The Superyacht Report 228: New Build Focus - Out Now

Order books may be healthy, but building remains an unforgiving business. Behind the confidence of full sheds and long lead times lies a market defined by consolidation, scarcity and the pressure to deliver consistently.

In this edition of The Superyacht Report: New Build Focus, we dissect shipyard performance data, sit down with chief executives, present new academic findings on the Bayesian disaster, challenge the industry’s approach to cybersecurity and crew retention and ask whether the sector’s instinct for secrecy is holding it back.

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As one of our core features, to get an earnest gauge of what is actually happening in the sheds, the investments being made and the predictions shaping strategic decisions, we spoke with the chief executives of some of the market’s top-performing shipyards for a CEO market forecast.

Alongside a deep dive into our recent Crew Conundrum: Training & Retention Report, Superyacht Intelligence brings you the True State of the Market Report. Looking below the waterline, it traces how the market has grown, evolved, shifted and stabilised over two and a half decades.

In this compact report, track the rise and retreat of key players, the fragility of newer entrants, the shipyard casualties recorded worldwide and the decisive dominancehipyard performance data, CEO forecasts, Bayesian findings, cybersecurity, crew retention and the case for building with purpose feature in the latest TSR of certain countries and groups, as measured by build capacity and delivery consistency.

We also sit down with Fraser CEO Anders Kurtén to discuss his transition from shipyard to brokerage, the barometers of the boating business and why trust is the most valuable form of currency. Independent yacht advisor Patric Daccache takes a more provocative line on the buying process itself, arguing that if the experience feels exciting, something may already be going wrong.

World-leading stability expert Andy King presents findings from the academic study by Gefaell Chamochin and Juan Manuel López on the Bayesian disaster. While we await the full MAIB report, King compares its findings with those of the investigation and reveals how rapidly consequences unfold once stability is lost. Separately, Editor-in-Chief Martin H. Redmayne provides a commentary on the changing fortunes at Perini Navi.

In two complementary articles, Andy Brennan explores the case for human-centred design from the concept stage, arguing that the most consequential decisions in superyacht safety are not technical but human, and examines how evolving helicopter expectations are reshaping yacht design, crew readiness and global cruising. Ronan McMahon offers the pilot’s perspective, assessing how to future-proof a yacht’s aviation capability while balancing safety and design integrity.

Cybersecurity is a real-world concern for superyachts and this issue makes the case from both the practical and regulatory sides. Ernesto Esposito of Omniaccess sets out the key factors builders and owners should consider to safeguard vessels from cyber attack, with guidance on regulations, due diligence and design-stage network planning.  Matt Roberts of Anchorpoint argues that the industry’s regulatory framework has lacked teeth and that a culture built on confidentiality and discretion has left the sector poorly equipped to treat digital security with the seriousness it demands.

Richard Selby, CEO of British Superyacht, calls for a collaborative effort between government and the private sector to modernise Britain’s superyacht infrastructure and ensure the domestic supply chain keeps pace with the growing global fleet. Meanwhile, consultant and project management expert Nicola Nicolai makes the case that professional oversight from owners’ representatives and project managers is not a luxury but a necessity and that integrating them from the earliest stages of a build protects the owner’s investment.

Importantly, the new executive directors of SYBAss and WRF both feature in this edition. Robert van Tol breaks down the facts and figures on the economic significance of new-build activity and its contribution to the global economy, while Leah Werner sets out her vision for raising environmental performance standards with clear metrics, credible benchmarks and alignment across all stakeholders.

Speaking with the International SeaKeepers Society and FarSounder, we also ask what it means to build and operate with genuine purpose, as we develop our oceanographic science and philanthropic series. And finally, in his Stern Words column,  News Editor Conor Feasey takes a look at the industry’s instinctive resistance to sharing information and asks whether a market that guards its data and treats transparency as a concession of weakness is really serving its own interests. 

We hope you enjoy the 228th edition of The Superyacht Report.  

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