Ritzy Yachts vets catamaran charters at Greece trade show

Ritzy Yachts used the East Med Multihull & Yacht Charter Show in Poros as a working vetting ground, not a showroom stop. The brokerage’s team walked decks, met captains and crew members, and sampled chef menus before deciding which multihulls and charter itineraries met its standards for clients heading into the Greek season.

That hands-on approach sat at the center of the 22nd edition of EMMYS, held in Poros, Greece, from May 7 to May 10, 2026. The trade-only event brought together 30 management companies and more than 100 crewed charter yachts, making it one of the region’s densest gatherings for the charter business and a useful snapshot of how Med catamaran bookings are actually judged.

Ritzy’s delegation included Germán Liubitch, Federico Martín Lopez, Camila Conde, Michael Piper, Lucy Cooper and Lesli VanDeusen. Their route through the show was practical: inspect the yacht condition, check whether the layout fit the charter market, watch how crews handled themselves in person, and see whether the onboard service matched the photographs and specification sheets used in online pitching. For a Greek Islands charter, where the right yacht-and-crew pairing can define the whole trip, that live read matters as much as size or styling.

EMMYS was built around that kind of evaluation. Its schedule included broker and vendor registration, yacht display windows for in-water inspection, seminars, culinary competitions, networking events and a closing ceremony. Organizers framed the show as a platform where brokers, visitors, agents and exhibitors could view each yacht’s amenities and get to know the yacht itself and the charter manager, which is exactly the kind of firsthand review Ritzy says it wants before recommending a boat.

The registration rules also showed how specific the charter segment is. Commercially registered multihull charter yachts had to be over 15 meters LOA and carry at least two permanent crew members, while monohull charter yachts had to be over 20 meters LOA with the same minimum crew requirement. On the culinary side, the 2026 chef competition included a Diamond category for yachts charging 5,000 euro per day and above in high season, a reminder that service standards are judged alongside hull form and interior fit.

EMMYS also ran the CYBA Designer Water Contest, aimed at highlighting onboard water quality, crew creativity and ways to cut plastic bottle waste. Historical results reinforced how often catamarans sit near the top of the hospitality game: the 2023 chef competition included sailing catamaran winners ABOVE & BEYOND, NAMASTE and LUCKY CLOVER. For brokers like Ritzy, that mix of fleet inspection, crew interviews and food tasting is the real charter filter, and Poros was where the season’s choices were narrowed down.