It has been an enlightening – and frightening – experience curating a report with the market projections of the superyacht industry’s major players. In fact, as you will find in our prestigious Monaco Yacht Show (MYS) issue (189) this year, which is available now to download (here) for our subscribers, a single report struggles to accommodate such a wealth of market commentary.

What direction is the superyacht market heading in? And how will it look by 2022?

These are key questions we put to the industry’s most revered principals. Only yesterday, I had a conference call with the CEO and COO of a major brokerage firm to discuss the programme for The Superyacht Forum in November, and they remarked on the importance of the discussions at the forum for putting data into context; supporting it with intelligent, interesting, and also subjective, observations from top industry players.

One cannot underestimate the importance of joining market discussions, sharing ideas and learning from one another, as a means of comprehending the market’s trajectory. The premise of our MYS issue this year is very much aligned with this concept: we have created a ‘Power Index’ of company principals in the new build, refit, brokerage, marina, OEM, subcontractor, yacht management and professional services sectors – all of whom have their say on the outlook of the market.

But, the contributions of powerful industry personnel in this report does not stop there – our fitting ‘Industrialists’ in this issue are the amiable cousins from Feadship, Henk and Tom de Vries, who, in an interview by William Mathieson, discuss the intricacies of the new build market and the changing ownership paradigm. 

Later in this report, Rory Jackson puts the MYS itself under the microscope to reveal which yards really maximise their presence on the docks of the prevailing ‘show season’ event, and how it has fared through a period of economic ups and downs. He also speaks to futurist, Matthew Griffin, in the Technology section, about sustainable technologies capable of having a dramatic effect on energy consumption on board.

On the subject of tech, Charlotte Thomas considers whether stabilisation has, perhaps, reached a plateau, or if there are in fact, future innovations in hardware, control algorithms and motion-control implementation that can drive it one step further.

In the Owner section, Rachel Rowney speaks to Ian Malouf, the owner of the 54m motoryacht, Mischief. They discuss Malouf’s brainchild, Ahoy Club, a recent start-up that bids to take the charter market by the scruff of the neck, improving the user experience and bringing the market into line with tech-savvy, futurist clientele.

For this one-off issue, we also profile seven superyacht owners, who have made a significant footprint in our history as investors. A key question for them is, are they going to be able to protect their investments? And where, in their eyes, are the opportunities for the market?

All in all, there is a lot to digest in this issue, and we hope it sends the troops of the superyacht world into the Monaco Yacht Show informed and ready to make the most of the forthcoming show season.

Join us at The Superyacht Forum in November for inspiring conversations relating to the direction of the market, and the minutiae of 'the perfect customer journey'. To register for a ticket, click here.

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