Charter Meetup Recap
The Ionian welcomed a busy few days last week as Lefkada hosted the Charter Meetup Greece 2026 (22-25 April), bringing together charter operators, brokers, and suppliers from across the yacht-charter industry for three days of meetings, marina visits, and a fair amount of good conversation.
For Ionian Catamarans, it was a particularly full programme. Vassia took to the stage on Thursday morning to present the Ionian area in proper depth (airports, itineraries, sailing routes, marina infrastructure), giving brokers a grounded picture of what the region offers and why it’s worth knowing well.
The dozens of speed meetings that followed across Thursday and Friday were a welcome mix of familiar faces and new ones; ten minutes per meeting keeps things focused, which is either efficient or slightly alarming depending on how much you had to say.
When the meeting slots wrapped up, the brokers made their way to our pontoon. We showed them around the fleet, boats that, we’re pleased to report, were in the kind of condition that makes the showing easy rather than awkward. Our base staff was there throughout, ready to welcome everyone on board and field questions about the operation firsthand.
The highlight of the week, though, was Thursday evening aboard My Maria. Our Sunreef 60 hosted a jazz party that gave everyone a chance to slow down, enjoy the surroundings, and continue the conversations that speed meetings inevitably start but rarely have time to finish. A Sunreef 60 turns out to be a reasonable venue for this sort of thing.
Events like this one matter. Not just for the meetings themselves, but for the chance to put faces to names, exchange views on how the season is shaping up, and demonstrate — rather than just describe — what we’ve built here in the Ionian. We came away with new connections, reinforced old ones, and the quiet satisfaction of boats that needed no apology.
We’re already looking forward to the next one.
After the Charter Meetup meetings, we let the Ionian Sea do the rest
Once the meetings were done and the handshakes were safely behind us, we did what any sensible charter company would do: we went sailing.
The whole team joined aboard Blue Velvet (our Lagoon 52F) and My Maria (the Sunreef 60), and set off south from Lefkada toward Syvota over two days that were, by anyone’s measure, well spent. We stopped at bays and anchorages along the way, swam in an Ionian Sea that was cold enough to be refreshing and warm enough to pretend otherwise, ate Greek food that required no professional opinion to enjoy, and made the kind of content that comes naturally when people are actually having a good time rather than performing it.
It was also, quietly, one of the more useful things we do. Getting the whole team on the water together is a reminder of what we’re actually selling.
Two days, two boats, one very agreeable stretch of coastline. We’ll take it.
