Jeff Bezos bought a yacht that’s so big it has its own yacht, which is — for good or for ill — some next-level tech billionaire stuff. But it turns out that the last year has made a lot of very wealthy people think that traveling via a massive boat is a good idea. According to a new article by Michael Verdon at Robb Report, the charter market for superyachts is very hot right now.
What separates a superyacht from a regular yacht? That’s a subject of some debate. In 2019, Bill Springer attempted to quantify the matter at Forbes. It could be a matter of size, Springer noted; it also might come down to the layout of the boat or whether it had a permanent crew. “All superyachts are opulent enough to be equipped with an object that represents the epitome of luxury — a limousine tender — like the Onda 321L,” he wrote.
Robert Shepherd of yacht brokers Edmiston told Robb Report of an unprecedented boom in the yacht market. He also pointed out that the demand for yacht charters and the demand for yacht sales are interconnected.
“We have also seen an unprecedented amount of yacht sales, which has brought a new selection of yachts to the market for charter,” Shepherd said, and he compared the current level of demand to what the company had experienced in the early 2000s.
Exactly where all of these chartered superyachts are headed is still being shaped by the pandemic — a larger number than usual are staying in North America this summer, for instance. As for why this demand has been on the rise, Shepherd chalked it up to the wealthy getting wealthier during the pandemic — a phenomenon that’s been discussed a lot so far this year.
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