Popular Charter Yachts
The luxury yacht market is a world of superlatives: of superyachts and megayachts and ndash; perhaps the most telling measure of ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
Last June, Merrill Lynch Capgemini released its annual wealth report. Just as it has found every year since its debut a decade ago, the number of Ultra-HNWIs, classed as individuals with financial assets in excess of $30m, rose on the year before, this time by 10.2% to 85,400.
This year's assessment has yet to emerge, but judging by the experience of Monaco's yacht brokers ; as reliable a barometer as there might be on the fortunes of the global ultra-rich; there has been no slowdown at all in the pace of wealth generation at the very top.
As Jillian Montgomery, chief executive of Campers & Nicholson International, puts it: "This has been an amazing year, our best ever. "We're about 50% up on this time last year, but it will probably even out because we simply won't have product" to meet the demand. Ms Montgomery notes that building slots at some major yards are now being pushed out as far as 2012. As for chartering, "last year we ran out of yachts charters in May. This year, we were already starting to run out in March. And if you want to charter a 50 m-plus yacht in July or August, forget it." This from a company, now owned by yacht builder Rodriguez, with a charter fleet of 140 yachts and is also building 32 vessels and has around 140 more for sale. Prices for purchase or charter, to nobody's surprise, have not fallen. At Fraser Yachts, Alan Armstrong, manager of the Monaco yacht management office, adds that yachts are also increasing relentlessly in size. At the top end, yachts over 100 m in length are now almost commonplace, with the inability to dock in many marinas seemingly no impediment to the trend to gigantism. "People are building yachts of 130 m, 160 m," he says, "and some of them will never come into port. They will be constantly in operation." Fraser, too, has seen continued strong demand for this year, both for purchase and charter, and continuing pressure on supply. At CNI, which has expanded most recently in the US with new offices in New York and Newport, Ms Montgomery is adding staff and opening a new accounting and marketing office in Antibes. Pressure of work demands it, as US and British clients continue to buy, the Russians storm into third place among CNI's clients and new markets open up to the East. Buying interest is strong and rising among wealthy Arabs and Indians, as the recent Dubai International Boat Show demonstrated. As megayachts have grown to the size of small cruise ships, regulatory requirements have necessarily become stiffer. In such a high-priced, client-sensitive market, the cost, in dollars and 'aggida', of a breakdown in the open sea is also correspondingly higher.
Yacht Charter
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