Giga Yacht vs Mini-Cruise Ship

Jumping back to this question;

To start with I think the order-book is not depending so much on currency fluctuations eventhough there are segments of the market that are more sensitive than others. The mega-rich will continue to build where they get the best product, not the cheapest.

But as with all industries I think, or hope, that design will be increasingly important. The car industry has always been aware of this and now you see how the american producers are trapping up the "design war".

Perhaps I shouldn´t say this, but there is still a long way to go before yachts are what they could be in terms of purposeful AND appealing design. It´s still too many who just copy trends, without really having the insight in use or life onboard yachts. Which leaves a big window for improvements but also a need of better awareness among media and yachtbrokers, who basically are supporting this industry as it generates their income.

So, maybe you are right, money is always the bottom line...

A very interesting discussion to follow; although - top yachts and top horses and top real estate will always have a high resale value, in most cases over their original value. But that counts only for the top pieces, as I believe.

To get a deliveryslot from a top ten yard, will take a few years and not many will or can wait that long. If you are looking in the smaller segment, the situation is different and negotiations between customer and yard are on a different level.

In this segment of yachtbuilding is a lot of competition and a prospect client may easily tempted to go to another yard if they are not satisfied by the first yard of their choice. There are many designers in this level of the market with attractive designs and there is plenty choice available. Leadtimes to preparation are shorter, it is easier to find sub-contractors that are suitable for the job, engineering is less complex and that all is just contrary to superyacht building that requires very long preparation prior to the laying of the keel. In this top-level of yachtbuilding it is hardly thinkable that a flagceremony is annulled, or flatly refused.

Even in topnotch building, a yard, and even one of the most famous, can face unexpected difficulties as had recently happened to a yard with the delivery of a very large yacht.
In such a case, a shipyard can go down, so to speak. It is close to impossible to pre-calculate the buildingcosts of such a yacht and only a very few will ever learn of what that particular yacht have costed. Not even at the flag ceremony the yard will precisely know what the exact costs were, before they made their final calculation, some time after the original delivery to the client.

After-work, things to be changed, not functionning aparatus may fill a small book.

You can nicely discuss economics, but for the smaller yachtbuilders whose max is around 45 meters, the flux of the dollar is definately important. As are other economic situations.
I have that experienced a few times and I have therefore a strong dislike for this whole battling about getting the order yes or no, the more when a prospect customer frankly tells you who your competitor is.

If you belong to the sub-top you have not the privileges of the bigger yards who do not have that heavy competition, better said, of course they do compete between each other but mostly a client on that level has quite often already decided to which yard to go for his/hers/their commission.

Another fact that good yachts, well known in the industry fetch good prices is the quality of building. And that counts for any yacht.
So there are real gems, and there are also "other situations".

Again, this is a very nice discussion, but the real performance has to be done by the yard, where everything grows tense as a steelwire under its max stress when the launching date arrives.

I have twice experienced a refusal, in one case the yacht was too high to pass a certain bridge, in another case due to malpractice of the particular yard.

These are the other sides of yachtbuilding.

Oh yes, before I forget: I hope you will never have royalty as a prospective client.
(If this sentence is not passable moderator, then remove it)

Fractional Ownership

Newbie:

I've been following your thread closely and agree with almost everything that's been said. Your comments about the fractional ownership industry are true, however my company seems to have a pretty good business model and handle on this emerging industry.

We focus on management first and foremost. That is the real key to the whole industry working and we're really the only company that specializes in yachts that have more than one owner.

If you'd like more information, visit our website for more information or please contact me directly: MonocleYachts.com
Marty@MonocleYachts.com

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