The Yachting World’s New Horizons

The glamorous world of yachting, long dominated by destinations such as Cannes, Monte Carlo and Sardinia, is docking in new harbors. “Gone are the days when yachting was restricted to the crowded coastline of the Côte d'Azur, and France held the monopoly on impressive marinas,” says Daniel Wilde, co-founder of ultimateberths.com, a web portal that brings together renters, buyers and sellers of marina berths and moorings worldwide. “As the marina industry develops, so, too, does the choice of attractive destinations for owners to berth their yachts.” The wealthiest buyers are often looking for “superyachts,” which are usually defined as pleasure boats more than 24 meters (about 79 feet) in length, often with pools, private screening rooms, basketball courts and a host of luxury features. Price tags sometimes run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

VIDEO: What's Trending in the World of Superyachts? In the first half of 2015, 199 superyachts were sold worldwide, compared with 226 during the same period a year before. Just 74 were sold in the first half of 2009 at the height of the recession, according to figures from Boat International Media. Though Europeans and Americans have traditionally led the list of superyacht buyers, China’s growing wealth has builders looking east. Asia is predicted to overtake Europe in the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals by 2027, according to consultancy Wealth-X. There are almost 4,930 superyachts longer than 30 meters (about 98 feet) in the world, and only a fraction of these are in Asia. There are already signs of growing demand in China. U.K.-based yacht builders Spirit Yachts opened an office in Hong Kong in 2014, where the high demand for berth space has kept the marina nearly saturated. But China is not the only place seeing an upswing in demand.

“Superyacht demand has changed in recent years, both in terms of new clients and from new regions, and in terms of the kind of yachts, specifically those over 75 meters or even 100 meters,” said Fabio Ermetto, sales director at Benetti Yachts, an Italian luxury yacht builder in business since 1873. The firm has had increasing interest from Chinese, Southeast Asian, Russian, Central American and Brazilian buyers. Challenges to development remain in these new markets, however, and industry professionals say the allure of the established locales is by no means disappearing. “Some people like the cachet that comes with the south of France and it isn’t quite the same in some of the newer places,” said Alasdair Pritchard, Associate Partner at Knight Frank.

Luxury real estate firm Engel & Völkers opened a new yachting division in Nice earlier this year and there are plans to open offices in Antibes and Monaco, with the idea of potentially expanding worldwide, according to Bart Boury, the head of yachting at Engel & Völkers. The firm will use its network on a referral basis given that many of the clients who buy high-end property are the same buyers interested in purchasing yachts. “The French Riviera is one of the most important places for yachting and we are starting here and focusing on yachts above 15 meters,” said Boury. “There is greater confidence to invest on the higher end; little by little and we will go to the market with some major transactions in the next years.” The changes have some yachting builders feeling bullish. At Benetti, nine yachts up to 65 meters have sold since September 2014; 45 yachts are currently under construction compared with 31 yachts during the height of the crisis between 2008 and 2009. “Forty-five new-construction orders at Benetti is certainly not a sign of weakness,” says Boury.