The blog here at BrokerageBoss will be quiet for the next few days as I travel to be with family during the Christmas holiday.

I’ll return the week of Monday, December 28.

Happy holidays to everyone who is celebrating this weekend as well!

Sales broker Peter Thompson, who works in the London office of Ocean Independence, is having a Merry Christmas, indeed. The company just announced that he is the broker behind the sale of Benetti’s FB257, a new construction build.

The yacht’s specs indicate that she will be 57.5 meters upon launch.

Ocean Independence is providing no further information at this time.

Florida-based Northrop & Johnson tells me the 143-foot expedition-style yacht Devotion will be available for viewing at the Seattle Boat Show from January 29 through February 6.

Devotion was originally built by Sterling Yachts and was refit in 2008 by Stabbert Maritime Yacht & Ship, which previously has refit and offered yachts on the charter market including the 125-foot Centurion and the 122-foot Revelation. I wrote this article about Centurion after cruising aboard in Costa Rica in 2001, and I wrote this article about Revelation after cruising aboard in the Galapagos Islands in 2004.

Northrop & Johnson currently offers Revelation for charter as well as for sale. The sales listing broker is Gregg Morton, who says the asking price has recently been reduced by $2 million to $6.495 million.

More news this week from Robert J. Cury & Associates, which “leads the industry in Broward yacht sales and knowledge,” according to a press release.

The company says its recent sales include the following Browards: 130-foot Princess Tina, 124-foot Lady Susan, 118-foot True North, 110-foot Cachee, and 100-foot Sea Bird.

Currently, the company represents no fewer than eight Browards for sale, which is “the majority” of Browards on the market, according to the press release. They are:

• 142-foot Cocoa Bean
• 112-foot Lady Nancy
• 111-foot Strait Jacket
• 110-foot Cedar Island
• 103-foot Amixtli
• 100-foot Absolutely
• 100-foot Yolo
• 72-foot Adeline VI

“If it is a Broward you are looking for,” the company states, “speak to the brokers who stand behind their vessels with the knowledge of build to finish.”

The 147-foot Intermarine Aquasition, built in 2002, has dropped its asking price by $1 million to $12.9 million, according to central agent for sale Bob Cury of Robert J. Cury & Associates.

A trideck, Aquasition has a cruising speed of 16 knots and a maximum speed of 20 knots. Draft is 7 feet, 10 inches, which has been shallow enough to make her a popular charter option in Florida and the Bahamas for the past few years.

She is designed to accommodate eight crew and as many as 10 guests.

More news this week from Fraser Yachts Worldwide, which has listed a whopping 10  yachts as central agencies for sale. Interestingly, one is a 40-footer (far smaller than most listings that Fraser regularly handles for sale).

The yachts are:

• 147-foot Cheoy Lee Marco Polo, listed with broker Josh Gulbranson in Fort Lauderdale, asking $21.5 million
• 124-foot Delta Aerie, also listed with Gulbranson, asking $13.9 million (see this recent review of Aerie, including refit details, by our sister website CharterWave)
• 100-foot San Lorenzo African Queen, listed with broker David Legrand in Monaco, asking €1.75 million
• 97-foot Mondomarine Free Life, also listed with Legrand, also asking €1.75 million
• 92-foot custom motoryacht Cabochon, listed with broker Jeff Partin in Fort Lauderdale, asking $6.2 million
• 90-foot ABD Aluminum Kauhale Kai, listed with broker Neal Esterly in San Diego, asking $3.95 million
• 90-foot Cheoy Lee Mystique, co-listed with brokers Brian Holland and Tom Allen, both in Seattle, asking $3.495 million
• 87-foot Cantieri di Pisa Isabel, listed with broker Vassilis Fotilas in Monaco, asking €2.9 million
• 83-foot De Vooruitgang Zeewolf, also listed with Allen in Seattle, asking $1.6 million
• 40-foot Marquis Entourage, listed with broker Jose Arana Jr. in Fort Lauderdale, asking $550,000

Northrop & Johnson announces the sale of the 44-foot Mochi Craft Dolphin that goes by the name of Mochi.

Launched in 2007, Mochi is part of a line designed to be reminiscent of lobster boats that were popular in New England during the 1950s. The builder offers additional hull colors including turquoise, coral, deep red, and marine blue.

Details about the purchase price were not publicly released.

Fraser Yachts Worldwide has announced three major price reductions to its central agency listings this month.

The 246-foot Arsenal Phocea, which is listed with broker Jürgen Koch in the Palma de Mallorca office in Spain, has reduced its asking price from €11 million to €9.9 million.

The 123-foot Palmer Johnson Temptation, which is listed with brokers Jim Wallace and Jamie Wallace in the Fort Lauderdale office, has dropped its asking price from $12.4 million to $11.75 million.

Last but not least, the 100-foot Debirs Little Sarah, which is also listed with Koch in Palma, has dropped its asking price from €4.9 million to €4.1 million.

This morning, MYBA issued a press release officially announcing the end of the association’s relationship with the Sint Maarten charter yacht show.

The press release ends with a shockingly honest assessment of how this decision came to be made:  “Suffice it to say that this troubled chapter in the Association’s history is now over, and the MYBA Board will think long and hard before committing its members’ resources to any boat show again.”

To read the press release in its entirety, see today’s blog post from our sister website, CharterWave.

I’m blogging today from the charter yacht show on Antigua, which thus far appears to be well attended by yachts and charter agents alike.

Sadly, I am not hearing the same about the Sint Maarten show, which is now closing. The brokers arriving here in Antigua from Sint Maarten tell me that many captains and crew were disappointed in the turnout, and British-based journalists Frances and Michael Howorth reported a super-slow showing in their blog post from Sint Maarten today.

The lunch discussion aboard a yacht here in Antigua today turned to these reports from Sint Maarten, and one charter broker’s statement to me was a blunt: “And the surprise here is, what?”

Indeed, I think many of us knew this last year of the Sint Maarten charter show was not likely to be a blockbuster, especially after show organizer MYBA opened the gates to sales brokers in addition to charter brokers, in an effort to drum up more interest.

I of course feel sad for those charter yachts and crew that got all spiffed up and shiny, and then failed to see a decent amount of interest. Hopefully, by this time next year, what MYBA has described as “the crisis” of dueling Caribbean boat shows will finally be over, for good.