Eldin is the Owner and Senior Yacht Charter Broker at A2A YACHTING, a business he founded as a student in 2003.
Organising bareboat and luxury yacht charters for over 20 years now, A2A YACHTING specialise in long-term bareboat yacht charters, transatlantic crossings and luxury catamaran charters in particular.
The charter yachts are offered throughout the Mediterranean and the East Caribbean mostly with some boats also available in locations such as Tahiti, Seychelles or Dubai.
More than a third of his bookings are repeat clients, with another 1/3 being referrals from existing clients that include usual families, couples, small groups of friends or even ultra-high net worth individuals who charter superyachts from 80ft such as Sunreef 80 and up to 200ft such as Perini Navi’s or Luerssen megayachts.
A2A YACHTING aims to provide a bespoke yacht charter experience to each client individually, whether this be a short weekend getaway to the South of France or an exclusive long-term charter of 6-12 months on board the latest sailing catamaran.
- What is it that you do on a day-to-day basis?
I arrange all types of yacht charters for clients from all over the world. I specialise in all Mediterranean yachting destinations with an emphasis on Croatia, Greece, Italy and France in terms of destinations and long-term yacht charters, catamaran rentals and transatlantic crossings when it comes to types of charters.
The most popular yachts I offer are luxury sailing catamarans from 50-80ft, all of which have a permanent professional crew on board. Smaller ones around 40-50ft can also be just skippered boats for novice sailing families; bigger ones such as Lagoon 77 or Alegria 67 by Fountain Pajot are fully crewed for those keen on an exclusive superyacht type of service on board.
The next most popular type of boats are 40-50ft sailing catamarans offered on a bareboat basis, with clients sailing one way from Split – Dubrovnik or even Turkey – France, or Corsica – Greece and from 2-18 months.
A lot of our clients also sail across the Atlantic, chartering bareboat or crewed yachts from destinations such as Las Palmas to Saint Martin starting in November and ending 3-6 weeks later making once in a lifetime experience. The latest offering is one-way cruise from Barbados to San Blas in Panama or an Atlantic crossing on a 100ft superyacht.
- What is the best about your job?
I enjoy that I can contribute to fulfilling people’s dreams by sourcing the best yacht they desire and ensuring they get the fast, timely and bespoke service required. Its also great to deal with people from all over the world, serving a client from Australia early in the morning, one from Europe during usual business hours and those from North or South America in the evening, while at the same time having lots of flexibility to lead a satisfying personal lifestyle.
- What’s been your most memorable yachting experience to date?
Competing in a rare-to-find racing event, where the crew have been randomly selected and at the same time completing an advanced racing course. I was amongst the less experienced group who in the end beat the more experienced sailors, having mastered to use spinnaker exceptionally well in stormy conditions and surpassing even some of the other boats around, that have competed in other competitions during the famous Cowes Sailing Week around the Isle of Wight in English channel.
- What is your most memorable booking to date?
There were a few for sure. A family from Australia booked a long-term yacht charter in the Mediterranean and then decided to buy a 48ft monohull and sail her back home. I met them both in Croatia at the end of their 2 months charter and then in the UK once they collected the delivery of their yacht and before setting off across the oceans.
Another family booked a 40ft catamaran for 8 months and sailed all over the Mediterranean, while one more family enjoyed sailing one way from Grenada to the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and on board a new Lagoon 46 for 6 months on the go.
One of the best and most demanding bookings was 3 weeks charter on board a 150ft Perini Navi superyacht or 2 weeks booking on a mega yacht such as Heesen 140ft.
It is a great pleasure to deal with such enquiries as it is both exciting to participate in such a project as well as satisfying to provide a deal the families are looking for. They then spend their best time of the year on board the best charter yachts or making once-in-a-lifetime experiences, they never forget with A2A YACHTING and myself playing an essential role in the process.
- What currently ranks highest on your clients’ wish lists?
Sunreef catamarans are currently in high demand, although many others are just happy with the best alternative from Lagoon or Fountain Pajot. Vaan catamarans are the latest kids on the block, they make 100% recyclable catamarans and we are currently the UK broker for their environment-friendly, fast sailing catamarans with optional self-generating electric engines.
There is also a new EU shipyard with a French owner who builds very fast sailing catamarans out of carbon fibre and we are excited to share ideas with their French owner about building a new 60-ft boat that can sail at 20kn+ single-handedly which is ideal for many private sailors.
- What’s on your private list of achievements?
With a lot of competition, the first aim is to raise the profile of A2A YACHTING and with time become a sales representative for one of the major shipyards.
Privately, I am currently studying MBA and am trying to improve my tennis game. I am also a registered football agent and have practical ideas of how to mentor professional or upcoming tennis or football players in order to develop their careers and most importantly, wake up their ‘’champions mind’’, as I feel I can contribute enormously to their successful path to stardom, especially for those players that struggle to break into top 100 in tennis or quite often sit on the bench in their football clubs.
Thank you for taking part in our interview, Eldin.
Good luck with your quest to develop A2A YACHTING into a leading yachting agency and sporting career alongside your yacht charter business.
For more information visit: www.a2a-yachting.net
