About Yachtlove

Greece

Yachtlove

One of the many Greek yachting brands that were present at this year’s Mediterranean Yacht Show was the Athens based Yachtlove, a relatively new company providing luxury yacht charter and charter management in the East Med. SuperYacht Times’ Maarten Janssen spoke to Director and Owner of the company, Xenia Tsipidou whilst at the show from the 2nd to 6th May, who told SYT about the establishment of Yachtlove as well as the best aspects of chartering in Greece.<img alt="" src="https://syt-store-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/photo/154444/image/large-20f26cdd88d87d0953bff755828bd2cb.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/154444">Set up just one month ago, Tsipidou begins by telling us a little bit about her background in the industry, boasting 12 years of experience before she made the decision to break off on her own. She says, “I have a great passion for what I do. Before I established Yachtlove, I was with Cape4 as Head of Charter for five years, and then before that, I was a Charter and Sales Assistant for another seven years. I now believe that I have the experience that’s essential to offering a professional service with attention to detail, and because of my 12 years of experience, I’m also able to foresee certain things to protect and advise the clients and brokers that I work with.”As yet, the Yachtlove fleet consists of two yachts - certainly not a bad feat when considering the young age of the company, something in which Tsipidou states her surprise at. “Having two boats already in our fleet is a big surprise for me seeing as the company is only one month old! We have Daloli, which is a Heesen 37 metre yacht - I’ve been managing this boat for the past five years. We also have a smaller boat, a 23.5 metres, called Amor designed by Ferretti yachts. They are both available for charters in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the captains have a high level of knowledge about this area. I give great attention to having quality yachts with experienced crews onboard, as I count on long term relationships of trust”.<img alt="" src="https://syt-store-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/photo/154445/image/large-136602959948528af385eb71908ebe8b.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/154445">This high level of knowledge is reflected within every employee of Yachtlove, especially Tsipidou, whose passion for cruising the Greek islands is easy to determine. Tsipidou demonstrated her love for the area by sharing her personal advice for first timers to the islands, recommending Mykonos. She says, “I would definitely go to Mykonos - not because it’s a popular island that is constantly promoted, but in Mykonos you have a selection of choices of activities".“Most people that charter a yacht are used to high end, high standard service, and on the Ionian islands which are more virgin and less spoiled, you can find very nice turquoise waters and green landscapes but you cannot find this cosmopolitan lifestyle. So if I had never been to the islands before, I would choose to go to Mykonos - where you have a wide selection of beaches or you can also arrange a daily cruise to visit Santorini and view the romantic sunset in Oia”.As for the future of the young company, Tsipidou is looking forward to development but, for the moment at least, states that her primary goal is to increase the numbers of vessels in the Yachtlove fleet. She says, “My target for the moment is charters, so I’m aiming to gather a nice fleet of quality yachts with good crew, and Owners that are willing to cooperate with the mentality of chartering. It’s a different thing to have a yacht privately in comparison to chartering it. Maybe from September we will have more yachts added into the fleet! Because I was a sales assistant for several years, we will be developing also the sales department slowly".In conclusion about the company and how people you work with are important to becoming successful as a company, she tells Finding the right people to work with, and sharing the same goals and ideas is so important such as transparency, efficiency, and being creative in every project you take over. We wake up every day with new ideas, new goals and a lots of love for Yachtlove daily projects! We have to be inspiring and inspire people around us too! What we “sell” is pleasure and summer holidays, so we try to make our Clients and cooperators feel how much we really love what we do!”By Maarten Janssen, edit by Gemma Fottles