THE NEW STANDARD OF PERFORMANCE FOR PROFESSIONAL YACHT BROKERS

The Annapolis Sailyard Inc. is very proud to announce that all of our eligible Yacht Brokers and New Yacht Specialists have achieved the designation of Certified Professional Yacht Broker, as administrated by the Yacht Brokers Association Of America. Years of experience, continuing education, and a thorough testing process are all carefully considered by the evaluating organization.

Please join the Yachting Community in congratulating the following representatives from the Annapolis Sailyard, Inc.:

Jay A. LeBow, Pres.

E. Scott Heckard

Stephen Hines

Richard A. Kahn

W. Cary Lukens

Scott Morrison

Yacht brokers nationwide now have a new benchmark for measuring their skills, abilities and performance. Boat sellers and buyers are now in a better position to select qualified, competent yacht brokers.

These are the goals of the new National Yacht Broker Certification program; a joint effort of the Yacht Brokers Association of America (YBAA, Annapolis, MD), the Florida Yacht Brokers Association (FYBA, Ft. Lauderdale, FL) California Yacht Brokers Associate, Ontario Yacht Brokers Association and the Northwest Yacht Brokers Association (NYBA, Seattle, WA).

In development since 1999, the yacht broker certification project objective has been to set a performance baseline for professional yacht brokers nationwide. A program ‘Design Team' of volunteers from the three associations worked with the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute to define the industry Body of Knowledge, which lists the key areas of performance skills and knowledge required to be a professional yacht broker. The team then crafted a certification exam, comprised of 151 questions, designed to be an objective measurement of a broker's knowledge.

"The process of determining the essential skills that a professional yacht broker needs to have was daunting," stated Vincent Petrella, president of Hellier Yacht Sales, new London, CT and chairman of the multi-year effort. "This has never been done before, and it was both a challenge and an honor for our volunteer team to be involved in this project. I firmly believe that our efforts will result in raising the bar of performance for the yacht brokerage profession, and will greatly enhance our credibility in the minds of the boating public."

As in many other industries, performance standards, professional training and recognition are essential tools for ensuring that the industry encourages and maintains aggressive performance goals and sound business practices. YBAA, FYBA, NYBA, CYBA and OYBA each have had in place, for many years, association mandated codes of ethics, which provide the minimum standards for ethical broker performance and which are mandatory for all brokers who desire membership in the organizations. The Yacht Broker Certification Program takes this process to a new level, providing a comprehensive method for qualifying eligible brokers who have the necessary experience, skills and know-how to be recognized as a Certified Professional Yacht Broker - CPYB.

	ANNAPOLIS SAILYARD, INC. Located on the Annapolis Harbor 326 First Street Suite #18 Annapolis, Maryland 21403		Phone: (410) 268-4100 Fax: (410) 268-2974 Email: yachts@sailyard.com		Copyright 2006