The Yacht Insider: 2008 Was a Good Year for SuperYachts
Camper & Nicholson's (Super)Yachting Index shows in detail why the economic downturn of late 2008 was not enough to override previous gains in the global market for yachts 80 feet and larger.
August 24, 2009
Though the number of orders withdrawn by buyers increased dramatically during the last quarter of 2008, the number of new listings and sold yachts increased as well.
You might scoff at the idea that 2008 was at all good for the large-yacht brokerage and charter industries, but according to the newly released (Super)Yachting Index from Camper & Nicholsons International, that is indeed the case.
This year’s Index is the second installment in what is fast becoming the most comprehensive annual analysis of the global market for yachts 80 feet and larger. And according to the data, the massive economic downturn that struck in September 2008 was not enough to override some of the gains that were seen right until the end of the summer Mediterranean season. In the charter market, rates for the largest yachts were up a staggering 40 percent in 2008 over 2007. In the brokerage arena, more yachts larger than 80 feet were sold in 2008 than the year before, even taking into account the fact that business collapsed at the end of the year.
Of course, given the global economy’s nosedive at the end of 2008, all the data in the new Index are not so sunny. While large-yacht sales were up in 2008 over 2007, for instance, the value of those sales was down—by a solid 20 percent.
The study’s author, Camper & Nicholsons Marketing Director Laurent Perignon, told me it’s too soon to tell what the 2008 data mean in the context of the world’s current economic woes. However, he did say that business picked up over the late 2008 numbers beginning this past March, and that Camper’s team hopes the end of this year will be exactly the opposite of the end of last year.
“We’re quite positive about the potential outlook,” he says, “but it’s not going to change overnight. Things will come back, at some stage, to the level of activity there has been in the past couple of years. Wealth does increase, after all, at the end of the day. But the progression will be slower on average. It’s probably going to take five to ten years to get back to the numbers we had in the past two years.”
Kim Kavin is an award-winning writer, editor and photographer who specializes in marine travel. She is the author of six books including Dream Cruises: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Vacations, is editor of the online yacht vacation magazine www.CharterWave.com.
