Wednesday, November 14, 2012

an errant thought on the charter trade...

Well, I suppose, this explains this, the elephant in the room called poverty, and about a 51-starred flag...

Things are somewhat in disruption as it's charter boat show season (the USVI charter show ended yesterday) and, as usual, thinking a lot about the state of the charter industry...

Now, we've been in the crewed charter biz going on fifteen years and seen all manner of changes both of the good and bad variety. I expect a whole lot more change in the next few years of the living in interesting times sort.

I mention this because a lot of the changes in the charter world are akin to the changes I've been seeing in the cruising world which is hardly surprising as they are very much tied together at the hip in various ways. Cruising has the advantage as it will handle change better not having the machinery of an ossified industry attached.

If there is one thing the charter biz needs right now it's some folks able to look outside the box who are brave enough to reinvent and change rather than simply react. My take is that a good place to start is back at the beginning days of charter to reconnect with the why some people want to spend time on boats... But, hey what do I know?

Listening to Allen Thompson

So it goes...