You Think Houses Are a Slow Sell? Try a Yacht

During booming times, yacht enthusiasts would order a new dream boat and keep their old one for the two or three years the builder needed to complete the new boat. Then, they would quickly sell the older yacht to impatient new millionaires and billionaires eager for their requisite status symbols.
But that equation changed with the financial crisis two years ago and took the super yacht market down with it.
The industry has picked up a bit in recent months, although most buyers remain on the sidelines. “The inquiry level is picking up,” said William S. Smith III, vice president of Trinity, the largest custom yacht builder in the United States. “And there is more activity in the used-boat market. But there is still a lot of inventory, and as long as that is the case, people are keeping their hands in their pockets.”
Fear is part of the problem. The wealthy are holding on to their money, and even speculators who built yachts, confident that they could find willing buyers among the new rich, are largely on the sidelines.
The Chinese have not come into the market, although brokers are hoping that the ultimate status symbol will catch their attention. “It is a big question mark whether the Chinese will embrace yachting,” said Bob McKeage, a yacht broker in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “So far it is mostly Hong Kong Chinese, not mainland people.” It remains a question mark because forecasting cultural appetites for yachts is not simple. He noted, for example, that there was vast wealth in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, but only the Venezuelans were avid yacht buyers.
While rank speculation may be gone from the yacht market, there are still billionaires who like to sail the seven seas and are willing to pay for that pleasure.
Some yacht brokers say that Americans are holding back now largely because they fear being viewed as profligate when many people have lost jobs, and that they will soon return.
For the moment, it is just as easy to charter as to buy. Chartering has come back faster than the business of buying boats, or, as Mr. Maclean put it, “Would you buy a house right now?” alluding to the uncertainties in that market. Shannon Webster, a yacht broker based in Fort Lauderdale, said her business this winter had been good. “It is not tremendous, but it is up quite a bit from last year,” she said. “My price points are about $200,000 a week. That is for a boat that sleeps 12 people and has 11 in crew. It is 164 feet.” But she added that yacht owners were more willing to negotiate.
Certainly $200,000 a week is only for the very rich. But in comparison to a $20 million yacht, it is, some might say, a bargain. After choosing which boat to charter, your local boat shipping company will transport it to you at a decently low price. Saving money is now everybody’s current goal.