“We were right to specialize in this area of practice,” says Bob Allen, chairman and name partner of Robert Allen Law, one of the world’s leading firms focusing on the yacht industry.
With offices in Palm Beach and Miami, Allen’s firm employs 20 attorneys who all address legal issues pertaining to private luxury craft.
Even as conflict and economic uncertainty consume much of the world, the yacht business is booming. In 2023, according to Grand View Research, it was a $9.39 billion global industry.
Emergen Research estimates that figure will more than double by 2032, reaching over $21 billion worldwide as the new and surging fortunes of the global superrich pour into leisure activities.
Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, new communications technologies have made long-distance sailing compatible with virtually any task, from running Fortune 500 companies to educating children to following the NFL.
While sailing the Croatian coast in June, I had no problem tuning in late at night to watch 2024’s first presidential debate, which set in motion the process leading to Joe Biden’s decision to quit his reelection campaign and then e-mailing impressions of it thousands of miles away.
Monte Carlo is the apt location for the world’s largest display of yachts. The Monaco Yacht Show is held annually toward the end of September, though other gatherings in Cannes, Dubai, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and a small number of other destinations are also worth the trip.
Now that Covid is over, the parties are back, with owners, brokers, PR types, and even your humble correspondent seizing onto invitations to pop champagne bottles while exploring the latest innovations.
Monaco’s nightlife is also afloat in the party scene, with lively crowds at La Môme, Buddha Bar, and Twiga pulsating with gossip about industry news, style trends, and billionaire whims.
Benetti, a renowned Italian builder that seamlessly builds its yachts’ hulls and designs their interiors in-house, was well represented, with a press briefing and dinner reception at the classic Hermitage Hotel.
Calex, a custom-built vessel that Benetti launched in 2022, can be yours for a week’s charter at $750,000 euros in season. Food and drink are not included, but its crew of 17 – including a masseuse and scuba dive master – are.
So are its twin 1800 horsepower engines, which propel the 219-foot superyacht at a maximum speed of 30 knots (though its listed 12-knot cruising speed might be more enjoyable).
Boats like Calex can run up to $90 million to buy, but if your budget is tighter, consider Northrop and Johnson’s sleek 121-foot Blue Angel, for sale for just $14 million. Its seven-person crew may not offer the same range of services, but none of the eight guests who can sail aboard is likely to be disappointed.
If you have a bigger party, Gulf Craft Group’s similar-sized Majesty 120, launched last year, is up for sale for just a bit more, at about $20 million. Capable of making 20 knots, its unique design maximizes space to make its 12 guests (the maximum private yacht capacity) feel at home on the high seas.
Comfort seems to be taking pride of place in the industry this year, edging out past discussion of “sustainability,” a buzzword (and buzzkill) that sounds like an answer to a shrill scolding by Elizabeth Warren, who has said that her national wealth tax plan would include a levy on yachts and other luxury possessions as well as mere liquid assets.
While you might not find the Massachusetts senator sailing on a superyacht any time soon, such concerns did not stop Barack and Michelle Obama, who in 2017 were spotted on David Geffen’s 452-foot, 82-room Rising Sun, enjoying a spin around French Polynesia with fellow liberal icons Oprah and Bruce Springsteen.
Builders are careful to respect environmental standards and international conservation laws, but the newer boats feature state-of-the-art galleys, plush furniture that would not be out of place in a Palm Beach drawing room, and other creature comforts, like pop-up widescreen television screens and kids’ rooms decorated on a pirate theme.
The expense is high. As the industry grows, however, the wealth is spread around. According to the Superyacht Builders Association, the industry employs at least 250,000 people worldwide in a wide variety of roles.
Yacht captains can earn up to $150,000 per year plus gratuity, while some deckhands are paid more than early career university professors at many American institutions.
That’s in addition to all the indirect employment the industry generates in port and on land, as the yachting crowd descends in search of goods and services.
“Put simply,” the Association’s website states, “building, buying and operating superyachts supports jobs.”
“Without the rich,” Bob Allen tells me over lunch at La Môme, “everyone would be poor.”
_______________
Paul du Quenoy is President of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.