The two continent calendar

A superyacht calendar looks the same on several hundred boats, and once you have seen it the whole industry makes more sense: why brokers are in Fort Lauderdale in October, why yards in La Ciotat are full in December, why a charter in the Grenadines in July is a strange idea and a charter in the Grenadines in February is the whole point.

The loop

Boats that do not follow the loop have a reason: a yard period that takes a year, an owner whose life is in one place, a programme in the Indian Ocean or Southeast Asia, or an expedition yacht doing the thing everybody else talks about at dinner.

Crossing or shipping

A motor yacht of fifty metres with the range can cross the Atlantic in nine to twelve days on the southern route, usually with a delivery crew and a weather router, burning forty to sixty tonnes of fuel. The alternative is a yacht transport ship, which loads in the Mediterranean and unloads in the Caribbean or Florida for a price that surprises owners the first time they hear it and stops surprising them after their first winter crossing.

The arithmetic favours crossing for boats with genuine range and an experienced crew, and shipping for anything under about thirty five metres, for sailing yachts on a tight schedule, and for any boat whose insurer has opinions.

What the calendar does to everything else

Crew leave is taken in the gaps, which is why the good crew agencies are busy in October. Yard periods are booked into the winter, which is why a yard slot in November is harder to get than a berth in August. Charter brokers sell the Mediterranean from January and the Caribbean from July. And the boat is genuinely available to her owner for about twenty weeks a year, of which the family will use eight.

Owners who fight the calendar spend money. Owners who plan around it find that the shoulder months, late May, early June, late September, are the best weeks on both coasts: the weather is good, the anchorages are empty, the berths are available and the rates are half.