In this edition of The Superyacht Report: Owners Focus, we invited all those involved in supporting the Owner to offer their wisdom, experience and opinions. Fittingly, an incredible array of industry figureheads have contributed to this issue, published to coincide with the Monaco Yacht Show, the biggest event of the yachting calendar. With topics ranging from understanding a yacht’s true valuation through what the consequences of shipyard insolvency are to what owners who get it right are actually doing differently, every facet of the Owner experience is covered.

Insight from the varied worlds of brokerage, charter, management, surveying, law and recruitment, among others, makes apparent the deep repository of knowledge, expertise and dedication there is in the industry – all committed to making the Owner’s journey an informed and positive one.

Among our regular series of guest columns, the founder and CEO of Christie Yachts, Will Christie, explains why understanding a yacht’s true value is so important in minimising future depreciation. Although moving from serial charterer to first-time owner can seem a natural progression, Nick Gelevert, CEO at Boatsters Black, maintains that commissioning a large yacht demands a very different kind of experience. Meanwhile, Lisa Airasca, Head of Charter Management Europe at Fraser Yachts, wonders whether your yacht is asked for by name, exploring how the choices made by the owner are fundamental to shaping a memorable charter.

Recent developments at The Italian Sea Group demonstrate that shipyard failure is not a rare event in yacht building and most build contracts leave the owner badly placed should the worst happen. Jack Macnally from Foreland Marine argues for a standard new-build contract form with minimum security provisions, of the kind MYBA’s memorandum gave the brokerage market decades ago and a yacht-specific approach to tonnage measurement, none of it requiring new legislation.
                                                      
Royal Huisman’s futuristic AERA has just received a verified YETI score, marking the first concept to do so. But how do you approach a mission of this ambition without an owner in the control centre? Hermen de Jong, Royal Huisman’s head of innovation, explains that not having a client behind the build has afforded them a freedom not typically found at a shipyard, allowing them to be radical and explore what the next iteration of yacht design actually looks like.

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Estimating the value of a large yacht is “a very imprecise and subjective exercise”, because the market is illiquid and opaque and every hull is close to unique. Marine surveyor and consultant Andrew Williams explains why length is a poor proxy for value on any individual hull – and draws on a judicial specification for how to value a yacht.

A conversation with Scott Blum on Dutch Designs – Editor-in-Chief Martin H. Redmayne  bags an exclusive interview with the US tech entrepreneur and yacht owner about the inspiration behind Sea Rover.

In the feature Where Art Meets Yachting, by Societe Generale Private Banking, the interchange between yacht finance and art wealth management is explored via an interview with Massimo Perotti, Executive Chairman of Sanlorenzo, whose longstanding commitment to design, architecture and contemporary art has fostered a unique dialogue between yachting and artistic expression.

On a 50-metre acquisition held for 15 years, the residual value gap between a properly certified ice-class hull and a vessel that merely looks the part runs to approximately 16.5 million euros. Ben Abbott, founder of Utrinque Yachts, presents a model consistent with real transaction behaviour that spells out what the residual value gap between a certified expedition yacht and an explorer-styled look-alike actually costs.

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Earlier this year at Innorvation’26, a group of industry VIPs gathered in Bergen, Norway, to discuss the vital topics of energy and efficiency. They asked themselves the wide-open question ‘What if...?’  and the findings are presented here ...

The 60 to 90-metre segment has grown by more than 35 per cent since 2020, while the 80-metre-plus segment had a record sales year in 2025. At the top end of this market, everything is working – but the sub-40-metre segment, which represents 63 per cent of the operating fleet, tells a different story. Projects in this size range declined in 2025 and its share of the construction book has fallen to 40 per cent. Werner Puntschart explains that the market has been building the wrong product, for the wrong buyer, through the wrong model, for years ... however, that market has 21 million potential buyers and the gap is not actually a problem, it‘s an opportunity and will not stay empty indefinitely.

Finally – and very importantly – the emphasis is placed on crew stability. One of the biggest investments an owner makes isn’t the yacht itself, but the people who bring it to life. So how do we create an environment where people choose to stay? Laura Henighen of Hill Robinson offers an approach to solve the issue of high crew turnover, arguing that recruitment, employment and professional development aren’t separate investments competing for budget, they’re three parts of the same strategy – and when they work together, they create something every owner is looking for: stability.

This issue is packed full of insight and advice from expert commentators who have willingly shared their knowledge and enthusiasm with us to help create this, the 230th edition of The Superyacht Report. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we have working on it.

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