A Superyacht is essentially a very expensive, privately owned yacht which is professionally crew. We need to know what is superyacht?
They known as luxury yachts or megayachts and now you get the giga yacht. They find on every ocean and sea all over the world but they concentrate in some parts more than others.
A superyacht is the same thing as a mega-yacht but is NOT the same as a cruise liner. The largest Superyacht in the world is the Dubai at 160 meters but she private owned. The largest privately owned yacht is the Eclipse at 147 meters (owned by, rumor has it. Roman Abramovich) but she may well soon eclipse (!) by the mysterious Sunflower or even Crystal Ball.
With an increasing demand for bigger, better, smarter yachts. More and more superyachts have been built since the late 80’s . There is an ongoing crew shortage which is a major problem
After 9/11 things cooled for a little while and then it seem that caution threw to the wind by rich. An attitude of ‘if my days are numbered I will make them count’ seems to be the prevailing one. Cheque books are out and builders yards have full order books.
Application of Yacht
With the increased demand for superyachts. There have been an increase custom boat-building yards and there are some key players in boat building at the moment. Most of the top names are Blohm + Voss, Lurssen, Pershing, Wally, Feadship, Azimut-Bennetti. And Abeking & Rasmussen, Codecasa, Baglietto, Royal Huisman Shipyard, C Van Lenten Zonen BV, to name but a few.
Some yachts use exclusively by their private owners, many Arab owned yachts tend to reserve exclusively for their owners private . Many yachts operate all year round as charter businesses, others use for both.
Charter fees vary from tens of thousands of dollars a week to getting on to a million dollars a week. This covers the wages of the crew, but no fuel, food and drink, or other expenses. It also doesn’t include tips which can be 10% to 15% of the charter fee.
Yachts from 23 meters (75 feet) and up qualify for design awards from the Superyacht Society. But at the bottom end of that scale yachts will not necessarily be crewed . And many set the minimum length for a superyacht considerably higher. In fact, gone are the days when a yacht under 35 meters considere super.
From around 30 meters and up yachts are almost always crewed with a full-time crew. Dropping to skeleton crew over winters and quiet periods.
A 45 to 50-meter yacht will always have a full-time crew. And usually has three decks with cabins for 12 guests and for a crew of around 12 to 14.
Superyachts Cost
Superyachts cost anything from one or two million up to tens of millions of dollars . And now you are getting to the stage where you are looking at a couple of 100 million… for a new build. Superyachts are not correct. It should written as one word as in superyachts.
A superyacht can be a sailing yacht as well as motor yacht, classic or ultramodern, displacement or fast planning. There aren’t as many sailing superyachts as motor yachts. Although rare some motor yachts call powerboats.
You can find these yachts all over the world . But they have a tendency to travel with their main cruising grounds being in 10% of the world’s oceans. They also tend to follow similar migrational routes year in, year out. Autumns and springs will find them flocking to the favored cruising grounds.
The crew working on these yachts live onboard, in crew quarters which can be luxurious or pretty crummy. They travel with the yacht most of the time, on occasions like a crossing. Sometimes the interior crew allowed ‘off’ the boat and they can fly the crossing . And have some well earned time off. Sometimes the boss will fly the chef and steward/ess to his home. Where they will aske to look after himself and his guests. The crew usually extremely well paid and cared for.
Some of these mega yachts are available for charter . These fees are anything from around $40,000 a week to half a million. Yes, a week.The crew may expect to get gratuities/tips which are about 10 to 15% of the charter fee. Tips usually divide fairly between the crew.
