The Stateside Boatbookings team have been cruising the boat shows of the Caribbean (still ongoing!) and at the recent British Virgin Island (BVI) and St. Thomas Shows they have formulated a list of their top picks for the coming season.  Here is what they had to say:

From the BVI Show, the top yachts were Aldebaran and King’s Ransom.

“King’s Ransom is another great catamaran based in the BVIs. It is a brand new Matrix design, very spacious, and is definately one of the higher end crewed cats we have to offer for the BVI. Crew were lovely and the boat has all new amenties, with lovely warm soft furnishings.”

“I also like Aldebaran, a Lagoon 57. She has great crew, a husband and wife team from South Africa. He is a dive master and she is now a qualified yoga instructor so if the guests onboard would like a private yoga class she can accommodate them! Diving facilities are onboard. Aldebaran won best multihull yacht in the BVI boat show.”

From the St. Thomas Show, the yachts of choice were 5 Star and Viaggo.

“We both loved the yacht 5 Star. It is a great Beneteau 50 and newer to charter. She is a 2 pax boat only, so a perfect fit for a honeymoon charter, or a romantic getaway for a couple.”

“Viaggo is motor yacht and is also brand spanking new, she really is a great boat. She is extremely spacious for her size.  A Horizon 74 design from Virgin traders, this is their first crewed yacht, so still working on the details, but watch this space and she should be on our site soon”

So, it’s all set to be another exciting season in the Caribbean with more news coming this way from the other Caribbean shows!

The West Indies Events and the St. Maarten-St. Martin Classic Yacht Regatta Foundation have finalized the schedule for regattas in the Caribbean just in time for you to organize your trip there and wrap it up as a wonderful Christmas gift, Valentine’s gift or as an Easter egg replacement. For those of you who have been before the format of the St. Maarten – St. Martin regatta is changing slightly to be more accomodating, by moving from Simpson Bay to the Great Bay yachts will no longer have to enter the lagoon and pay the high fees to do so.  The Marina at Great Bay is also going to be expanded to include a 30 slip mega yacht marina and a large shopping complex and free berthing is available to Classic and Vintage yachts, Schooners and ‘Spirit of Tradition’ yachts in Bobby’s Marina.
Caribbean Regatta schedule 2009

January 22-25    St. Maarten-St. Martin Classic Yacht Regatta Foundation
February 19-22   Grenada Classic Yacht Regatta
April 16-21         Antigua Classics

West Indies Events is also in the process of establishing classic regattas in Curacao and Cuba. So if you’re fanatical about regattas or fancy going along to see what it’s like, why not do it in the gloriously warm and beautiful surroundings of the Caribbean.

Some information courtesy of caribbeanracing.com

If you are still thinking about a charter in one of the renowned winter holiday spots such as the Caribbean or Indian Ocean, you have  a unique opportunity to still find a fantastic yacht even at this late date. Normally, everything would have been booked two months ago. But as we all know, this is not a normal year! So we’re happy to say that we have yachts of all types available in amazing areas such as the British Virgin Islands, St Barth’s, St Martin, the Bahamas, Phuket/Andaman Sea, Maldives, Mauritius – all places you dream about in those cold winter months!

If you’ve procrastinated, but really would rather be on a yacht during the holidays, we highly recommend that you contact boatbookings.com to find the right yacht for you – “last minute” can mean “can you believe we did it?” You can see yacht charter specials here, and you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed to see the offers as they appear daily.

This spectacular offer will take your breath away and inject some va va voom into a romantic mini-break away or honeymoon on the glorious Italian island of Sicily. Renowned for their hot-blooded passion for life the Sicilians are offering you the exhilerating chance to experience the speed and magnificance of the hottest of all sports cars, the Ferrari, spend 2 nights on the beautiful and elegant Aicon 85 Fly Motor Yacht where you will be served gourmet cuisine and exquisite wines by the ever attentive crew and all whilst taking in some of the top spots in Sicily; Taormina, Acireale, Santa Venerina for a visit to the S. Michele estate, Gaiardini Naxos, Siracusa and the wonderful wildlife Oasis of Vendicari.  If this isn’t enough to tempt you into treating your loved one or perhaps splashing out on the most extravagant 4 day date of your life, you also spend one night in the gloriously lavish and luxurious Grand Hotel in Atlantis Bay, experience spa treatments and ultimate pampering onboard the luxury yacht and your transfer from the airport will be by exclusive limousine and return via your own private helicopter, all in all, I think you will be the best loved person alive after this treat!

[More information about the Special 'A Taste of Sicily']

The Las Palmas Carnival, on the volcanic Canary Island of Gran Canaria, is a spectacle of colour, dancing, singing and celebration and will certainly make for a more interesting and exciting family holiday next Spring or just a fun way to experience this beautiful island. The 2009 Carnival is just in time for the February break in the run up to Lent so your children won’t have to miss out on ther education to see it (if you want to take them with you that is) and spans three weeks from the 3rd to the 28th of February.

The Carnival is packed with all sorts of exciting parties, galas and contests, from the popular Gala of the Carnival Queen showcasing hours of loving work on beautiful costumes glittering with sequins, feathers and lavish luxury to the gaudy appeal of the Drag Queen Contest.  For the younger members of the family there is a dedicated Children’s Carnival where they have their very own Child Queen Gala along with fancy dress competitions, dancing and singing contests. Set against the spectacular backdrop of the volcanic Gran Canarian landscape, the effect is totally exhillerating. What better way to get close to the magic and then be able to cruise along to a peaceful beach when you want to relax afterwards than chartering a yacht, especially when all the hotels will be packed with eager carnival goers, to see what you could be relaxing in once the party is over these are the available yachts in the Canaries for the event. So book your flights, your yacht and your family and go!

As one of the biggest yard and marina owners in North East America, Brewer Yacht Yards and Marinas are planning a massive clean up of all 21 of its sites to bring them upto the standard of the ‘Clean Marina’. Starting with their largest, Brewer Pilots Point Marina in Westbrook, Connecticut, where they have been practising many of the Clean Marina policies before the Clean Marina guidelines came out, they are also helping the local authorities write a guide book to help smaller marinas understand the regulations and how to implement them in a practical sense.  Rives Potts, general manager of Pilots Point since 1980, says

“I think our customers have become more savvy on environmental issues because of the number of favorable comments on our efforts, I think our whole industry has been behind the ball, and we’re just becoming aware of it.”

He has been keen on creating more environmentally aware and sustainable yards and marinas for at least the past 30 years and is happy that now people are encouraging these regulations to be enforced, after all, in the long term, it will be easier and cheaper to maintain your yacht and safer for you to use the water and enjoy it if the water it is in is clean.  The message coming through from all sides is clear, we need to create a sustainable environment or the yacht industry will become its own worst enemy, spoiling the reasons that so many people enjoy it.

[More information about how you can charter a yacht more greenly]
Some information courtesy of Trade Only Today online.

The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the Whitbread Race, has this week started the second leg of the race which sees the eight contestants sail from Cape Town to Cochin in India.  It is the first time in 35 years that Cochin has been on the race route and maybe for good reasons, along with navigating crushing seas, icebergs and fishing vessels the crews will have to use their common sense and avoid the danger of piracy off the East coast of Africa.
This previously uncharted territory for sailboat racing may make the crews realise that they may need to work together as well as racing each other adding a new edge to the race, though whether adding this edge to the race will be a good idea or not will be something we shall have to wait and see.  The second leg lasts 4,450 miles with the leader expected to arrive in Cochin around the 3rd December.

Some information courtesy of the The New York Times Online.

The GSMA Mobile World Congress, or 3GSM World Congress as it was formerly known, is the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile phone industry and the perfect opportunity to showcase your business and network with professionals in the telecommunications, internet and entertainments industries.  The next one will take place from the 16th to the 19th of February 2009 in the trendy European location of Barcelona.

The 2009 GSMA is expected to attract approximately 60,000 attendees and so offers an unrivalled opportunity for business.  What better way to impress your new business associates than by inviting them onto the yacht you have hired for the event, there certainly is no better way to announce your presence in the industry than by using a yacht as a symbol of status. With the current economic climate, your fellow industry professionals will be looking for those who appear unperturbed by it and confident of their business’s stature.  To ensure that you can get one for the Congress in 2009 the best time to make contact and book is now, as others will be sure to follow.

Contact us at Boatbookings or take a look at some of the yachts that are offering their luxury rooms for accomodation throughout the conference.

Weddings are supposed to be fantastic spectacles to show the world how much we really love the ones we want to spend the rest of our lives with and honeymoons, a moment of indulgent peace to collect your relationship together before hurtling into a lifelong journey of matrimonial bliss.  The pressure and stress of making it altogether perfect can sometimes take away from the essence of what it is you are actually embarking on.  There are some things in this world that are however, designed to help you make the whole experience less stressful and more enjoyable like this great way to have your wedding take place on a beautiful Catamaran in Mauritius before cruising off in it after the celebrations have taken place into a gorgeous sunset to enjoy what this lovely little island has to offer.

The Cat Cruiser, as it is affectionately referred to, can comfortably support a group of 37 and so is perfect for the couple looking for an intimate ceremony with their closest and dearest.  She also has the benefit of being only 15 minutes from the International Airport in comparison to most Mauritian destinations taking an hour to get so your party can get onto the boat nearly as soon as they arrive! With all this whilst enjoying the stunning scenery of Mauritius and the calming sights and sounds of the Indian Ocean, don’t think twice, book the flights today and look forward to the perfect wedding and honeymoon.

The Vendée Round the World Yacht Race, which famously became the first defining moment of Dame Ellen MacArthur’s sailing career when she became the fastest woman to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe and also the youngest contestant, has this year already shown its harsh intensity to contestants.  The race is considered by some to be the toughest the sailing world has to offer; the route takes competitors along the old clipper route, from Les Sables d’Olonne on the Atlantic coast of France, down past the Cape of Good Hope, clockwise around Antartica before finally returning to the starting point after waving goodbye to Cape Horn. The rules dictate that competitors may stop at anchor but cannot draw alongside other vessels or quaysides or gain from outside assistance, hence its ‘non-stop’ nature and gruelling physical and psychological effects on the contestants. The only exception to this rule, and one that has already been used by the two Swiss entries Wavre and Stamm, is that if you experience a problem within the first 10 days you may return to the start point to get repairs and re-start the race.  Wavre experienced electrical problems soon after the races start and Stamm’s yacht unfortunately collided with a Maltese cargo ship and so was forced to turn back.

Taking the lead from early on are a small fleet of French men, the first of whom is currently Sebastien Josse in the BT vessel. What will happen over the following two to three months and 27,000 nautical miles could completely change the table rankings currently swelling with 30 contestants and looking back through the races history, anything could happen.
Some information courtesy of Swissinfo.ch, Wikipedia, ESPN.