The 2008 Global Order Book
The Editors of ShowBoats International
12/01/2007

The past decade has been a turbulent one, full of ups and downs for the world’s yachtbuilding nations. We’ve witnessed the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese. We’ve seen the adoptiovn of the euro by much of the European continent. We’ve lived through a spate of natural disasters, including killer hurricanes and a devastating tsunami. We’ve seen a rise in international terrorism, symbolized by the Sept. 11 attacks, and the Iraq War continues. But according to the results of ShowBoats International’s 2008 Global Order Book, the number of new orders for large luxury yachts has risen steadily (with just one hiccup) throughout the entire decade. The Superyacht Century truly has arrived.

The 2008 Global Order Book reveals that as of September 1, 2007, approximately 916 new yachts measuring 24.38 meters (80 feet) and longer currently are in build or are scheduled for construction at shipyards throughout the world. That’s a 17.9 percent increase over last year’s tally of 777 yachts, and nearly four times the 241 orders we reported in 1997, when ShowBoats first added yachts from 80 to 89 feet to our annual megayacht survey. If you were to line up these new yacht orders bow to stern, they would stretch for 34.6 kilometers (21.5 miles). (Click image to enlarge)

The Global Order Book yacht listings are compiled through surveying shipyards and consulting other yachting industry sources around the world. This year’s research proved even more challenging than previous efforts due to an apparent trend toward more yacht owners binding builders with confidentiality agreements. As a result, several key builders may have given us partial listings. Feadship is one example. Sources say the Dutch powerhouse is building twice as many yachts as it will admit to in print.

"Out of respect for the privacy and confidentiality of our clients, our list only shows some of the yachts under construction at Feadship," said François van Well, director and CEO of Feadship America. (Click image to enlarge)

Other shipyards hinted at the total length of yachts on order, but they provided no details about individual projects, forcing us to turn to other sources for information. For this reason, we cannot guarantee our results are comprehensive, but the editors of ShowBoats believe that the 2008 Global Order Book remains an authoritative and invaluable economic snapshot of today’s luxury yacht industry.

One thing is incontrovertible: Not only are there more new large yacht orders than ever this year, but the yachts themselves are getting bigger. The 2008 Global Order Book shows orders for 23 yachts in the 76.2-plus-meter (250-plus-foot) category, a 27.8 percent increase over 2007. Three of these yachts are over 100 meters (328 feet) long, with top yacht honors going to 160-meter (525-foot) Hull No. 978 being built by the ThyssenKrupp shipyard group in Germany. All details of this project are confidential, but if she remains this length when launched, she will be equal in overall length to the reigning largest state yacht in the world, Dubai. If she goes into private ownership, she will beat the world’s largest privately owned yacht, 139.3-meter (457-foot) Al Salamah, by a considerable margin. Also noteworthy is the 120-meter (394-foot) ThyssenKrupp Hull No. 970, rumored to be Safari, the next yacht in build for Russian serial superyacht owner Roman Abramovich. And the largest yacht to be built in the United States since the early twentieth century, an 85-meter (280-foot) project designed by Tim Heywood, is scheduled to be launched by Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 2008. (Click image to enlarge)

One of the biggest revelations in this year’s Global Order Book is the large jump in orders in the 61- to 76-meter (200- to 249-foot) yacht segment. Our results show 47 projects in this size range, which is a 67.9 percent increase over the 28 yachts we reported in 2007. With yachts in this exclusive category costing upward of a million U.S. dollars per meter to build, this is a strong indicator of the amount of affluence in the world today. Until now, the world’s superyacht owners have been a fairly small and intimate fraternity. (Click image to enlarge)

"A lot of these buyers who own a toy that costs them two million euros a year, they know each other," said Wim Koersvelt, director of Dutch builder Icon Yachts, a new player in the 60-plus-meter yacht segment.

View the complete 2008 Global Order Book here. Icon will deliver its first custom 62.5-meter (203-foot), steel-hulled motor yacht in 2008, and two more 62.5-meter projects are already in the pipeline. A 37-year yachting industry veteran, Koersvelt is part of the superyacht owners’ inner circle, but he believes there is room to expand the market beyond this elite group by offering a top-quality product that reflects ultra-efficient design and engineering concepts.

"If you look at affluence in general, at the number of people who can afford a yacht at that level in the world, only four percent of them own a yacht, according to the statistics I have seen," Koersvelt said. (Click image to enlarge)

"The guy who buys our type of boat isn’t affected by the economy," said Felix Sabates Jr., chairman of Trinity Yachts, the leading American megayacht builder.

Trinity currently has 19 new projects on order, including a 74-meter (242-foot) project called New Horizon, scheduled for delivery in early 2011. Sabates attributes the rise in LOA, in part, to economies of scale. "It takes as long to build a 160-footer as a 140-footer," he said, pointing out that the two yachts require nearly the same amount of wiring, electronics and other equipment.

Another incentive for affluent owners to go up in size is the excellent resale market for custom yachts with a proven pedigree. According to Sabates, Trinity owners regularly get 10 to 25 percent more than their original purchase price when they resell their yacht. Even the shipyard’s first hull, 115-foot M/Y Leda, recently sold for the same price she commanded on delivery in 1990. (Click image to enlarge)

While the upper end of the luxury yacht market is experiencing meteoric growth, there are industry-wide fears that sales for the smaller luxury yachts, particularly the 24.4- to 27.1-meter (80- to 89-foot) range, may soften in the wake of the current downturn in the recreational sportboat market.

Top: Sanlorenzo 40 Alloy. Bottom: Sunreef 102. (Click images to enlarge)

"The smaller boats under fifty feet are not selling well," reports Robert Braithwaite, managing director of Sunseeker International in England.

The results of the 2008 Global Order Book survey actually found a 22 percent increase in yacht orders since 2007 in this range. The next segment up, the 27.4 to 30.2 meter (90- to 99-foot) range, also showed an increase in orders from 2007, but at 4.5 percent, it was the smallest annual gain across all categories.

Top: Fincantieri 134. Bottom: Feadship SL39. (Click images to enlarge)

Even though the lower end of the market may be holding steady for the moment, it’s clear that the real growth in the yachting industry is in the larger superyacht segments. Even traditional production-boat builders are gearing up to accommodate the increased demand. Sunseeker, the leading yachtbuilder in the United Kingdom, is a prime example. Last January, the shipyard, which is known for its sleek, high-performance production yachts, launched its first semi-custom tri-deck motor yacht, the 37-meter project called The Snapper. The yacht was so successful that four additional 37-meters are listed in Sunseeker’s current order book."Our average size is now sixty feet, when ten years ago, a sixty-footer was the biggest boat we built," Braithwaite said. "It just shows how the world has moved."

Top: Alloy Kokomo III. Bottom: Benetti Annaeva. (Click images to enlarge)

Managing a broad portfolio of yacht types and sizes is a lesson not lost on Paolo Vitelli, president of Italian yachtbuilding conglomerate Azimut-Benetti. His company continues to be the world’s leading large luxury yachtbuilder—a position it has held since ShowBoats’ 1999 Global Order Book was published nearly a decade ago. This year, Azimut-Benetti increased its order book build total by just five projects compared to 2007, but saw an 8.8 percent increase in the total length of its projects.

Vitelli attributed his group’s success to three factors. "First, we cover as many segments as possible of the megayacht world," he said. "Second, we are becoming more and more international." For example, he reported having delivered the largest yacht ever sold to a Chinese national at 31 meters. "Third is to always be at the top in innovation," he continued. "We are designing the biggest yacht ever built in GRP." The 165-footer, Hull No. BV101, is in the works at Benetti. The delivery date has yet to be announced.

Top: Wally Essence. Bottom: Horizon 107. (Click images to enlarge)

Spurred by a spirit of innovation, a strong shipbuilding tradition and a trendsetting sense of style, Italy remains the most prolific yachtbuilding country in the world, with four times as many yachts on its shipyards’ collective order books as its largest competitor nation, the United States. The dominant country in the industry since 2001, Italy reports 427 yacht orders this year, a 23 percent gain since 2007. However, several other nations made significant jumps this year as well. Australia returned to the Global Order Book list of Top 10 Builder Nations in the No. 8 spot after a three-year absence. Turkey tripled both its new yacht orders and the new-yacht footage in build since 2007, rising from ninth to seventh place.

Taiwan’s new yacht orders increased more than 60 percent since 2007. "The Asian yachtbuilding market is booming," said John Lu, president of Taiwan’s leading megayacht builder, Horizon Yachts. But he said he hasn’t felt the competition yet. "The newcomers are focused on cheaper yachtbuilding, so the market is naturally differentiated."

Top: Horizon Miss Rose. Photograph courtesy of Horizon Group. Bottom: Wally 50m. (Click images to enlarge)

Horizon, for its part, has made a substantial investment in its staff, employing and educating more than 1,100 workers, most of whom have benefited from the country’s strong apprentice tradition. The company also has 10 in-house designers with master’s degrees in naval architecture.

"Horizon has reached its position in the megayacht market today by spending ten years striving to reach it, step by step," Lu said. In this, his company mirrors the global luxury yacht market, which has spent the past decade striving toward higher quality and finding innovative ways to accommodate ever-increasing demand. It’s evident in the robust listings of the ShowBoats International 2008 Global Order Book that their effort hasn’t been in vain.The Rules
The Global Order Book was established in 1992 by the editors of ShowBoats International with the purpose of providing a body of data, compiled annually in a systematic fashion, to show the scope of economic activity within the international large luxury yacht community. Each year, we present a list of yachts 24.38 meters (80 feet) and longer on order at shipyards throughout the world as of September 1.

Top: Icon 62. Bottom: Lürssen Project Bermuda. (Click images to enlarge)

Every effort is made by the editors to ensure that the data is comprehensive and accurate. We attempt to survey all the shipyards currently building yachts in the specified size range. Every shipyard receives the same list of rules and, whenever possible, shipyard data is cross-referenced with other industry sources.

Qualifications for a yacht to be included in the 2008 Global Order Book:

• A project must be 24.38 meters (80 feet) or longer, power or sail, to be eligible.

• A project must have been signed and with a minimum 10 percent deposit received by the shipyard on or about September 1, 2007, to be included.

• Speculative ("on spec") construction may be listed, but only if actual construction, i.e. cutting metal, hull lay-up or tooling manufacture, is started by or about September 1, 2007.

Top: Trinity 60M Motor Yacht. Bottom: Sanlorenzo SD92. (Click images to enlarge)

Each shipyard also is asked to list on its survey form whether its yachts are semi-custom or custom projects. Traditionally, a custom yacht is one where an owner approaches a builder with a keel-up design and the builder agrees to build the yacht to the owner’s specifications. However, in recent years, as demand for large yachts has skyrocketed, a number of traditional custom builders such as Feadship, Amels and others have begun to produce what are known as "series" designs. Similar in concept to what we’ve long referred to as "semi-custom," these series yachts have hulls and superstructures built to standard specifications, but they allow for extensive customization of interior arrangements and styling.

Ocean Alexander 88. Bottom: Sunseeker 34. (Click images to enlarge)

This year, we’ve chosen to count them as custom builds in our calculations for the "Top 15 Custom Builders" list. We may create a new category for them in future editions of our Global Order Book.

Data compiled by Louisa Rudeen Beckett.