It’s the end of April, and the yachting charter season is about to kick off in the Med. So, in this, the second of our ‘5 questions’ interviews with superyacht charter brokers, we get to know the luxury yacht charter broker Kateryna Kyslyak from Contact Yachts.
Catching up with her in sunny Sanremo, in between walking the docks at the busy MYBA Charter Show, we discover the biggest headaches for brokers, why Montenegro ranks as one of the Med’s most underrated travel destinations, and hear about the most badass wellness deck she’s ever seen on board a superyacht.
10 years ago, would you have imagined you’d become a luxury yacht charter broker?
Definitely not. 10 years ago, I was still working as a journalist in Ukraine after training at media school in Kyiv, and barely knew that the job of a luxury yacht charter broker existed. I loved being a journalist, but I felt strongly that I wanted to live abroad in Turkey and have a complete career change.
I quit my job, took a break, and prayed for a role that combined my abilities and my love of serving people. Then, a chance opportunity came up through an old contact in Turkey, after I reached out to him via email. At first, I helped him with interviewing crew, inspecting yachts, and visiting charter shows. After gaining client experience over the course of a few years and helping with the Central Agency fleet, I became a professional retail broker in my own right.
What does your day-to-day routine look like?
My day typically starts around 9 am, checking emails and messages for new charter requests, special offers from yacht managers, and operational questions from existing clients about transfers, food, and preference lists, which I review and pass on to captains and crew.
Alongside this, I also curate photo and video content for social media and the website. In summer, it’s particularly enjoyable as I also get to travel to meet clients at embarkation (when the yacht is leaving for the charter trip), check in with the crews and chefs and ensure that everything onboard matches what was promised.
What are the toughest and best parts of your job as a luxury yacht charter broker?
One of the biggest challenges is when everyone on board assures you that everything is ready for the person who has booked the charter, and then you arrive to find that key items are missing or have only been bought to last a day. As the broker, you’re the first person the traveller holds responsible, even though you’ve clearly passed on all their preferences to the crew, so that can be pretty tough.
The best part of my job is creating truly memorable holidays, really listening to my clients, matching them with the right yacht, crew and destination, and then seeing everything come together exactly as we planned. I also love the creative side: travelling, taking photos and videos, and sharing this beautiful world of yachting with people who might never otherwise experience it.
Which travel destination deserves more attention from travellers in 2026?
As it has incredible coastal scenery, medieval towns and diverse beaches, I think Montenegro absolutely deserves more attention. It’s a beautiful destination, but from a charter broker’s perspective, the problem is the fleet. On trusted platforms, you only really see two or three gulets and a handful of motor yachts based there, whereas Croatia, for example, has a far stronger and more diverse offering.
As a luxury yacht charter broker, I prefer to work with yachts listed on these established systems, where I know and trust the managers, so the lack of inventory in Montenegro makes it much harder to sell than it should be. Who knows what the future will hold for this destination, though!
Finally, what’s the best wellness set-up on a superyacht you’ve ever seen?
The best wellness deck I’ve ever seen has to be on board the 73-metre Lürssen superyacht Starfire. I didn’t check the photos of the yacht before visiting, and so when the stewardess brought us up to the top deck, I was totally blown away. I was expecting that we might just see a couple of sunbeds, but the superyacht wellness deck Starfire was something else.
This top deck space had a full wellness setup, including dumbbells, a massage table, an ice bucket and cardio equipment, plus space for sunbathing. The yacht even has a hoop for playing basketball. This all really impressed me, as I thought: “Wow, these people really value health, love life, and they are offering to share it with other people too through these charter trips. That is truly amazing.”
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