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I’m in Dubai, a desert boomtown emerging on a scale unprecedented in modern history, perhaps in all of history.
by Jill Bobrow
photography by Melissa Lynn
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10/01/2007
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Outside it’s about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. I walk into the marble-clad shopping mall and am
drawn to the large picture window where I see skiers all dressed alike, bombing
down an artificial mountain. I know it’s silly, but I have the urge to join
them. I live in Vermont. Is it really necessary for me to go skiing indoors on
man-made snow, I wonder?
I purchase a lift ticket and stand in line for my winter
outerwear, boots and skis, which are included with the price of admission. I
enter a veritable winter wonderland covered in 6,000 tons of snow. In a space of
about 237,000 square feet, there are five ski runs. The temperature is a brisk
28 degrees. I board a chairlift and ride to the summit of the 1,300-foot
"mountain" and spend the morning skiing.
 The Azimut 103S steams past Dubai’s Burj al Arab
Hotel. Photograph by Manfredo Pinzauti-Grazia Neri. (Click image to enlarge)
I’m in Dubai, a desert boomtown emerging on a scale
unprecedented in modern history, perhaps in all of history. In addition
to building an indoor ski mountain, this United Arab Emirate is creating a
spectacular high-rise skyline with what will be the tallest building in the
world—the Burj Dubai—and several artificial reclaimed-land islands in the
Persian Gulf complete with residences, resorts and numerous superyacht
facilities. Its ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is completing what
is the largest private yacht in existence.
Dubai is the new Mecca for money—for making it and for spending
it—and its residents don’t seem to be shy about spending their money on yachts.
It seemed surprising to me at first that Azimut would choose
Dubai as the place to launch its new 103S. But after visiting the emirate for
the second time in two years, I am awakening to the fact that yachting is
playing a big role across the Middle East. Island Global Yachting (IGY), a
company building megayacht marinas around the world, tells me that while there
are currently 3,000 yacht slips in Dubai, in five years there will be 30,000,
many of which will be capable of handling the surge of large vessels currently
jamming building sheds around the world.
Paolo Vitelli, CEO and president of Azimut, says this area is
the fastest growing market for the brand, with 12 percent of all his company’s
sales originating there. In keeping with the "think big" character of the
region, ART Marine, Azimut’s Dubai-based dealer, hosted a spectacular event for
the launch of the 103S, complete with dancers encapsulated in water-borne
bubbles, laser light shows, fireworks, and a pop singer and her band. I imagine
the next time I return to Dubai the offshore Palm Islands and World developments
will be completed and there will be a yacht in front of every villa.
The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald, CNBC and
other media outlets keep calling on me to find out where the burgeoning crop of
new superyachts being built is going. IGY and many other wise marina developers
are including large-yacht facilities in their plans. It may take awhile for
supply to converge with demand, but it’s happening.
Just before heading to Dubai, I was checking out the Bahamas on
a charter aboard the 115-foot sailing yacht Tenacious. The Exumas are
pristine and pure, with sand as silky as a sow’s ear. Coincidentally, part of
our entertainment on the trip included watching pigs swim out to meet our
dinghy—a first for me. Even in sleepy George Town there are plans at February
Point and Crab Cay to build more marinas, again with large-yacht facilities.
Throughout the Bahamas, the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast, new marinas
are popping up all the time. At our ShowBoats International Awards Rendezvous in
Monaco in June, the principality’s Port Hercule was maxed out with superyachts.
No doubt developers with vision are plotting ways to expand capacity there, too,
to handle the boom. Maybe in a decade we’ll see 200-footers stacked like
dinghies in a shed—perhaps astride an indoor ski slope.
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