Owners at ASF
Superyacht owners addressed the superyacht sector about their greatest concerns, frustrations and thoughts on US superyachts during the 10th American Superyacht Forum, hosted by The Superyacht Group in Fort Lauderdale at the end of May.…
Martin H Redmayne addresses the delegates during the final session of ASF 2012
Superyacht owners addressed the superyacht sector about their greatest concerns, frustrations and thoughts on US superyachts during the 10th American Superyacht Forum, hosted by The Superyacht Group's Superyacht Events team in Fort Lauderdale at the end of May.
During the conference's introductory session, Martin H Redmayne, chairman of The Superyacht Group, led an open and candid discussion with two experienced superyacht owners, firstly by sharing some facts and figures about the state of the American superyacht industry. Earlier this year, SuperyachtIntelligence.com released an economic analysis of the superyacht industry that showed its worth to be €4.6bn per annum and providing over 28,800 direct jobs to America. Yet the number of yacht orders and consequently deliveries from US shipyards has been dwindling since the economic crash, with a little lag time from delivery of pre-2008 orders holding off the real impact for a few years. Redmayne commented that he feels that if the US yards can raise the number of deliveries per annum to around 25, it could provide a sustainable benchmark for the yards still in business.
One of the biggest questions of the session focused on why Americans are not choosing to build American yachts. With a third of those making the Forbes Billionaire List from the United States, many superyacht builders feel that this is a key market to tap into, but many of the yards have struggled to find new orders in the last year or so to fill the space left by launching vessels.
Redmayne commented that when the market died off in 2008, the US lost a lot of market share because a lot of the yards were involved in flipping builds, “trying to sell owners a financial dream, not a cruising dream”, which gave an unrealistic expectation of the norm.
Wayne Huizenga Jr, whose family owned M/Y Floridian and who runs refit and repair shipyard Rybovich in West Palm Beach, commented that he feels many potential owners looking to build very large yachts have concerns about bringing their projects to the US because there is a lack of perceived experience in this market compared with many European yards. The US has become a service centre, he said, and many companies are adding to their capacity. “I am hoping that as more non-US owners bring yachts to the US for service and repair, they will get more of a taste for US yards and eventually bring their new builds to the US,” he added.
Joe Vittoria, a long-term superyacht owner who built three superyachts and recently sold the last, S/Y Mirabella V, concurred that most people who have achieved the level of success to own a superyacht want security in the yards where they choose to build, so they are concerned about building big yachts in the US. He also thinks that many captains push for Europe rather than the US. “The capability for building large yachts is here – M/Y Cakewalk at Derecktor and M/Y Laurel at Delta – so that shows potential clients that they can bring their large builds here. But we need to make visiting the US for non-US flagged yachts easier, it cost me about $8,000 for the various permits and was a lot of hassle.”
Vittoria, who feels that the fallout in revenue from the charter market was an issue for many owners, says that the political climate is pushing the difference between the wealthy and the non-wealthy, which is encouraging Americans to build yachts in Europe, away from the eyes of the US media. He suggested the stigma will diminish faster in the lower end of the yacht spectrum, and so focusing on this area might provide more of a market upswing for US builders in the near future.
When asked why he had decided to sell his last boat and leave yacht ownership, Vittoria was positive about his overall experience with superyachts, but said that in his case, with such involvement in the project, he needed to “decompress”. “It’s been a wild ride. The design process of Mirabella V took five years, to build it took three and technologically it was a challenge. If I buy again, it will be something quite small and if I buy an existing boat I will change it to make it my own, much like the new owner of Mirabella V, now M5, who has added 25 feet to the yacht and has made a lot of changes. If I did, it would need to be a good price to make that decision.”
Follow these links for full coverage of Day 1 and Day 2 of ASF 2012.
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