At the same time, Princess Yachts International has poured an enormous amount of resources into evolving the product, developing a solid companywide infrastructure, and expanding capabilities to build a worldwide reputation firmly founded on quality, craftsmanship, and technological advancement. All of this has taken place under the watchful eye of David King, the founder of Princess. In 2008, Princess became part of the exquisite LVMH family of luxury brands, which includes over 60 of the world’s pinnacle companies best known for uncompromising quality. Some of these brands include Louis Vuitton, De Beers, Fendi, Moet Hennessy, and the Feadship Yacht brand acquired by LVMH in late 2008. Adding to this, the recent introduction of the M Class yachts with initial offerings in the 32 meter (105’) and 40 meter (130’) range moves Princess into a new market with world-renowned super yacht builders. All of these factors have and will continue to reinforce, on a global scale, the strength and appeal of Princess Yachts as a brand, a company, and a product. Read More >

The 8th Annual HMY-Viking Megadock Billfish Tournament was held July 7-10 at the City Marina in Charleston, SC. 62 boats competed over 3 days in several categories of fish. 14 blue marlin, 3 white marlin and 63 sailfish were caught and released. The overall winner BENCH MARK, released 1 blue and 5 sailfish.

REEL PASSION, owned by Bill Ingram, took home second place by releasing two blue marlin on Friday, and a sailfish on Saturday. SECOTAN finished third by releasing three sailfish and a blue marlin.

Tram Colket’s 50 Viking Miss Magnolia caught the winning dolphin at a little over 50 lbs. The angler was Viking yachts captain Ryan Higgins (left in cockpit) who proved he is as good an angler as boat captain. Tim Gredick (right in cockpit) from HMY was the gaff man and Zack Lynam was there to assist.

Congratulations to all anglers and owners on an excellent tournament. For more information on next year’s tournament – contact your HMY Broker.

Contact: Jennifer Dudas
TEL: 954-920-5577
FAX: 954-925-1033
E-mail: jennifer@bahamasbillfish.com

Miss Annie is the 2010 Bahamas Billfish Champion

After four years of competing in the Bahamas Billfish Championship and being denied the title twice, Barry Weshnak’s team Miss Annie won this year’s five tournament series that concluded June 26th. Like the majority of the fleet, team Miss Annie started the season catching predominantly white marlin. Then, during the Harbour Island Championship, the Allenwood, New Jersey team caught and released two blue marlin and six white marlin to handily win the tournament and takeover the lead in the Championship which they never relinquished.

“I am indeed proud of the Miss Annie team,” said Weshnak. “And this is a ‘team’ that has been together for seven years; Capt. Matt Rabenstine, Nick Lucov, Greg Bogdan and Mark Donohue. They made it happen. I am delighted that our team has the honor of being the Bahamas Billfish Champion.”

Capt. Matt Rabenstine led Miss Annie to a third overall finish in 2007 and second overall in 2008 behind team Cerveza based on time. This year, Rabenstine and Miss Annie were not to be denied. For the 2010 Series, the Viking 52 released six blue marlin and nine white marlin to achieve their winning total 6,500 points.

Weshnak went on to say, “What I have come to cherish most about the BBC is the camaraderie among the anglers and crews. For me the BBC has produced many lasting friendships that extend well beyond the competition of the tournament season.”

To read entire release, Click Here

Fishing only their second Bahamas Billfish Championship tournament, Frank Holtham’s Inappropriate tallied 2,400 points with four blue marlin releases to win the Treasure Cay Championship, the final leg of the five tournament series. Veteran BBC captain, Jack Plachter guided the Viking 61 to blue marlin each of the three days and two on day one of the tournament sponsored by HMY Yacht Sales and Viking Yachts.

For their win, the Hackensak, New Jersey team won a Randy Rich designed First Place trophy and as Top Release Team for the Treasure Cay Championship, Inappropriate was presented with an original bronze trophy awarded by BBC sponsors Murray Products, High Seas Technology and PipeWelders. Steve Lewis of the Lewis Marine Group presented Top Crew trophies to Capt. Jack Plachter and Pete Zebinski.

Finishing second was the Spicewood, Texas team Deguello with 1,900 points. Gary Domel’s Cabo 48 with Capt. Bill Diamond at the helm caught and released two blue marlin on day one and another blue and a sailfish on day three. One hundred points behind Deguello was team My Doris. Capt. Bobby Brown, another veteran BBC captain, led Mark Modist’s Cabo 40 to an early tournament lead with three blue marlin releases on day one. In addition to the Randy Rich acrylic trophies, the top three teams all received gift certificates from Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecast and BoatMat Corp.

To read entire release, Click Here

Brokers Doug Donohue and John Strader and Product Manager Mike Middleton were invited to meet the Grand Banks family, tour the production facilities, and sea trial the much anticipated 53’ Raised Pilothouse, the newest model in the Aleutian series. The HMY team participated in two days of product education seminars and factory tours along with GB dealers from Australia, France, Italy, and Denmark. The seminars covered details of design and construction as well as the mechanics of order entry and custom requests that are essential in making each Grand Banks Yacht personalized and unique for its individual owner.

Doug commented that “This visit has been tremendously helpful in making me more familiar with the construction quality and custom capabilities of the Grand Banks product line. The knowledge I’ve gained on this trip is something I look forward to sharing with any prospective clients I’ll be working with.”

To read entire article: Click Here

To View a slideshow of the trip: Click Here

Contact: Laurie Bass
Telephone: (888) 883-2890
E-mail: LBass@hmy.com
Website: www.billfishblast.com

MARSH HARBOUR, ABACO, BAHAMAS (June 9, 2010) – The Boat Harbour-HMY Billfish Blast was presented by HMY Yacht Sales and Abaco Beach Resort at Boat Harbour from May 31-June 4, 2010. The Blast returned for its eleventh anniversary to Abaco Beach Resort at Boat Harbour Marina in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas.

Fourteen teams joined the competition with themed events including the Memorial Day Kick-Off Dinner, Sports Night Dinner, Rockstar Karaoke/Talent Competition Dinner, Lay Day Pool Party and Lunch, and the Awards Banquet. Tournament Coordinator Laurie Bass states, “We added a few new contests for participants and we kept the tradition of morning and afternoon gifts as well as an hourly raffle drawing on the VHF. I believe our formula for family, fun and fishing create a hybrid event like no other.”

Kicking off in patriotic fashion on Memorial Day, registration and team check-in provided a smooth transition to the Kick-Off Dinner sponsored by Viking Yachts. Immediately following dinner, the Fireworks Extravaganza sponsored by Pirate’s Cove Resort and Marina provided a special treat for everyone in Marsh Harbour along with a definite feeling that the Blast is back and underway.

The first day of fishing resulted in several hookups and two blue marlin releases. Aquaholic’s Jason Suzar released the first and Cowpoke’s Cruiser Crews released the second. The action doubled the second day with seven hookups and three releases. Perry Osman on Sea N Double released the first blue on Wednesday, and then after several pulled hooks, Dave Meyer on Cowpoke fought and released the team’s second blue marlin. Closing out day two, Bill Byers on Intents released the day’s final blue at 3:48 PM.

Day two concluded with the annual Rockstar Karaoke/Talent Contest and Dinner sponsored by Atlantic Marine Electronics, Palm Beach Towers and Christi Marine Insurance. The Most Talented trophy was earned once again by Alan Colantuano on Bam-Boo for the second year in a row. All teams enjoyed the mandatory lay day by taking part in the Pool Party and Lunch sponsored by Ransome/Caterpillar. The lay day games included a Top Model competition for males wearing board shorts, a Bloody Mary Competition, and Iron Chef Challenge. The Iron Chef trophy was presented to Ben Martin on Coastal Angler for his tasty grouper entry; the Bloody Mary winner was special tournament guest, Lisa Barber on the Uptick for her “Remote Control” Bloody Mary; and finally, the Top Model honors were taken by Tigger from Three Dog Night.

The final day of fishing offered the hottest bite of the entire week. A total of eight hookups resulted in six blue releases and one white. Cowpoke’s strong showing of two blue releases and one white by female angler Christy Crews pushed the team over the top and kept them in the top spot at lines out. Perry Osman on Sea N Double
released a blue which secured second place. Junior angler, Van Wichers, on Outlaw released a blue to capture top honors for the Doc Austin Memorial Top Junior Angler award, and other blue marlin releases came courtesy of Kim Domel on Dequello, and Tracy Paterson on Coastal Angler. However, based on release time, Aquaholic held on
for a third place finish.

Overall results are as follows:
1st Place Overall, 1st Place Release, 1st Place Crew: Cowpoke, 61’ Viking
Owner Cruiser Crews
Captain Mike Brady
Mate Mike “Dewey” Price
Anglers Christy Crews, Cruiser Crews, Dave Meyer, Greg Jones
Four blue releases and one white marlin release

2nd Place Overall, 2nd Place Release, 2nd Place Crew:
Sea N Double, 61’ Viking
Owner Perry Osman
Captain Rich Stallings
Anglers Perry Osman, Shane Davenport, Kyle Osman, Sabrina Davenport
Two blue releases

3rd Place Overall, 3rd Place Release, 3rd Place Crew: Aquaholic, 50’ Hatteras
Owner/Captain Michael Rogers
Anglers Jason Suzor, Rob Davenport, LeAnne Rogers, Dan Suzor
One blue release

Christy Crews on Cowpoke took home top honors in the ladies and overall angler categories with her releases of two blue marlin and one white, totaling 1400 points. Christy’s win makes her eligible to enter the Grand Championship of the World Billfish Series in December of this year.

To Read Full Article – Click Here

We are happy to report that everyone finished the entire race – a few blisters popped up – but all seemed to enjoy the morning. The HMY Team raised $2,830 for the cause. To see our Calendar of Events Click Here

As printed in the Spring 2010 issue of Yachtworld.com

Faced with the economic downturn in the yachting industry, many dealerships and brokerage firms have drastically reduced inventory levels, laid off staff and essentially gone into hibernation waiting for boat buyers to return to the marketplace. In the past twelve months, by contrast, yacht brokerage firm and dealer HMY Yacht Sales, which covers the Atlantic coast of Florida and Charleston, S.C., has added two new boat lines: Tiara Yachts and Grand Banks. And in February, it opened a new dealership – its seventh – in Miami’s Coconut Grove, just before the Miami Yacht and Brokerage Show. An eighth HMY office, its location still under wraps, is due to open this year.

“When other people were pulling back or in a holding pattern, we felt it was the right time to expand,” says HMY’s general manager, Tom Sanders. “Expand in Miami; expand marketing opportunities, including online …. We thought now is the time when we needed to grow ourselves, so when the market does come back around, we have a high visibility, we’ve shown our strength, and we are there to meet the boat-buying public’s needs. Whether it’s fishing, cruising; new, used; Miami, Charleston … we try to be there.”

HMY made a significant investment in internet marketing in 2009, including launching an all new website at www.HMY.com. And in South Florida, it raised its profile, as well, by implementing an aggressive, multiple-year cross-marketing campaign with the professional football team the Miami Dolphins. Last October HMY was a major sponsor of the Miami Dolphins Alumni Weekend, which brought thousands of fans together to celebrate the franchise’s 1982 and 1984 AFC Championship teams. “Twice, we brought boats right to the stadium and displayed them at the entrance to the newly renamed Sun Life Stadium, a first for the facility,” Sanders says, adding that HMY’s commercials also ran on the stadium’s 3,000 video screens at every home game last fall. “It gave us tremendous name recognition in the Miami market at the same time we were about to open the Miami office.”

According to Sanders, one of the secrets to HMY’s success is its longevity; the company will celebrate its 31st anniversary this year. Another key factor is the quality of the new yacht lines it represents, which include Viking Yachts, Viking Sport Cruisers and Riviera Yachts, in addition to Tiara and Grand Banks. “We have higher end products with good customer demand, whether it’s on the new boat side or the brokerage side,” he says.

HMY started out as a brokerage firm (see sidebar) and has maintained its edge in that marketplace as well. “In terms of units, we sell more brokerage boats than new boats. In terms of revenue to the company, new boats are a vital bloodline for us,” Sanders says. The two sides of the sales equation are intertwined, of course, as clients who buy new boats from the company frequently return to trade up and trade in their boats, which become brokerage offerings. This Tiara was displayed by HMY in a promotion outside the Miami Dolphins football stadium.

Thanks in part to its longtime relationship with Viking Yachts, which the company first began representing in 1992, HMY has developed a reputation as a sportfishing expert. Each year, at the end of May, it holds the annual Billfish Blast for its sportfish owner clients in conjunction with the Abaco Beach Resort at Boat Harbour in The Bahamas. This year will see the 11th Billfish Blast. “It’s a serious release tournament,” Sanders says, adding that the event is also very family-friendly. “Every evening offers a variety of family-oriented entertainment activities.”

“It’s hardcore fishing,” agrees Joe Schwab, Viking Yachts vice-president of sales, “yet the first time you throw the line on the dock, it’s a party.”

But, as HMY Yacht Sales’ owner Steve Moynihan puts it, “Fishing isn’t all that we do.”

“One of our company goals is to continue to move – not away from sportfishing – but into the cruising market,” Sanders says. In addition to representing Viking Sport Cruisers, he points out “the Grand Banks and Tiara product lines really solidify [that].”

HMY began representing the Grand Banks cruising boat line in February 2010. Rob Livingston, Grand Banks

president and CEO, commented at the time that in addition to its dedicated and knowledgeable sales and service staff, “HMY also offers all the resources necessary to make the purchase or sale of our clients’ new and used yachts a positive experience.” The dealer used to host annual “HMY Great Escapes” to The Bahamas for motor yacht clients in the mid- to late 1990s. “We’re going to reignite that event,” Sanders says. “As we look at all the Tiara and Grand Banks owners, both of those groups are used to having owner events.” Details about HMY’s Bahamas summer cruise will be posted on the company’s website.

The megayacht category is another area of expansion for the company, at least on the brokerage side. Sanders, who was vice-president of sales for Allied Marine before joining HMY in 2004, brings a wealth of big boat experience to the table. He has also served as sales director for Bertram and Hatteras, as well as working with Christensen and Destiny Yachts.

“We just closed on a brokerage 108-foot Hargrave, and we look to do more and more of that,” he says, adding that HMY’s brokerage team also recently sold a 100-foot Benetti. “We’re in that market, and we intend to continue to grow in that market.”

While boats are their stock in trade, Sanders and Moynihan agree that HMY’s biggest asset is its people.

“We have a great, great team … about 80 people between sales, support and service people,” Moynihan says. “The dedication of our team is really our culture.” “Their customer service is excellent,” Joe Schwab says, reporting that Viking is on very close terms with HMY. “We’ve had customers go back four or five times to HMY and have enjoyed our relationship over seventeen years. It’s not so much a manufacturer/dealer relationship as a partnership.”

When asked what HMY’s watchwords are, Moynihan and Sanders both use terms like “honesty” and “integrity”. “We feel like we are a very ethical company,” Sanders says, telling the story of a brokerage transaction that the company handled recently when the surveyor overlooked a serious problem on the vessel. “We did not have the obligation to repair it but we did, and it was for several thousand dollars,” he said. “We strive to do the right thing by the customer.”

Selling a Boat a Day

HMY Yacht Sales owner and co-founder Steve Moynihan got his start in the boat business in 1975 with one of the very first firms to sell multiple-listing services to yacht brokers – a novel concept back in the days before computers. In 1977 and ’78, he went to work for two different brokers, learning the trade until he was ready to hang out a shingle of his own.

It didn’t take long. In 1979, Moynihan founded HMY Yacht Sales with partners “H” and “Y” – Art Holler and Ron Youngdahl. “We thought that we could add something to the industry,” Moynihan says. “There was a new facility out at Marina Bay [in Fort Lauderdale] that was attractive to us. We wanted to be on the water, have a lot of product at the dock.”

From the very beginning, operating out of a waterfront location where the yachts can be displayed in their natural element has been an essential part of the HMY game plan. Today, the company has seven locations, in Charleston, S.C., and Jacksonville, Stuart, Palm Beach Gardens, North Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale/Dania and Miami, Fla. All of them are on the water; all have display docks. “As a dealer you really have to have that,” Moynihan says.

It was not all smooth sailing for HMY in the beginning. “At that time – that was over 30 years ago – the challenge was getting
past the old guard of the yacht brokerage business industry,” Moynihan says. “They had an unwritten rule about people starting
up companies and not being able to do business with them on a conventional basis until they had been in business for a year.” He adds, “All that has since gone by the wayside.”

For its first four years, HMY focused solely on the brokerage business. Then, in 1983, Moynihan seized the opportunity to take on a new-boat line: the well-known Post Marine sportfisherman series. “The Post dealer in Fort Lauderdale was retiring, and it was good quality, high-pedigreed product,” he says.

By that time, Moynihan had a new partner, Doc Austin – a partnership that lasted until Austin’s untimely death, two years ago. Together, the pair added more product lines and built HMY Yacht Sales to the point where – at least until the recent recession – the company literally was able to say it “sold a boat a day” – one for every day of the year. Today, despite the business climate, HMY is working hard to return to that high-water mark. – L.B.

Louisa Beckett has been involved with boating ever since her father, Kenneth Rudeen, sailing editor for Sports Illustrated, took her to her first America’s Cup at age eleven. As former editor of Motor Boating and ShowBoats International magazines, she has covered the marine industry from PWCs to superyachts.

Our tournament is ranked among the best, and we pride ourselves on producing an atmosphere that encourages both camaraderie and competition. The Blast provides a unique tournament experience by offering nightly dinner banquets, fantastic fishing, and extraordinary giveaways. From the moment fireworks light up the sky at the Kick-Off Dinner until the champion is presented with the Perpetual Trophy and the Grand Finale entertainment closes the ceremonies, teams delight in an entertaining week and friendly rivalry.

The Billfish Blast has gone back to basics, and we expect an increase in participation from previous years. “I have always followed a simple formula,” explains Tournament Director Laurie Bass. “Provide excellent service at a fabulous venue, and the Blast becomes a party for our pals where friends and family celebrate and compete. We’ve booked a special act this year for our Grand Finale – it’s someone many people idolized.”

Keep in mind we limit that the number of boats at the Blast in order to guarantee that each participant receives first-class treatment, so be sure to complete the registration packet soon. More information is available at www.hmy.com or www.billfishblast.com, and our Facebook page also allows fans to keep tabs the latest teams who will be competing so search for the HMY-Boat Harbour Billfish Blast and become a fan today.

Bring your friends and family to the Abaco Beach Resort at Boat Harbour for a true Blast this Memorial Day!

For more information contact Tournament Director Laurie Bass at 954-868-8022 or via e-mail at LaurieBass@hmy.com

To view the Entry Package and Rules Click Here