A year ago when we looked, the concept of fractional yachts or sailboats seemed to be growing, but slowly. However in the past 12 months, there seems to have been a burst of activity, with new firms and programs coming on the market, that promise to shake-up the yacht charter and ownership business, just as fractional and charter cards have done for the private jet category.

We have already profiled entrepreneur Bob Kyle, and his new company, Yacht Share. Now, at the very high end of the market, the group that owns PrivatAir has released a new lifestyle yacht club, called PrivatSea. We spent some time on the phone with James Kung, the COO of this new European based program (and coming to the U.S. in early ‘07).

Unlike a program like YachtPlus, that provides fractional ownership, the team at PrivatSea (the company is backed by major players in the luxury yacht manufacturing business) are convinced that owning any part, however small, of an ultra-luxury yacht is a bad idea – so avoiding steep annual depreciation, as well as the 7-10% (of purchase cost) annual operating costs were paramount in designing their program.

Kung identified the opportunity as providing white-glove service and access to the 30% of the 2100 worldwide super-yachts that are available for leasing – the other 70% are kept private by their owners. His team selects the yachts and crews, assists members with trip planning, provisioning, provides access to private clubs (such as the Monte Carlo Country club), and special events (such as the Monaco Grand Prix) while you are yachting.

These privileges do not come cheap – a one time membership fee of about $20,000 and then a choice of four plans that range from about $200,000 to over $1.4million. For your money, you get points that can be exchanged for boat time – two weeks on super-yacht or several weeks on something more modest. Their typcial member is in the mid to late 40s, married with kids, probably owns 2 homes and who wants the yachting lifestyle without any hassles. The higher-end plans are used by companies for corporate entertaining. But why join a club, rather than just charter for the annual yacht vacation?

According to Kung, PrivatSea can secure better yachts at lower rates than an individual, plus all of the concierge-type service and benefits – something that the charter brokers focus less on, since their primary motivation is to get the boat leased. Also, PrivatSea can offers its members, via the same points system, access to private jet charter and high-end residences and villas – essentially extending membership to fractional lifestye program.

It’s still early, but we get the impression that these start-ups (and several others that we will profile over the coming weeks) will have some impact on the rather insular world of boat and yacht charter and sales – just as Marquis Jet, Sentient and others are having on the world of consumer private aviation. Hopefully the result is more choice, flexibility and lower cost for the consumer that wants the yachting experience, but not all the headaches.

Twizzle, 180-foot Feadship (top) and Alexander, 400-foot yacht; images courtesy PrivatSea.