Antigua Luxury power boats and Mega Yachts for charters
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All eyes were on Antigua for their 49th annual charter broker
boat show. Today Antigua is one of the world's top 2 attended luxury boat
shows worldwide. December 6-11, 2010 saw 115 high-end luxury power boats,
sailboats and catamarans berthed at Falmouth Harbor and English harbor.
No more is their competition from St Martin to host a similar show with
dates clashing with this lavish motor yacht show in Antigua. One extra day
has been added to this show and Barrington-Hall staff did get to see all
the opulent yachts on show. The extra day was set up so that various yachts
of all sizes would take brokers to different destinations to show them Islands
and coves their guests can expect to find in and around Antigua. Captain
Andrew, Barrington-Hall, spent one year chartering Antigua so all those
coves and anchorages are well known to us, so is Barbuda, a coral atoll.
Barbuda and Anegada are the only 2 coral atolls in the entire Caribbean
chain of islands. All the other islands are volcanic, all have wonderful
protection for mega yachts during winds, making the Caribbean Chain of islands
much sought after.
During this vital viewing of luxury mega yachts a chefs competition is performed
where the best chefs in different classes compete with various dishes. Below
are the winners of the top dishes.
The 11th Annual Charter Chefs Competition was a close battle between extremely
talented chefs in three categories of 10 yachts each. The test was to produce
small plates of local sustainable cuisine in a taster menu format. The sponsors
were Piper Heidsick Champagne, Boat International, Showboats , Dockwalk,
Liat Quikpak and Caribbean Coffee Roasters amongst others. With fabulous
prizes donated by Shore Solutions, 2 night stays from 6 of our leading hotels
in Antigua.
And the winners are:
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160 Feet and Above
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1st Place Winner
Tarina Shadgett
Motor Yacht Casino Royale |
2nd place winner
Andrew Murphy
Motor Yacht Solemar. |
3rd place winner
Thomas Francque
Motor Yacht Passion |
| Photos of Casino Royale |
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Luxury Yacht Category 111 ft to 159 ft
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1st Place Winner
Brigitt Rosemann
Motor Yacht Fathom |
2nd place winner
Patrick Roney
Motor Yacht Monte Carlo |
3rd place winner
Danielle Stone
Yacht Red Anchor |
Photos of Fathom |
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Traditional Category 110 ft and under
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1st Place Winner
Susanna Jokkala
Yacht Magic Cat |
2nd place winner
Nathan Clements
Yacht Serenity Now |
3rd place winner (Tie)
Croydon Cole & Taylor Reilly
from Yacht Rapture and Lady J respectively |
| Carib Bean Coffee Roasters
best use of the Bean prizes: |
1st place in Mega Yachts - Grant Le Page, Pantalassa
1st place in Lxury Yachts - Mark Godbeer, Persiverence II
1st place in Tradional Yachts - Nathan Clements, Serenity Now |
The idea of this charter broker boat show is for brokers worldwide
to have the prestigious vacation yachts all in one place so brokers such
as Barrington-Hall and staff can inspect the yachts, meet the captains and
crew teams so we know our product when guests ask us about these different
vessels. These annual charter boat shows, open only to charter brokers,
take place in Greece, Turkey, Genoa, The Virgin Islands and Antigua. There
are other boat shows that showcase yachts for sale that are open to the
general public.
Select
a power yacht for this area:
Luxury Caribbean
Power Yachts
Luxury Mega Yachts
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Rodney Nicholson December 19, 1927 to November 7, 2010
Rodney Nicholson: the man who bore a child called "private luxury yacht
charters"
The father of our modern yacht charter industry
S/Y MOLLIHAWK
Tribute to Rodney Nicholson as attended by 50 or so guests to grace his
passing.
During the 2010 charter boat show a short memorial was held for the man
who started chartering in the modern day. I am lead to believe that Nero
chartered a boat to impress some of his colleagues in 54 ad so he was the
first to charter a yacht that we know of. However Rodney Nicholson in 1949
was our first modern day man who introduced private yacht charters to the
world from English Harbor with his now famous yacht named Mollyhawke.
How did it happen? Well, you see my father, the Commander, was in the Royal
Navy and the family followed his appointments, when feasible, to be near
him. In wartime, it was possible to rent unfurnished houses, but impossible
to find furnished houses. So what did we do? Well, we bought a yacht, cheap
- a beautiful 70 ft schooner of 1903 vintage.
Rodney
We didn't want the yacht, nobody did in wartime, but this lovely one, the
Mollihawk, was lying in a mud berth on the Dart and she was FURNISHED! We
bought the yacht just for the knives, forks and spoons, linen and blankets
- all the things that were impossible to find, for one needed ration books
to buy them in the shops if one could. So we bought the yacht to furnish
a house near Plymouth, Devon, England.
After the war, when we two lads came out of the services, the Commander
had already started refitting Mollihawk with an idea of going back to the
West Indies where he had once patrolled the islands during the war, just
as Nelson once did. At the time, Dad was based in Bermuda and we had braved
the Battle of the Atlantic to join him there. It was amongst those islands
we learnt our first seamanship when going shopping across the Sound.
Desmond
From this humble beginning they influenced some friends to enjoy their island
of Antigua as well as surrounding islands and so the charter industry grew
from 1949 onwards. Rodney was at the 2007 Antigua boat show where I saw
him, so he had good knowledge how his industry grew.
I am proud to have personally known Rodney his wife Julie and their daughters.
Thank you Rodney, Julie and girls for your contribution to our industry.
It is now a multimillion dollar industry boasting high-end luxury power
yachts, these yachts take guests on opulent yacht vacations on the water.
Then there is the deluxe 120 foot sailing yachts designed for the race car
driver of our industry. These prestigious sailing yachts are also called
mega yachts, they too provide those super yacht charters, to exotic yacht
locations world-wide.
Today corporations pay rental prices for mega yachts to spoil their major
achievers and this can be a tax right-off to the employer. Corporate incentive
charters are a way to have sales staff aim at higher sales, it is a tool
to make them strive for better things in life. Thank you Rodney all of this
has stemmed from your first charter.
Super yachts featured during this Antigua week were: Super yacht Casino
Royal, Solemar, Passion,
Silver Cloud, Sovereign, Shalimar, Namoah. Fathom, Lady Joy, Northern Lights.
My Colors, Pearl Noir,
Nemo, King Kalm, Impulsive, Aristo, Caryalli, Class Ship 1, Mi Sueno, Eagles
Nest El Jefe and GO.
Two of the Barrington-Hall staff actually worked chartering their own catamaran
with Rodney Nicholson in 1990 for one year. We got to know the Nicholson
family well.
Islands we got to see during those days were all of Antigua,
Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St Kits, Nevis, Saba, Eustatia, Ille Fouche, St
Barts, Ille Panelle, Anguilla and St Martin.
Click
here to read more about the island of Antigua
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