Antigua Charter Show 2019: An insider’s insight into the key facts and statistics

By Katia Damborsky 5 December 2019

The industry-only Antigua Charter Show 2019 is back for its 58th edition, with this year’s event set to host the youngest ever fleet of yachts in the show’s history.

Forty-nine superyachts are currently on display between Falmouth Harbour and English Harbour for the Antigua Charter Show, which opens its doors to the yachting industry today.

Running until December 9, the event is a mainstay in the calendar for charter brokers looking to tour the yachts in attendance and gather first-hand insight on behalf of their clients.

As a result, the show invariably attracts some of the most popular yachts in the charter fleet, and this year is no different.

The 2019 Antigua Charter Show will have the lowest average age of superyachts in the show’s history, promising a strong lineup of new and young yachts on the docks.

The average superyacht age this year is 13. This is also the first year since 2015 that the show has deviated outside of a 15 year average age, which signals a positive trend that we can hope to see mirrored in future editions of the show as well.

Of the 49 charter yachts in attendance, 27 are making their Antigua Yacht Show debuts.

The show invariably attracts some of the most popular yachts in the charter fleet, and this year is no different.

The average weekly cost to charter the yachts in the show comes in at $272,000, which reflects an overall upward trend that’s in keeping with other yacht shows. There’s only one edition of the Antigua Show which tops the 2019 figure, and that’s last year's average price of $306,000.

The average length of attending yachts is 47m, with all the superyachts creating a combined length of 2.36km.

The number of sailing yachts is continuing to fall compared with previous years, which suggests the show is moving more towards motor yachts. This year welcomes only 12 sailing yachts measuring over 78ft (or 23.7m), compared to 11 last year and 16 in 2017.

A regular attendee of the Antigua Charter Show, the 90m/296ft motor yacht ‘Phoenix 2’ holds the crown for the largest yacht this year. She’s fresh from an appearance at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, where her midnight blue hull and iconic phoenix masthead attracted plenty of attention.

Alongside her, 86m/282ft sailing yacht AquiJo is making her worldwide boat show debut. While she was initially launched in 2016, this will be the first time she has participated in a yachting meet. She has a stellar selection of on-board amenities, and has recently been chartering in the most remote region on the earth; the South Atlantic islands of Ascension, Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena.

You can view the YachtCharterFleet edit of all the top must-see debuting superyachts at the Antigua Charter Show 2019.