CYOA and ACY Join Forces
CYOA Yacht Charters, with nearly 40 years of operation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Atlantic Cruising Yachts, one of the largest sailing yacht dealerships in North America, have joined forces. The deal means that CYOA, based in Frenchtown, St. Thomas, and ACY, based in Annapolis, Maryland, will each benefit from investment in expansion and enhancement of the operations and facilities of CYOA’s current home charter base.
Christian Bent, president of ACY, will acquire a partnership interest in CYOA, along with John Jacob, the president and current sole owner of CYOA. The new ownership group will contribute investment and working capital to expand the marketing and service operations, and significantly increase the fleet capacity of CYOA.
ACY is one of the largest sailing yacht dealerships in North America, and was recently named Fountaine Pajot’s Dealer of the Year and Jeanneau’s North American Dealer of the Year. The company founded the Waypoints group of independently owned yacht management companies. For further details, contact the companies (cyoacharters.com; atlantic-cruising.com).
Navigare News
Navigare Yachting, with charter bases and sailboat-management programs worldwide, will add a new Jeanneau model at its British Virgin Islands base in time for the peak winter 2020 Caribbean sailing season.
The Sun Loft 47, designed by Jeanneau and Philippe Briand, features six cabins able to accommodate 12 people on board, plus a skipper. It’s an example of the “monocat” concept that makes charter by the cabin attractive by enhancing shared spaces and privacy at the same time.
Navigare’s charter program for bareboat sailors also includes a mandatory extra fee from $500 to $700 per week depending on the size of the bareboat. The fee includes boat cleaning, fuel-tank filling, linens and other amenities. It replaces the deposit, damage waiver and deductibles for the charter client. Charter payment options include credit-card installments.
In other news, Navigare has added Marine Servicenter (marinesc.com) of Seattle and Anacortes, Washington, as a partner dealer. Marine Servicenter sells Jeanneau monohulls and Lagoon catamarans. For details contact the company (navigare-yachting.com).
Travelopia investment
Travelopia Yachts—parent company to charter brands the Moorings, Sunsail and Footloose—has announced a continuing investment into its charter products in 2020.
Following Hurricane Irma in fall 2017, Travelopia reestablished operations in its flagship Caribbean destinations, reopening in the British Virgin Islands in December 2017 and in St. Martin in February 2018, with an ongoing investment of more than $130 million into its charter business.
The investment includes new fleet additions, including monohulls by partners Jeanneau and Beneteau, new sailing and power catamarans built by Robertson & Caine, as well as the purchase of new Lagoon catamarans.
Infrastructure development is also taking place at the Travelopia charter-base network. This includes the marina operations in the BVI, with updates to the docks, on-site hotel, provisioning stores, check-in desks, and pool and restaurant areas.
