This week on the Shipshape podcast, we have the pleasure of speaking with Kateryna Ksylyak, a highly experienced yacht charter broker with a wealth of knowledge and insight to share. Kateryna, originally from Ukraine, has made her home in Istanbul and has built a reputation as a go-to expert in her field.

In this episode, Kateryna shares her unique perspective on the yacht charter industry, providing valuable insights into the day-to-day realities of being a broker. From the challenges and hurdles that new brokers may face, to the secrets of success and the joys of the job, Kateryna’s candid and informative interview is a must-listen for anyone considering a career in yacht charter brokerage.

In addition to her valuable insights and advice, Kateryna also shares her personal story and the path that led her to become a yacht charter broker. With a passion for the industry and a deep understanding of the inner workings of the yacht charter market, Kateryna is a true expert in her field. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business and gain valuable insights into the exciting world of yacht charter brokerage. Tune in now to the Shipshape podcast to hear Kateryna’s story and gain valuable insights into this fascinating industry.

Kateryna Yachts & Travel Blog

Brought to you by SHIPSHAPE

Transcript ——

Merrill [00:00:00] Shiver me timbers. You’re listening to that Shipshape podcast again.

 

Georgia [00:00:15] This week on the Shipshape podcast. We speak to Kateryna, a yacht charter broker based in Istanbul, and learn about the latest news from the charter market. Her top tips for budding brokers and who is is actually chartering these incredible boats in 2022. Welcome to the podcast. I’m George Tindale, editor and journalist and the yacht in the yachting sphere. Based in the UK. And my co-host is.

 

Merrill [00:00:42] Merrill Charette at I’m a Liveaboard on a Ta-Shing Tashiba 36 in Boston, Massachusetts. So, Kateryna, where are you recording this from?

 

Kateryna [00:00:51] Hello, everyone. I’m happy to be here and I’m recording this one from Istanbul, the Asian part, Turkey.

 

Merrill [00:01:00] How long have you been in the maritime industry all together?

 

Kateryna [00:01:04] I would say seven years. First two years I worked as a hostess on a good ad here in Turkey. It’s the charter Gulet. And then after working as a journalist for a couple of years back in Ukraine, I couldn’t resist by. But coming back to maritime business and me, yes, for five years I’ve been a charter broker.

 

Merrill [00:01:25] Okay, so I know what a Goulart as I had to look it up. But could you explain to people that might not know what it is?

 

Kateryna [00:01:33] So a goulet is a crooner. If I pronounced it right, by the way, for my English in advance. Yes. It’s a schooner with two masts. It’s huge. I would say third starting from 30 meter wooden yachts with two masts around five or six, sometimes even more cabins that you can use for for cruising holidays. It’s very stable and water very comfortable. And it’s very popular in Turkey, in Croatia, in Greece, in Italy. But the highest amount of brilliance you can find here in Turkey and have a very comfortable on water holiday.

 

Merrill [00:02:11] Hmm. So before the maritime industry, you were in journalism, right?

 

Kateryna [00:02:15] Yes, that’s right. I worked in Kiev for a national TV. I was observing international news and did some podcasts about traveling.

 

Georgia [00:02:26] For those people who aren’t in the know. What exactly does a charter broker do?

 

Kateryna [00:02:31] A charter broker connects a person who wants to rent a yacht for a certain amount of time. It can be half a day. It can be even three months with a crew. And the broker connects a person who wants to rent the yacht with either representative of a yard or the owner of a yacht. And a broker helps to organize all the critical moments like contracts, price and etc. and also the broker helps to actually organize the ship itself. So me as a broker, I not only that I helped to find the right guy, but I also assist with creating a customized itinerary for clients, doing the most of concierge services, like recommending and booking restaurants, beach clubs, helping them to find their wines, etc. working with the crew on special menu for clients. So you become like, I would say, like a mom for the charter. Yes. You’re a sister or a father. If you’re a male, you assist with most of the questions.

 

Merrill [00:03:42] Well, that sounds like it can get extraordinarily complicated with all the different scheduling that has to be done. How big is the team or is it like a single kind of operation when you’re a charter broker?

 

Kateryna [00:03:55] I guess it depends on the size of a company. But in most cases, even if the company has just four or five employees, it means that one would work in accounting, one or two, one in operations, and there will be two or three charter brokers. But each of them work with their own clients. And yes, we can assist each other as colleagues. Like, Oh, can you call that dressed and or or can you send me updated price in these or something like this? But it’s better if you are one connecting person between the crew, the client and some other operational woman, because otherwise it can get too complicated. And in any case, it doesn’t matter how many people are involved, there should be one person who is checking each chain, each part of the chain, because somewhere there will be something missing or a problem. And if you don’t check, nobody will check. So there should be just one person. It’s super difficult, but if you love working with people, caring about people, it’s one of the most important things. In our industry, you have to be caring person, not indifferent. Then you will do it automatically. Like sometimes I compare this job with motherhood, you know? Yes. It’s very difficult to have a baby, a child, and then sometimes it’s so stressful. But somehow at the same time, you enjoy it. It brings you pleasure. You are happy.

 

Georgia [00:05:23] Yeah. I think we can all agree that being a child’s broker is a fairly niche, unusual profession. I think if you had to explain it to someone outside the industry and even people within the industry who are super into yachts, it can be a bit bit complicated. What do you think are the main barriers to entry to becoming a chartered broker? How did you feel? How did you find entering this industry into such a sort of niche sphere?

 

Kateryna [00:05:50] For me it was quite easy because I had the best boss guide I could ask for. It’s the person who has ethics, who is caring for his professional, who is for 30 years in this business, who is well-respected in the industry. So I’ve been lucky because we have this professional, friendly and kind relationships. So whatever. Wherever I was missing some knowledge, he was helping me. She was patient. Yes, I would say the but it was difficult, of course, because there is no guidebook, there is no university degree that you can get. It’s just your learning step by step. But you have to be very attentive and very responsible not to avoid the mistakes. And the barrier is, yes, the absence of knowledge and the absence of the actual platform where you can come and get that knowledge. Yes, there are some courses online for brokers, but I would say couple of them like two or three people or schools can can teach to be a broker. So, yes, the absence of that kind of platform, I would say, is a barrier. Otherwise, maybe it’s something personal. Like, you know, if the person wants to enter this business and they find somebody who is willing to hire them. But I think not everybody is ready to share all their knowledge with a new entry person. So it’s like greediness to share the knowledge. I would assume that this can be a barrier as well, or other than that, I don’t see any barriers.

 

Merrill [00:07:28] Well, it sounds like it requires a lot of interpersonal skills. And, you know, my view on the charter side of small boats is that you build these relationships with your guests and then they come back and they give you referrals. How much of a factor is that when it comes to like Superyachts, where you have like returning guests every year or people that refer, you know, others to you?

 

Kateryna [00:07:56] I would say most of the clients with whom I started to work sometime ago, yes, they come back. They don’t come back only they don’t rent yachts that season and referral percentage, I would say also quite high, which is a huge honor for me and for our team, for our company. And yes, if if the client has a good experience, I think it’s quite understandable why they return, because I do know there are some fraud situations, some fraud people, companies in any industry. And yet in his my exception, I even had the case that the company that booked a yacht via us for their own clients. It’s a real estate company. Once they called me and said, Look, Katrina, we’re not booking this yacht with you because the client found it on their own. However, we need your help. Do you know this kind of body? You know, this kind of comfort? You do know this, Captain. And thank God I knew and I could assist, assure them that everything’s going to be fine, etc., because they had this experience. They booked a €60,000 yacht for a client. The client comes to Marina, and in front of him there is something old like it’s not what what it was supposed to be. And there was no company to, you know, to actually get in touch with and understand what’s happening. Yeah. So that’s very important. Yeah. Trustful factor is Yes it’s and it is what saves the day in our industry as well.

 

Georgia [00:09:31] So think about for talking about yachting and what people think about it. People do sometimes dismiss the yachting as a bit of a man’s world, obviously. How does that apply, do you think that an especially brokerage? In my experience, sales brokerage is often associated with men, but I think the situation’s changing a little bit too. Would you mind just talking to me a little bit about your experiences like that?

 

Kateryna [00:09:53] Sure. I would say that whenever I inquire for a yacht based in Europe. Or it states. And I can see the represented Europe that in many cases I see females who are charter brokers or they are representative of the yard. So I cannot say that in charter business it’s mostly men’s world, definitely no. Here in Turkey, I would also say 5050, whenever I go to a charter exhibition, I see lots of women, my colleagues and about sales. I think we have more men based on my experience. Yes, more men. And I don’t know, maybe because, for example, if I go and visit the yard, I rarely go to the engine room. I have to be honest with you. But like some women, they actually go to engine rooms. They ask captains more questions about knots, generators, engines. But yeah, men probably are more interested in building them. Knowing all this stuff, I will speak like quickly.

 

Georgia [00:11:00] But yeah, but I do think it is changing. I’ve met a fair few awesome female sales brokers who will get down with the best of them in the engine rooms. And and I frequently go into engine rooms on shipyards and knots and look, try and look intelligent when they tell me about all the different things. Yes. Fascinating. Thank you. Tell me more about the throttle.

 

Kateryna [00:11:20] And I.

 

Georgia [00:11:23] Think it is improving a bit in that sense.

 

Kateryna [00:11:25] For sure. And I must tell you a story from Greek Charter exhibition. I was beginning of May this year. I went on board, apparently a huge show, over a hundred meter yacht. And I went to the to the engine room and I enjoyed it so much. I said to myself, okay, from now on you go there. Because there was this. It was so clean, perfect, and there was so much testosterone in that room. All the female group was like, Oh dear, we’re coming to the end of the year.

 

Merrill [00:12:00] So if explaining a little bit about the structure of how chartering works, right? So let’s say you own a super yacht, how exactly do you go about chartering? Do they like reach out to your organization and say, Hey, we got this big boat, we’d like to charter it? And then you obviously have to like, vet them in some way and make sure like the boat is up to par or is that their responsibility? How does it work?

 

Kateryna [00:12:25] All right. He would yes, he would go in line or he would ask somebody for some referrals, which companies are to trust. So the owners should find the company that already has a good fleet of yachts, good meaning that they have good season, they have enough bookings for the season or for the following season. It means that the company has a good in-house marketing for their boats that they manage. So of course as the owner you are interested to generate more and more inquiries and charters for your yachts. So yes, you would prefer to go with the probably big and popular company. If we’re talking about Superyachts, if it’s something smaller, of course you can go with a smaller company with that broker that you know, or with the broker that came from the referrals. It can also be an independent broker. But if he has a good or she has good connections, lots of clients, potential clients for your yard or this person is good with marketing. So yes, you would need to find a person or a company with good marketing skills or department who would promote your yacht and take care of it.

 

Georgia [00:13:42] Yeah. So how is the supply and demand for charter boats at the moment? Are there more boats that need to be chartered than people wanting to go out to them? Or the opposite?

 

Kateryna [00:13:52] I would say the demand is higher than supply at the moment. Whenever we get inquiries, even one months before, I’m not talking about last minute inquiries, even one or two months before. It’s very hard to find yachts in south of France, in Italy, in Greece, especially here in Turkey, we don’t have a big variety of motor yards. That’s why it’s also not easy to find a motor yacht sometimes. Yes. So we were talking about booking one two months before or one two weeks before. It’s not easy. The supply should be more.

 

Merrill [00:14:26] How did COVID impact this part of the industry?

 

Kateryna [00:14:30] Turkey was lacking during COVID times in 2020. It did its best to make the ground more safe for people who want to travel. So if the country allowed if another country allowed its residents or citizens to come to Turkey and fly back, a lot of people came here and did the odds and the crew wore masks. So it was quite safe. And in one and a half months we did what? We would expect in the whole season in terms of charters, yes, it was very great. And a lot of people actually found out about Turkey, who had never been here and never chartered a yacht or stayed in the hotel. And then they were like, oh, turkey. Oh, it’s a beautiful country. We will come here next year for other countries in Europe. I think it was worse because in 2020, I think the season started only in August and a lot of people were just afraid to travel. They didn’t want to risk the flow in the year 2021 was much better, and this year is insane because people said, okay, enough, we want to travel, we need that.

 

Georgia [00:15:42] So yeah, and this is a hard question to pin down. What kind? Is there a kind of person that charters a superyacht in Turkey?

 

Kateryna [00:15:54] To be honest with you, there is no certain profile one specific. It can be somebody Yes, from Eastern European country like from Russia, for example. You would think this person charters a super yacht like stereotypically. But now a lot of people are coming from the US, from Australia, from Great Britain, from France. And yes, they do charter super yachts here as well. Even icefall on yachts follow the booking calendars of some of the largest yachts in the world who never came here for charter. Or maybe once they spend a lot of time here in Turkey this season, like two or three weeks. They do. And I think it’s already something. So, yes, a lot of them are coming here, which was not like this before.

 

Merrill [00:16:46] It sounds, than being a charter broker. There’s so many different aspects from booking the actual boat to making sure all the guests are squared away to making sure restaurants are, you know, booked. Do you have any bad stories of charters, like not necessarily from your end, but have you heard stories like what is the worst charter you’ve heard of?

 

Kateryna [00:17:10] I had very difficult to charters this season when pre charter process was done perfectly. We worked on their itinerary. We made the plan, we booked the restaurants, the clients and as the preference we saw they would like to what kind of products that they would like to have on board drinks, etc.. And I had great references for these yachts. I never booked them before and I had great references about them, about boats. And they’re in two different price categories. One is €20,000 per week and the other one is €130,000 per week. On both of them, there were some very difficult moments with the crew and some of their products weren’t purchased, although I was informed that they are bought a couple of times. And can you imagine me? I’m saying to the client, Yes, everything is on board. I confirmed that couple of times with the crew. Then they come on board and it’s not there. So how does it make me look? And I was just I always take responsibility on myself. And because it’s me who organizes this. And it was very difficult. Yes. Because there was no actual reason for these kind of things. And then, yes, some misunderstandings with the crew. It created some tension on board. And people shouldn’t have tension when they’re having the holiday. It shouldn’t go like this. And yes, this season I experienced a couple of times when clients and me had to fight for the basics, like the food they asked, which was not supposed to come from the moon. It was like, you know, normal products and they’re like clean and nice base, which is actually a must. I mean, the captain should find the best base for the clients and not to take them to some dirty place. So yeah, it was like this. So I’m always honest with my clients. I always say to them, I know are I know the crew or I don’t know they are they don’t know the crew. And even if I know, even if other clients had great experiences, something can go wrong because it’s a human factor. So now even more, I am happy that I’m being honest and open so clients don’t have this, you know, super beautiful expectations that everything will go smooth. No, it may not. And it’s going to be just I don’t know why either luck they’re bad luck or something is going to happen. Then the full moon affects a crew member or client and, you know, some mood changes. So, yeah, not no guarantees for anything in this world as we can see.

 

Merrill [00:19:45] So when these issues happen, Right. How do you go about like kind of remedying the situation.

 

Kateryna [00:19:53] Before every charter? I say to clients, please, if there is any kind of. But you don’t like. Please tell me, because brokers have some kind of, I don’t know, some kind of it’s not a power, but ability to talk to the crew. Nicely kind, educated, to fix the situation, to find a solution. We from on from shore. We can also do something. For example if something is broken on board, like a speaker or a jetski or something, the captain or the crew doesn’t move fast enough to fix it. We can fix it easily and much faster then yes. Either a broker can speak to the crew and find the solution or we go. We get in touch immediately with the representative or with the manager of the yacht or with the owner, if that’s the case. And yes, we’re all trying to do our best behind the scene to solve a situation in a way that does not create a tension between the crew and the clients. And the clients can have their enjoyable time with. But yes, if there is something that you cannot fix, then your you work from there.

 

Georgia [00:21:04] So what is it that motivates you to do your job? What gets you up on a morning?

 

Kateryna [00:21:10] I would say that love and passion get me up in the morning to do my job. I love communicating with people. It’s just become it works naturally for me, what I do. I can work at 11 p.m., at 12 p.m. at 8 a.m.. It doesn’t matter. It’s just it became just part of me. So I love it. I guess that motivates me.

 

Georgia [00:21:36] Yeah.

 

Merrill [00:21:37] As a charter broker, do you get to travel a lot?

 

Kateryna [00:21:41] Yes. In our company we prefer to greet our guests personally. So if we have charters barging in somewhere in Turkey or in Greece or in Italy, we we go either me or my director or my colleague. We go to the places and we treat not only to greet personally, that’s the case. We also double check if everything is fine on the yacht. If the mirror is clean enough this summer, a couple of times I got so mad with some yachts here in Turkey, I took a paper towel and I went to the bathroom and cleaned the mirror myself because I cannot accept that clients comment and they see like some prints on Honda on the mirror. So yeah, that’s what we also do.

 

Georgia [00:22:27] Yeah. And then here comes the really rude question that I think probably everyone would like to know The answer to. Superyachts are associated with a lot of money. How much money can you earn as a child to broker?

 

Kateryna [00:22:40] Well, the standard Industry Commission is between ten and 15%, so it depends on how many people, how many agents are involved in the process. And then you can calculate what who gets how much. And usually the person, the broker who has or the agent who has a direct client. Yes. Earns more than the highest amount. And then whoever works on that process gets a smaller, smaller amount.

 

Georgia [00:23:13] So how much do we think Merrill could get for his boat? Merrill, what would you to go back to.

 

Merrill [00:23:18] Our charter it for about $10,000 a week.

 

Georgia [00:23:23] Okay. Yeah. So he could get commission, but then it is his boat.

 

Kateryna [00:23:27] So yeah, if it’s his boat, then I don’t think that he would make much because he would need to give the commission to the broker and then to calculate the crew salaries, the maintenance, etc. So.

 

Georgia [00:23:42] I’m not sure it’s worth it. Mara, what do you think?

 

Merrill [00:23:44] Yeah, well, you know, I thought about it. The boat would be too much to maintain. I mean, that’s the whole problem with boats and I mean recreational boats. It’s one thing, right? Boat stands for bust out another thousand. But I’ve heard that super yachts are just as bad. And if you just, like, leave them and you don’t maintain them, they don’t have a crew. They just absolutely fall apart in like, house.

 

Kateryna [00:24:10] Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but it’s like a house. If nobody takes care of it, it just dies. So even if we rent Meryl’s yard for 10,000, we would still keep it alive and people would enjoy it. He would have some money. Yes. To maintain otherwise, even even that 5000 that you would make out of ten is still good money to cover some of the expenses.

 

Merrill [00:24:33] Yeah, you would. You would probably wouldn’t like all the fingerprints on the mirrors and stuff.

 

Kateryna [00:24:38] And I would take care of the dogs.

 

Merrill [00:24:39] What can you talk on? Obviously, like, you know, the thing with Russia and a lot of the super yachts being like, you know, seized, how has that made any impacts to chartering or was that never really a factor?

 

Kateryna [00:24:55] I can only guess because I. Never dealt with this side of the situation. But when there was a charter exhibition in Barcelona this year, there were there was a very small amount of yachts, and some brokers assumed that it’s because some of the yachts left Europe or were seized. It left Europe not to be, you know, sanctioned, arrested. But I don’t know if that’s the case. I never I never had the proper knowledge about this.

 

Georgia [00:25:28] So what do you think are the skills that you’ve gained from being a charter broker?

 

Kateryna [00:25:34] Communication skills, Managing skills. Managing like Cirque du Soleil. You know, at the same time you do this, you’re doing so many things and you are actually becoming good at it. It’s possible. And at the same time, you can manage your personal life, your sleep life, your sleep time. So, yes, management skills are responsible. I’ve been always responsible, I would say. So management is there is the strongest skill I had developed over the years. Yeah. And solution was what was the English word when you can salute to find a solution. A leader. Crisis management? Yes. Crisis management? Yes.

 

Georgia [00:26:19] Not so.

 

Kateryna [00:26:20] Well worked.

 

Georgia [00:26:21] And it sounds like being proactive as well. Like you were saying with the mirror, you know, if something’s dirty, you just have to do it yourself. Sometimes.

 

Kateryna [00:26:29] Yes. Sometimes you just have to do it because you understand that like you actually one of another skill that I have developed is evaluating the situation. We say in my language soberly and correctly, yes, you evaluated the situation. You understand that if you start a scandal now like, oh, why the mirrors are not clean, okay? And the crew member can come and clean this. But if another part of the other is not ready, then you should understand that there will be another part. So yeah, you just have to do it and then you can complain to the owners, to the captain, but not now. You just need to find a solution.

 

Georgia [00:27:07] Yes, absolutely. So you’ve mentioned before that you have a background in journalism. Is that what you would be doing, do you think, if you weren’t a broker?

 

Kateryna [00:27:17] If I were a broker, I would be a writer, full time travel writer, Yes. I love writing and sharing my experiences with people where I’ve traveled, what I’ve seen, what I felt, and therefore, yeah, I love inspiring. So that’s what I would be doing.

 

Georgia [00:27:35] And how does that feed into your life as a broker now? Do you think they are linked?

 

Kateryna [00:27:39] I would say yes, because I often write them a lot of details that may not be noticeable at first, but then I notice, then I write them in text. It’s structured so they can understand easily some itinerary moments or even, for example, some issues with their with their route, with their vacation places, with the yacht itself. Then I also send them like special itineraries with my own text that I prepared, but most of them are busy people, so they got inspired mostly by talking on the phone and then looking at the pictures. So yes, I guess I started to write less, but speak more.

 

Merrill [00:28:23] Well, you do have a travel blog and you you have been writing. So can you talk a little bit about your blog?

 

Kateryna [00:28:31] Yes, I have a blog. I sites the website and I try to publish their useful information about the booking process, about how to choose a yacht, because there are a lot of people who don’t know anything about charter yachts, even me. 12 years ago, before I started to work on their yacht, I had no idea that you can charter a yacht with the crew. I didn’t even know these words. I just knew there are yachts. Yes, And there are crew working. There is crew working on private yachts. So a lot of people don’t know. And they have these stereotypes that to charter yachts costs like all this money in the world, which is also not true. There are a lot of yachts that you can afford, especially if you’re a big group of travelers you can rent the yacht with for 30 people, and then you divide €30,000 by 30, which means you pay only €1,000 per week on a yacht with the service and plus to the expenses, of course. But still, it’s very, very much doable. So I hope my blog helps people to get inspired to rent the yacht and to whatever place I visit. I try to make as many people as possible and share. Yes, share some new spots that people may discover when they travel to a certain country to have them come and visit it best met with the. Outdoor are not where they are. So I probably it’s like giving something extra to people and get them inspired.

 

Merrill [00:30:06] Well, as you bring up and as myself and George have experience when you’re writing in the context of Marine, it’s very difficult to do. Right. And I feel that there is so much of a push these days to actually have content out there. But the thing is that a lot of the people that are actually writing content don’t really know how to talking about these specific subjects work like I’ve seen online. It was like, how do you charter about four small boats? And the article was essentially by about. Have a great time charter. But it has no explanation about how exactly the whole thing works. So I don’t know where I was going with that. Probably something to do with how difficult it actually is to write about it and how unique of a skill it is.

 

Kateryna [00:30:58] Yes, probably human that if you don’t have your own personal experience, you cannot deliver enough information or more information to people about this subject because, yes, it’s it’s kind of a closed area because people are afraid of it, because they think it costs too much to ramp up. That’s why, like our industry is actually huge. But on the other hand, it’s like in this gray zone, gray area where not many people enter yet. So, yes, there is not enough probably content with a lot of details for a person to understand. But then, as Georgia said, yes, you can. Not many people understand what is what a charter broker does. And a lot of clients don’t even understand Some of them.

 

Georgia [00:31:42] I mean, the thing is the price, the way the prices are going. A holiday in the UK can easily set you back a grand for a week. That’s the thing, you know, everything is expensive. So when you as you were saying, when you think about the cost of chartering a yacht with a big group, it’s actually a lot more accessible. And I always feel a bit funny saying the words yachting and accessible in the same sentence, but it’s actually not necessarily a contradiction.

 

Kateryna [00:32:09] Yes, for sure. And also it’s very popular. Even if we’re talking about luxury motor yachts. There are some families who share the charter. Charter in a yacht. Yeah. For example, two families, charter yachts. So it’s more accessible for them, as you said. So it does really exist.

 

Merrill [00:32:27] Where do you think the charter industry is headed and let’s say the next ten years, 20 years, is there any revolutionary things that are coming around or there are going to be more boats, more charters?

 

Kateryna [00:32:39] I would assume there’s going to be more boats because a lot of people who buy to charter yachts for the first time Bay and who have money, they realize, I would like to own a boat myself and rent it out. And I know some of the shipbuilding companies here, even in Turkey, and they are overloaded with work. So yes, I would expand a bit, but I heard from some brokers from Great Britain that there are more conscious travelers who ask you before charging Riad, for example, what is there like? Is there a non plastic policy on a yacht or is it good for the sea? What about all this pollution and all this kind of things? And more and more customers in the Western countries started to be curious about it. I don’t have such customers yet, but I guess, yeah, in a couple of years we may have more.

 

Georgia [00:33:38] You know, sustainability is definitely a hot topic as always, but I think if you charter a sailing boat, you’re already sort of in the right direction. And you know, there are these beautiful wooden sailing boats, as we’ve already spoken about. So perhaps people moving towards that would wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing either.

 

Kateryna [00:33:56] Yes, for sure. And I think the accessible will become more will open more doors to people who would never think they can afford that. Yeah.

 

Georgia [00:34:07] Absolutely. So are there any hot destinations you think that will become more popular as time goes on?

 

Kateryna [00:34:14] I think that we will still have the same top five destinations where people charter yachts in the Mediterranean in summer and in any other country, for example. Yes, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong. I can see Hong Kong just getting more yachts there. But still, for most travelers, it’s too far to fly, too like, you know. Yes, the Caribbean season is so popular, but from Europe, it’s not going to be like a super high amount of people flying there because still it requires a lot of a lot of movements or. No, I think it would not. The fact, yes, some people who become tired of these top five destinations in the Med, they would. Go to Alaska or Greenland or somewhere else. But I think it’s still going to be a very small amount. Yeah, due to the accessibility, Yeah.

 

Georgia [00:35:07] I think they get a lot of press because it’s exciting and fun. But in terms of actual numbers, I think most people still just want to pool around the Mediterranean, don’t they, really, Realistically?

 

Kateryna [00:35:18] Yes, for sure. I guess.

 

Georgia [00:35:19] If it’s all right.

 

Kateryna [00:35:20] It is, yeah. When something is great like Greece, you know, you can probably as an owner of a yacht in Greece, you cannot lose because the whole world loves vacation in Greece. Either it’s Australia or America. They all come to Greece for food, for the history, for the weather, for the islands. So you cannot change it unless it’s in God’s hands or plans.

 

Merrill [00:35:43] So, you know, as we talk about kind of traveling and stuff, what is let’s say some person’s like, I want to go out to Greece and explore the, you know, the place. What is unique about being on land versus being on one of these charter yachts? How how does that change up the experience of being in Greece.

 

Kateryna [00:36:03] For example, if you go there in July and August, the hottest months just when you are on shore, during that time, it’s super hot. It’s crazy hot. So you can just, you know, stay under the sun and burn. But when you are on a yacht, you feel this breeze, sea breeze, you feel there, you feel good, you feel alive. And then you can you have that luxury of choosing what to do to swim now and then go on shore for one hour. And then, for example, when you’re on shore, yes, you have to take a car or a motorbike and drive around the island and then come back, but the heat wheel will tire you. Whereas you say to your captain, can we change a place? Can we go there? And you just sit and chill on a yacht while the captain takes you in one hour to another part of the island, and every couple of hours you can change the scenery without getting tired from all these moves. Yes, I think this is one of the benefits. And then, for example, I saw this summer a photo from Santorini. A huge crowd was waiting for a ferry to go to another island. And it was like enormous, super huge crowds. So you are just losing so much time of your time that you could spend on vacation. Yeah. And on a yacht. You’re just it gives you a freedom of freedom of movement. Yes. And it tires us.

 

Merrill [00:37:35] I’ve heard. Now, this is probably a misconception of mine. I’ve heard stories where when you’re chartering one of these super yachts, sometimes the boat will just stay on the dock. But I’ve also heard stories where the boat actually travels. That might be just some people spinning yarns, but I’ve heard, you know, weird things like that. So most of the charter boats that you’ve worked with actually travel places and, you know.

 

Kateryna [00:38:01] Definitely and not for example, not all marinas can accept a huge yacht, let’s say, in Greece. Know I cannot imagine that you just travel to these small islands with rural infrastructure and then a yacht cannot even dock there. So they stay on Encore. And yes, you can take a ten year go and sure, I know I don’t think that could be a big case or a more popular case. No yachts are actually travel and nobody wants to stay in the marina unless they want to embark and disembark. Yes, of course, it happens in the marina. But usually the guests come and they say, okay, we’re ready to go, go, go.

 

Georgia [00:38:41] I mean, it’s also your job, isn’t it calculated to make sure that that would never happen? You know, Yes. To plan ahead of time and make sure that you know exactly where you’re going to be and that everything’s going to run smoothly. That doesn’t mean it will all the time, definitely. But yeah, it’s.

 

Kateryna [00:39:00] It can I’m sorry to interrupt. It can happen, for example, on Mykonos or some islands in Greece in August or July, when the wind is super crazy, they can not physically move out from Marina and it has to stay because it cannot even get Port Authority’s permission to leave due to the I don’t know how many miles wind that’s the case. Yes.

 

Georgia [00:39:24] And how much I imagine a lot of the experience on board for the owner is obviously planned ahead of time. But have you ever had an owner where you’ve planned a perfect charter and they’ve just been I know when they get on it, they want to do something entirely different. Have you ever had to manage a situation like that?

 

Kateryna [00:39:43] Thank God I didn’t have the only thing that comes to my mind that, yes, the owner may sell a yacht. For example, you book a charter for the next year and two months before the charter, the deal is closed. And a new owner doesn’t want to perform the charters that come with a yacht. But there is a clause in their contract about it or any other contract. But still, yes, disappointing for clients because two months before their holiday, their hotels probably are booked, their flights are booked in advance. But for example, there is no substitution yet to find because everything is overbooked. So it’s highly disappointing. But I haven’t had that experience yet. Haven’t had.

 

Merrill [00:40:31] Have you seen the TV show Below Deck?

 

Kateryna [00:40:33] I’ve heard, but I haven’t seen that. I’m very curious.

 

Merrill [00:40:37] One of the so doing little tiny boat charters. And then also I’ve met a ton of crew on charter boats like the big ones. And one of the stories that I’ve heard and also experience is that sometimes when you get a guest and they’ve spent the money to be on the boat, there is this perception that they can really just do whatever they want on the boat because they did pay for it. How does that factor in to the whole scheme of things? You know, just the the personalities of the guests.

 

Kateryna [00:41:09] I think that it solely depends on the personality. And I think in all cases with all my clients with whom I’ve worked so far, they’ve been very adequate and respectful to the property, to their to what the captain says to actually they’re not the rules, but it’s like behavior in real life. It’s probably because they behave in real life like this. They also behave like this on a yacht. So probably maybe for the show they picked, you know, the juiciest stories, too. It’s TV. I mean, I work for TV, so and otherwise we wouldn’t we wouldn’t be watching those TV shows. Of course, everything can happen. But then there is captain, and we know that the captain is there. Is the boss on the yacht. So, yes, how he says, how he feels about safety and etc., you should follow. There are rules. So, yeah, you can you can be very spoiled. You can behave very strangely. But there are certain limits. And yeah.

 

Merrill [00:42:12] Well, through this whole conversation, I’m starting to realize that basically you always need a lawyer to handle all legal things. You always need a doctor to make sure your health is squared away and you always need a charter broker if you want to have a charter. It sounds way too complicated to try to do it on your own, and I bet a lot of people get stuck in that mentality of, you know, I bet like a lot of the people that do charters are successful in whatever career that they have of like managing things that they’re like, Oh, I can probably do it myself, but that sounds like a terrible idea at this point.

 

Kateryna [00:42:43] I would say it’s a terrible idea because it’s time consuming. Yeah, even if I want to fly somewhere, I get tired from choosing to take. They can come to the ports and airports, etc. and I cannot imagine that these people who can afford these kind of yachts, I mean, they they don’t have free time. That’s why probably they understand that they need to they need a charter broker to charter out or they ask their assistance to take care of it. And then the systems understand that, oh, my God, there is so much to follow. That’s you need the help. But otherwise, yeah, otherwise you actually can have Miranda up unless it’s something small for a day charter that you can find on such websites as Airbnb or. Yeah, some, some, some websites platforms where you can find a smaller or a bigger yacht. In any case, you end up with a charter broker. Yeah.

 

Merrill [00:43:38] Is it usually like is the average length of time like a week or do people do like day charters to day? Like can you change that up.

 

Kateryna [00:43:46] Or But industry standards is one week, especially during June, July, August. Nobody wants to be with four months. However, there are yachts. Yes. That you can rent even during high season months. It’s like July and August you can rent before they even for a holiday, like a sunset cruise, for example, you stay in one nice hotel and you want to go to the sea and watch the sunset. Yes, you can find the ads like this. I know cases. We got some inquiries for. Yeah, for three months. People just want to stay the whole summer and be free. I remember during pandemic, lots of people wanted to rent yachts for a longer time that didn’t. Kids have online distance school and they do their homework from a yacht. I mean, isn’t that wonderful?

 

Georgia [00:44:33] Yeah. And the why phase got a lot better on yachts now as well?

 

Kateryna [00:44:37] Definitely. Yes.

 

Georgia [00:44:38] It used to be. I know this may sound like a super boring segway, but it used to be a big problem on yachts actually getting your connectivity and things. But with visa and satellites now, you can be, you know, in the middle of the ocean and online. It’s incredible.

 

Kateryna [00:44:52] Yes, it’s very important.

 

Georgia [00:44:55] No excuse not to do your homework, then.

 

Kateryna [00:44:57] Definitely. Yeah. There is no dog on board to their homework, so.

 

Georgia [00:45:03] Sure. So what would be your dream charter? Where would you go? I don’t.

 

Kateryna [00:45:09] I am dreaming to go on a huge explorer somewhere in Greenland, Alaska, South Pole in summer. That area with less colors or hold me with less connection? Yes. Still, let’s say recharge my batteries. I would love to do that for sure.

 

Merrill [00:45:28] Expedition charters. I’ve been. I’ve been here and that’s like a thing that’s really starting to come around.

 

Kateryna [00:45:34] Yes. For curious people who like to explore, who are in love with Mother Earth. Yes. They try to see as much as possible. Of course, they can rent the yacht in France, but then they would also rent the Bahamas in winter. And then they would go and explore for sure. Like a lot of I know, Galapagos Islands are very popular. All this weird, strange nature. Yes. Attracts people. Not everybody, of course, but those curious ones like the island. What about you? Where would you go?

 

Georgia [00:46:06] I have to say I’m with you on the Antarctica. Alaska cold situation. Maybe it’s because we’ve had an unexpected heat wave in the UK and I’ve had to deal with temperatures above 30 degrees. But yeah, hanging out with that amazing nature really appeals to me for sure.

 

Kateryna [00:46:22] And humor.

 

Merrill [00:46:23] Well, I’ve heard that the coastline of Germany is actually quite beautiful and I’ve always wanted to go there, but I’ve never really come up with the money to afford the charter. But now I realize that all it really takes is to just get a bunch of friends to come with you. And for $1,000, like when you put it in that perspective, I was like, okay, that’s totally doable. Like I could do.

 

Georgia [00:46:51] 29 for an hour. Although I said.

 

Kateryna [00:46:54] Maybe I’m not sure there are yachts like this in Germany, but we do some research, do some research, and I’m sure that dreams should come true one way or another.

 

Georgia [00:47:04] And maybe we can get 29 listeners of this podcast to come with me.

 

Kateryna [00:47:07] Yeah. Yes. Yes. I grew up. Group tours are very popular. For example, if you rent a big sailing yacht or a gulet cabin, charters are very popular, so you can rent not the whole yard but a cabin. And then yes, you don’t know with whom you would share the two meter yet. But I think it’s it’s it’s possible to enjoy Yeah.

 

Georgia [00:47:30] Take the risk and then if your cabin buddy is a bit weird then you’ve got good stories.

 

Kateryna [00:47:34] All your broker. Yeah.

 

Merrill [00:47:38] So as we wrap this up, where can people reach out to you, book a charter, read your, your blog. Where can people find you?

 

Kateryna [00:47:47] Well, if they would like to have some inspiration or some knowledge about chartering. Yes. In terms of blog, yes, I have my YouTube blog, Mother of Yachts. I have my website. It’s Katrina yachts dot com. I don’t share much on my Instagram, but it’s also possible to get some visual inspiration there. It’s mother of yachts, simple as that. And then there is our company website contacting us that com If people would like to see and understand which yachts are available, where and at which price.

 

Merrill [00:48:22] Awesome. Oh, it was amazing talking to you. And I feel like I’ve learned so much about chartering.

 

Kateryna [00:48:28] Thank you so much. For me, it’s always a pleasure to share the knowledge I have with people who are curious about it. Yes, quite curious about getting to know something about a specific topic and then not necessarily you would rent the odd, but yeah, you can get inspired and then maybe some time later you you come to have this beautiful, very recharge and generate an experience.

 

Georgia [00:48:56] Yeah. It’s so important to us to have people on to help explain the industry to those who aren’t necessarily, you know, part of yachting because it is a fantastic place and there’s so many wild and wonderful and weird elements of it and yeah.

 

Kateryna [00:49:11] And a lot of amazing people.

 

Georgia [00:49:12] Yeah, some great characters. I’m sure you’ve met some very interesting people during your career.

 

Kateryna [00:49:17] Yeah, we are now in the group of all of them. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Check back every.

 

Speaker 4 [00:49:39] Tuesday for our latest episode and be sure to like, share and subscribe to shipshape. Doc Pro. Doc Pro.