young yacht owners

How Younger Superyacht Owners are Changing the Industry

Lists of the UK’s youngest billionaires have always been full of people in their 40s or above, but newer reports reveal that in today’s tech-driven world, the more tech-savvy younger generation is beginning to catch up. Indeed, more young millennial millionaires are emerging in the UK and are quickly catching up to their older billionaire counterparts. HMRC data provided to Salisbury House Wealth reveals that the number of people under 30 who are earning more than £1 million per year has risen by an impressive 33%. This is largely due to the rise of successful startups in tech and social media.

That’s why it’s no surprise that millennials are slowly taking over the superyacht industry as well. Business Insider reports that superyacht owners are now 10 to 15 years younger than they were 20 years ago. Studies also reveal that the next 20 years will see the median age of superyacht owners decrease from the 45 to 55 age range to the 35 to 45 range. This new generation of superyacht owners is bringing something new to the industry.

It used to be that owners mainly invested in things like lavish indoor decor and trimmings when buying superyachts. The yachts would feature grand cabins, dining rooms, salons, and sometimes even offices.

But last year’s Monaco Yacht Show proved that the trends are changing.

The Monaco Yacht Show is a prestigious event for billionaires with yachts and is widely recognised as the biggest event of the year among yacht owners. Attracting clients from around the world, the event opens its doors to those looking to charter, build, or buy a superyacht. That’s why any trends featured in the show are likely to spread among yachting communities all over the world. And in 2018, it was found that younger owners tend to value innovation, sports, and adventure. In addition, the millennial billionaires of today seem to be against the idea of actually owning a yacht. Instead, they prefer chartering yachts. To them, yachting is simply a pastime.

That’s why yacht designers have turned to more gyms, spas, water sports, and open spaces for socialising. The demand for explorer yachts, or those capable of sailing long distances, was also found to be high among the younger market. Because of these trends, superyacht parties are now livelier than ever. To understand more about this, do read up on wilsonhalligan’s tips for the perfect superyacht party.

What’s more, there’s also a rise in environmentally-friendly technology — reflecting the values and beliefs of younger demographics. At 2017’s show, for instance, the Porsche GTT 115 was unveiled. The 35-metre hybrid yacht is able to use two energy sources, as it is equipped with diesel and electric propulsion systems.

This phenomenon fits into how the millennial generation is changing the hospitality sector as a whole. In fact, the sharing economy and experience economy were both cited by Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne’s Jean-Philippe Weisskopf and Philippe Masset as key hospitality trends that industry professionals must keep in mind. Today’s consumers are now more comfortable in using shared services like Airbnb and Uber, and are keen on personalised experiences and environmentally-friendly initiatives, no matter how rich they are.

This helps explain why the face of superyachting is changing dramatically. And in order for companies and crews to not only stay relevant but also thrive in the years to come, they must understand and adapt to market shifts. No longer will tried-and-tested tactics achieve desired results, as we’ve seen in so many businesses that relied on them and paid the price. The BBC’s SJ Velasquez explains that businesses that have joined the long list of industries, millennials have allegedly “killed” are simply those that failed to adapt. This is where extensive research in demographic and audience insights comes in. Ayima’s Jessica Neale points out the key importance of gaining audience insight, as well as understanding what the market currently enjoys and related to the most, as these will inform all the decisions a brand or business should make. From a yacht’s design and marketing, down to custom experiences and services, all these components of superyachts must be rooted in understanding customer trends and their own personal tastes. This is instead of expecting your target market to adhere to traditional practices. In turn, this will give businesses a competitive edge over others in capturing this new and exciting market of superyacht enthusiasts. No matter what the future holds for superyachts, rest assured that only the ones who can adapt and listen to what consumers want, will be able to tap into this new group of billionaire customers.

For more news and views on the superyacht industry, feel free to explore the wilsonhalligan site.

Exclusively written for wilsonhalligan.com by April Ford

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• Open Space, Eco-Friendly Tech: What a Rising Class of Millennial Superyacht Owners Is Looking For

Surveys predict that, 10 years from now, the average age of a superyacht buyer will be 35 to 40.

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Ten years from now, Millennials will have taken over the superyacht world. At least that’s the forecast by several experts who are seeing ages of yacht buyers trending younger.

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That trend is expected to continue, according to research from Italian yacht builder Rossinavi and the University of Monaco, with the average age of superyacht buyers decreasing 10 to 15 years over the next decade. That could make Millennials the primary buyers of superyachts.

The topic of younger buyers is a constant discussion in shipyard boardrooms and among designers looking to modify their designs to this changing market. It was also one of the topics at the recent Yachtmaster event in Key West, hosted by Benetti Yachts. Benetti sponsors Yachtmaster events twice a year (the European edition was in Budapest last month) to brief captains and other professionals on new trends in the superyacht industry.

“We have been doing this event for 24 years now,” Benetti Americas manager Nick Bischoff told Robb Report . “The intent is to continue to build relationships with influencers of our current and prospective owners. In the beginning that meant mostly captains, but it’s expanded to include surveyors and owners’ reps, too.” The ultimate goal, says Bischoff, is for participants not only to network, but “put their heads together to create an ever-improving onboard experience both for owners and crew.”

Many seminars focused on the concept of onboard lifestyle, which most brokers and shipyards see as a primary driver for purchasing a yacht. Benetti’s head of product, Sebastiano Vida, also spoke about how lifestyle influences new designs in the yachts.

But Jason Dunbar, a broker and appraisal surveyor with Vessel Value Survey, recommended tough love to the brokers. His discussion about managing expectations for newbie owners included advice about being “realistic” with owners who are flush with cash, but might be new to the superyacht world. If an owner wants a brand-new 120-footer with a crew of six, but has a budget of $8 million, the broker is the one who needs to break the bad news. “A good broker has to tell people ‘Listen, that’s just not going to happen,’” says Dunbar. “That will save a lot of headaches down the road and will hopefully keep a client in boating for the long term.”

A new buyer is often coming off a one-week charter that was magical: perfect weather, a well-oiled boat, and a crew looking forward to a little R&R after hustling all week for the charter guests. “It’s relatively easy to make things work like that one week at a time,” says Dunbar. “But a new owner who wants to use their boat for 10, 15, or 30 weeks, that’s a totally different thing. You may have to tell them they need to hire two crews and rotate them—which will be news to them.” He said that overworking the crew will “burn through humans.” The crew will be miserable, he says, which will make the boat not live up to the owners’ expectations. “The next thing you know these new owners will be long gone from yachting.”

Fraser Yachts CEO Anders Kurtén sees the new buyers as a boon for design creativity in an old-school industry. “It starts with a piece of paper,” he says. “We sit down and start designing these boats for younger clients and we see similar trends. Basically they all want to live their shore-based lives on a yacht.”

The segmented and often claustrophobic interiors of many current superyacht designs, says Dirand, just doesn’t float with the new generation. “Young owners’ preferences are honed by hospitality and a knowledge of architectural trends,” he says.

Because of that, wellness centers have become focal points of design. As moguls like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have made clear as of late, having six-pack abs in middle age is the new Lamborghini. These new owners expect their boats to be designed with beach clubs with gyms, saunas, massage areas that allow owners and guests to work out or relax, amidst warm sun rays and luscious sea breezes.

Kurtén also pointed to green tech as key for the new generation of clients. “We’ve hit a point where a 150-foot sailboat can go across the Atlantic without burning a drop of fuel. And motoryachts can function on battery-only mode, at least when they are close to port,” he says. “That’s important to these new clients—they want to be green. A few years ago that was something you said at a cocktail party, but today it’s a reality for a lot of buyers.”

Peter Selivanoff, senior yacht service manager for Fraser, also spoke about how owners are seeking highly specialized crews who can perform multiple functions across the yacht.

Navigating these new realities is an important part for the industry to future-proof itself in the competitive realm of ultra-luxury products. This is a place where youth may not spring eternal but, at least for now, it reigns supreme.

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We are going to see a time when the traditional idea of yacht ownership starts to follow the same path as car sharing services; more convenient than a traditional taxi, and a real alternative to owning a car. The same principle will easily apply to luxury yachts. Imagine a global, technology-driven service that delivers the yacht you want, at the location you want, at the time you want, and can arrange a private jet to fly you there.

According to the study, millennials are going to do things differently and the product will have to be re-packaged, but the yachts will not change that much and the ownership concept will not go away anytime soon. They will want their own product like the rest of us. Things change, but human nature stays the same.

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By SuperyachtNews 24 Nov 2021

The quintessential young owner

Does the data back up our assumptions about younger owners with support vessels.

In order to present its idealised view of the present and the future, the superyacht market often relies on a relatively fixed set of assumptions. In recent years, much has been said about evolving buyer values and demands, especially where this relates to young (relatively speaking), US-based tech entrepreneurs and how they are choosing to use their superyachts. In order to ascertain how accurate the market’s assumptions are, The Superyacht Agency has analysed the migratory and fleet data of a 40-50-year-old US-based tech billionaire that owns three superyachts, including a Damen Yachting Support Vessel, to explore whether or not usage patterns have genuinely changed to the extent that the industry professes.

Firstly, it would be useful to outline some of the assumptions that the industry makes about such owners. If the rhetoric is to be believed, owners that fit the description of the owner analysed herein are typically expected to be more adventurous than the average owner and far more inclined to add sustainable elements to their build projects. Much also has been discussed about the many and varied benefits of support vessels and how they enable owners to get off the beaten track and explore the world’s more rarefied locations with the benefit of additional toys and perspectives.

For context, the owner analysed within this article owns a 70-80m Nobiskrug, a 50-60m Damen Yachting Yacht Support and a 90-100m Feadship. The limited migration data available for the latter two projects reflect the vessels’ delivery dates, the Nobiskrug is occasionally offered for charter in the Caribbean.

The migratory image above provides a snapshot of activity across the three vessels owned by the same owner. What is clear from the outset is that in reality the owner, regardless of the fact that they own multiple vessels and a support yacht, has barely diverged from the industry’s tried and tested stomping grounds. Indeed, arguably the most adventurous locations visited by the owner have been New England, the Maldives and Dubai, which are hardly new to the superyachting ecosystem.

The three graphs highlight the percentage of time that each superyacht has spent in a region whilst cruising. Unsurprisingly, and contrary to what certain factions of the market would have us believe, the vast majority of the time spent by all the vessels has been either in the Mediterranean or in the Caribbean. Due to the Feadship having been delivered in 2020, a large portion of time was spent in Northern Europe, however, when cruising became available, it headed straight to the Caribbean.

These observations in and of themselves are by no means damning, it just shows that this particular owner’s favourite locations happen to be some of the more obvious superyacht haunts. However, it does suggest that the marketing rhetoric that is being pushed out by the industry at large is slightly misrepresenting the operational reality for most contemporary owners and the extent of the 'adventurous spirit', especially where support vessels are concerned. The Damen Yachting Yacht Support is an absolute workhorse and it is capable of tackling almost any environment, and yet this one has only been used in the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

The Superyacht Agency can provide countless case studies of multiple yacht owners and, while some do diverge from the typical milk run, unfortunately, the vast majority continue to stick to the status quo, and the same is true of single superyacht owners. The below migratory map shows the usage profile for the owner of both a 50-60m Feadship and 30-40m Benetti. In this instance the owner doesn’t even adventure as far as Dubai or the Maldives, sticking rigidly to the milk run.

As stated previously, how owners choose to use their vessels is of no real consequence, however, it does highlight that the superyacht industry is perhaps failing in terms of its ability to highlight and sell into the full breadth of available superyacht experiences. There are, of course, outliers, vessels that travel to weird and wonderful places around the world, but these vessels are in such a small minority that they should not be spoken of in terms of trends. Nevertheless, these vessels and far-flung destinations make up for an overlarge portion of marketing materials and communications.

The exploration concept has been proved, but the data suggests that most owners are content to stick to the milk run, begging the question, is the market selling into an experience that most owners and guests simply aren’t that interested in? It should further be noted that none of the propulsion systems onboard our case study’s vessels are hybrid. 

The above case study is just a small snapshot of The Superyacht Agency’s capabilities. By overlaying various data sets, The Superyacht Agency is able to create accurate pictures of various industry sectors. To find out more about the full suite of services available from The Superyacht Agency , including its rapidly growing consultancy offering, click here .

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How can the industry encourage owners and guests to use superyachts to their fullest extent?.

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