Turkey's on the up

The Turkish charter industry has been gaining popularity in the wider superyacht charter market of late, as the quality of boats and crew have risen to match the high standards expected by clients. The Crew Report returns from the 34th addition of the Marmaris Yacht Charter Show, where Turkish yachts and foreign yachts chartering in Turkey came to support the growing popularity of the sector.


“The quality of charter boats in Turkey is changing a lot,” explains Cemal Yada, chief officer of sailing yacht Clear Eyes. “When you mention gullets, people automatically think of the small, wooden gullets that can’t sail very well. Turkish charter yachts used to be like this because the industry wasn’t very popular in Turkey, but over the years the government has invested money into the industry and the infrastructure for yacht charter is much better. It has really started to improve very fast and the standards of the crew and the boats are getting much higher.”

However, recent conflict in the Middle East has seen some charter clients staying away from Turkey. “We have heard some news about ISIS safety alerts for Turkey,” adds Yada, who is keen to dispel any fears. “But it is so easy to see that the activity of ISIS is more than a thousand miles away from us. Turkey and Greece have patrolling war ships and you cannot fight a war ship with a tender. So I believe that there is nothing to fear with regards to a threat from ISIS. If there was then we wouldn’t do this job because there is nothing more important than a human life.”


For Captain Jean-Claude Vau of newly-launched 40m Rox Star, the Marmaris Yacht Charter Show is a valuable platform to begin marketing the boat for charter. “I have had comments from a lot of people that every three of four years of the show, they see something new happening,” he says. “This year the brokers are saying that the something new is Rox Star because we are a new type of boat built in Turkey in the midst of what has been done so far. This is a great achievement for us and the show is a great place to show how different a Turkish-built boat can be.”

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Because of the rapid increase in popularity in Turkish Charters, Cem Boz, managing director of Contact Turkey Yachting is concerned about the need for more Turkish crew. “Because we have had a lot of Turkish-build boats go abroad, many have gone to the Caribbean and South America,” he explains. “So when the boats here are looking for new crew, they are having problems.”


Lauded as a favourite by many of the charter brokers in attendance, the Marmaris Yacht Charter Show has a special atmosphere unique to the charter circuit, which the brokers find extremely valuable. “Here you always get a crewmember showing you around, which is much nicer,” says Ann Casebourne of Yacht Connections. “There is no point for a yacht management company showing me around the boat because I don’t get to talk to any of the crew and I don’t get a feel for them.”

“I love this show because they give you so many opportunities to mix with the crew, not just when you go on board,” concludes Beverly Parsons, charter broker at Interpac Yachts. “Other boat shows are so big now they keep the brokers and the crew so separate, but what I love about Marmaris is that you get to know the crew a little better because they are the most important part of any charter. I think that aspect is really crucial and something that is lost in shows that have become so big.”

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