While two boat shows and hundreds of yachts are on display in and around Miami Beach this weekend, one charter yacht that has been a staple at recent shows is docked in Fort Lauderdale, still available for show and sale.

M/Y Cheers 46, a 140-foot Benetti, couldn’t qualify for a boat show bond to attend the Miami Yacht Show this year because of a timing discrepancy, so Capt. Kelly Esser decided to take advantage of a foreign trade zone slip at Lauderdale Marine Center. That slip enables the foreign-flagged yacht to be shown to anyone — including Americans — for sale or charter. A sale could even happen on site (though not on the aft deck for technical reasons), eliminating the need to head into international waters.

“This just gave us the benefit of being available for the show,” Capt. Esser said, “as well as being able to get ready for multiple trailers back to back.”

The yacht paid for a month of dockage — dockage it was paying anyway to prep for its upcoming charter season — as well as a foreign trade zone bond, which works out to a few thousand dollars for a $15 million boat.

Cheers 46 will leave South Florida next week for a charter in the Bahamas, and being in Fort Lauderdale instead of the boat show enabled the crew to continue provisioning and prepping for the journey, making the upcoming charter a bit less stressful, Capt. Esser said.

Content originally posted by The Triton: http://www.the-triton.com/2018/02/miami18-m-y-cheers-46-showing-in-fort-lauderdale/