to Europe for the shows, then they cannot perform the yacht inspections.
Charter Brokers Now Dealing in Private Jets, Cheap Cars
Broker Mike Johnson of Exclusive Charter Service in New York regularly books charter yachts as well as private jets for his clients. "I haven't had any problems with yacht charter clients," he told me by phone yesterday, "but the private air charter division of my business has gone berserk. There's been a tenfold increase."
One client, Johnson said, needed to get from the United States to Russia, which is usually an eastbound trip. "Instead, we booked him in the other direction, and he went through California. It was an extra 13 hours at $10,000 an hour, but he got where he had to go. The whole point of a private jet is that the flight paths can be altered. We can take you south to get you east."
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, charter broker Tim Clark of Ocean Independence put out an e-mail offering the use of a "disposable car" to help clients or brokers as needed.
"A good friend of mine, having been stranded in the U.K. and who needed to get back to Palma, ended up buying a cheap car to drive to Dover and take the ferry to France," Clark's e-mail states. "He then drove down to Barcelona and took the ferry back to Palma as a foot passenger. The car is therefore parked near the ferry port in Barcelona. If you know anyone that is desperate to get back to France, U.K., or wherever, he is happy to sell the car for around Eu400. Let me know."
A Smart Last Thought
Cronan, the broker in the Virgin Islands setting off today on a 16-yacht flotilla, said there is one thing in particular that charter clients should keep in mind just in case an air travel disruption of this magnitude ever happens again.
"If nothing else," she said, "it's yet another case for buying travel insurance."
