MARINE MASTERS
There’s a big difference between occasionally dabbling in a few sailings to the Bahamas—or perhaps zipping about on a speedboat—and true expertise in the water. There’s just a handful of men and women worldwide who innately grasp what makes a luxury marine adventure, well, truly luxurious. We know that Robb Report’s readers will only work with the best of the best, and that’s why we’ve brought together a tightly edited list of wranglers of all types in the marine field. Whether you need someone to consult on construction of a new build, help you put a beloved boat up for charter for the first time, or simply book an unforgettable week or two on the perfect vessel, these are the people who could—and should—help. We don’t roll out this endorsement lightly, and for good reason: we know you trust our guarantee unreservedly. For that reason, this is a small list of just 14 providers. As always with the Masters of Luxury, we say the same thing: membership in this list isn’t earned easily, and it’s been ruthlessly culled to represent only those who understand how to represent. They come with our full-throated endorsement.
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Williams is a major force at this grandee of the yacht sector, which was founded in 1949, where her role’s a particularly welcome one: put simply, she’s focused on helping owners with splashy superyachts turn those gin palaces from money pits to moneymakers, helping them better plan and operate to juggle the dual needs of sailing themselves and loaning out their boats. She’s well known in the sector, too, for savvy marketing of legendary names—it was Williams who was part-responsible for reintroducing the Onassis-commissioned Christina O to commercial waters, as well as the late Paul Allen’s expedition-primed 414-footer Octopus.
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This former deckhand has come a long way. He worked in the Caribbean in the 1980s as well as on the waterfront in Manhattan before trading up to brokering, working across sales, charter, and yacht management. Think of him as someone who can handle any aspect of yacht life, whether you’re dabbling or long committed to ownership—and if you need a man to help untangle the fine print on contract negotiations when it comes to superyachts, Emerson’s particularly pleased to help—he has a deep bench of knowledge in wrangling such deals. He also oversees the stateside offices for the worldwide firm, and it was Emerson who championed openings in key hubs like Aspen and Beverly Hills.
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Siblings Alice and Federico are twin forces at the family-owned business founded by their father Mauro more than twenty years ago. The duo is the next generation to steer their Dominican Republic–based firm, which has been at the forefront of luxury nautical tourism in the region. It was Federico who championed the acquisition of a 330-ton travel lift at IBC Shipyard to upgrade the facilities at the family’s hub, which was already the only dedicated luxury yacht repair, refit, and haul-out facility in the wider Caribbean and can now handle vessels up to 164 feet. His sister, meanwhile, is a marketing whizz in the sector, who has brought her expertise—honed via stints in PR at Benetti and as a broker in Monaco—to the family firm, and its Caribbean base.
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Expedition guru Bratton has an unlikely resumé: she almost competed internationally at gymnastics before a teenage injury derailed her plans. Bratton ended up instead with a decades-long career in the cruise industry, including co-founding Norwegian Capricorn Line, a downunder joint venture with the namesake European firm, as well as working to help Ponant build its business in the region. Her latest venture is a distinctly local undertaking: Bratton’s partnered with Paspaley, the billionaire Greek-Australian pearling dynasty, to create a high-end expedition firm with a focus on the remote Kimberley region of northwest Australia. Paspaley Pearl, its flagship vessel, is a 176-footer with room for just 30 guests and made its maiden voyage this August.
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When you work with Katy Carter on a charter, make sure to ask her about her time spent on yachts as a chief stewardess—it’s one of the key experiences that gives her such clout in the chartering sector (not to mention her period working for the World Bank and several NGOs, which allows her to tackle even the trickiest of terrains with aplomb). Whether you want to book a runabout catamaran or a majestic superyacht, she can handle any request in multiple languages. Born in Washington, DC, she’s fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and she’ll happily riff on everywhere from South America to the Bahamas. Carter also claims that 90% of clients are repeat bookings, the ultimate testimonial for her know-how.
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With offices in the UK, Italy, Spain, and Monaco, Calcaterra’s 27-strong team is the ultimate refit and survey operation for superyachts. The South African–born Italian founded the firm 15 years ago, naming it after a Zulu warrior term used to prepare for battle. He had worked at both Benetti and Sanlorenzo, and intended to carve out the exact niche he now occupies: a specialized, vendor-agnostic operation with deep know-how in all aspects of superyacht operations. He just lured former Ferretti Group CCO Stefano de Vivo to join his team and has secured land for a yard near its existing spot in Viareggio, large enough now to handle vessels up to 164 feet.
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Gina Robertson first started making waves in the yacht world in the mid-1990s, staging private events on yachts and cruise ships, before pivoting to working as a charter broker. Today, she’s a renowned source if you’re trying to find a way to charter a boat to lesser-known locales, or somewhere that finding a vessel is just the first challenge—think Amazon River, Indonesia, or the Galapagos. The NAUI-certified diver can even consult on where and when to charter to make the most of under as well as overwater time, and as a resident of her own sailing yacht, she lives the life that she sells.
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When Scalabrino took a summer gig crewing a sailing yacht after finishing her law degree, she only intended for her yacht world experience to last a few months. More than two decades later, the Monaco-based Italian is still knee-deep in superyachts, having carved out a straight-talking reputation as one of the most connected and most practical charter brokers in her field. Come to her for everything from the best ways to refresh another summer along the Côte d’Azur to the newest places to enjoy (Montenegro is especially appealing as the winds tend to pick up late morning, making afternoon jaunts much easier, and the winds are gentler than the gusty Greek meltemi).
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This large yacht construction specialist focuses on the highest-end vessels, and coordinates with ship builders, naval architects, and service providers in that process; it manages around 45 yachts worldwide, averaging 360 feet or more in length. Captain Anderson, its CEO, spent 40 years as a merchant officer, as well as time competitive sailing, so he’s more comfortable on water than on land, innately grasping the needs of an owner eyeing up any such investment vessel. He’s also a key figure in many industry-wide governing bodies, helping to develop global standards and best practices via the likes of the International Superyacht Society.
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In more than twenty years as a premier yacht broker, Larricq has sold more than 70 superyachts with a combined LOA of almost 9,000 feet—and half of them, to repeat clients, who trust his judgement implicitly. He now specializes in vessels priced between $10 million and $28 million, but has worked his way up from the bottom, even taking on a job as a night chauffeur for a wealthy family in Cannes while transitioning from skippering to yacht-brokering. Larricq’s renowned for going the extra mile, as when a client sought a helicopter-capable yacht urgently, and he hopped on the client’s chartered Challenger 650 to span the world in just six days, inspecting the options first-hand.
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This four-year-old, 12-person management firm was founded by former Benetti Americas manager MD Scerch and can handle every aspect of yacht management. It was a canny idea, as he spotted a gap in the yacht world market for the yacht world between ownership and brokerage services, essentially offering a brand-independent agnostic backend support system on which agents can rely. Compare, for example, how Scerch’s team can oversee every stage of a new-build yacht project, from technical oversight to delivery, versus a conventional, single-focus surveyor.
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Need a man who knows every ultra-luxury charter in the world inside out and can rattle off the pros and cons of almost any 230-foot-plus vessel? Tim Jeffery’s undeniably the first call to make. The former financier, who logged several years at sea himself on yachts up to 288 feet, understands both clients’ needs and how to assess a yacht’s operations as a result. He’s a passionate boater, with a 30-foot center console he uses to explore the waters around his South Florida base with his wife and two children. Deep-sea fishing is another key passion that he’ll happily discuss—and offer recommendations around, to boot.
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The key to the success of Moss is simple: she spent a decade as a private estate manager before moving into brokerage, so she understands the day-to-day needs of an ultra-high net worth family, and also has a network of concierges around the world whom she can tap for last-minute requests (like the time a client asked her to wrangle the Gipsy Kings onto a boat for an evening’s entertainment at the eleventh hour). A former champion tennis player and chief stewardess, she’s a pragmatic, unflappable fixer—and she just scored the ultimate accolade from her peers, IYBA Charter Professional of the Year, as a result.
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You might recognize Geranios from the reality show Hot Yachts: Miami, but don’t let that brief brush with fame suggest he isn’t a deeply sourced sailing insider. Geranios has almost twenty years’ experience in yachting, focusing in particular on Greece, his home country—there’s no better source of insider tips for Mykonos than him, where he worked as a hotel manager before switching to the marine sector. If you need an attention-grabbing vessel to sail ‘round the Cyclades, ask Geranios—it was he who brought the eye-popping This is It, a six-cabin, 143-footer by Tecnomar, to market for the first time last year.
