Stardust eyes UKmarket with offer of crewed yacht holidays

New programme

Stardust eyes UKmarket with offer of crewed yacht holidays

Report by TANYA JEFFERIES

FIRST Choice-owned specialist Stardust Yacht Charters is launching a crewed yacht holiday programme to the UK market.

The Paris-based company, which intends to promote its product under the brand name Stardust Platinum in the UK, has concentrated on mainland Europe and the US markets until now.

It will offer holidays on five-star crewed yachts carrying between six and 10 passengers.

A professional skipper and a hostess/cook will sail the boat and cater for customers and everything on board will be covered in the price, including water sports and fishing gear.

The yachts also carry a computer with Internet access, DVD and CD players.

The company plans to earmark between two and five yachts for the UK programme, which will start in the Caribbean this December and in Europe and French Polynesia from May.

Embarkation points in the Caribbean will include St Martin, the British Virgin Islands and St Lucia but passengers will be able to help choose their own sailing itinerary.

Prices start from £1,400 per person for a week – not including flights.

Stardust’s UK bookings and tailor-made flight arrangements will be handled by Sunsail, the sailing specialist acquired by First Choice for £35 million last September.

Stardust itself was bought by First Choice for £2.9 million last February. Sunsail sales and marketing director Andy Howard claimed Stardust Platinum’s five-star crewed yacht product offered something new to the UK market.

“This market is not particularly well served by anybody at this level,” he said “There are no real quality products out there.”

Stardust: will offer holidays on five-star crewed yachts carrying between six to 10 passengers