Megayachts Disappear, Maybe to Croatia
One opulent megayacht will spend most of the summer in the Eastern Med, away from the paparazzi.
One of the more interesting conversations I enjoyed at this month’s Antigua charter yacht show was with Capt. Keith Moore of the 190-foot Abeking and Rasmussen motoryacht Lady Sheridan. I arrived on the yacht after a walk down the dock at Falmouth Harbour during which two separate charter brokers stopped me to say that the market for yachts 150 feet and larger is all but nonexistent. “This winter in the Caribbean will be the worst season in the history of the megayacht charter industry,” one broker told me. “However,” he said, “things are looking up for certain parts of the Mediterranean next summer.”
I didn’t immediately notice the broker’s wording—“certain parts of the Mediterranean”—but after my conversation with Moore, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
Split, Croatia may be a destination for this summer's megayacht charters.
Lady Sheridan is arguably one of the most opulent motoryachts available for charter anywhere in the world. While lots of yachts are marketed as top-dollar and exquisite, Lady Sheridan actually is. She’s part of the fleet at Burgess Yachts with a weekly Caribbean base rate of $385,000 and a weekly Mediterranean base rate of €315,000—which puts her squarely in that category of yachts for which there is currently little to no booking activity.
Interestingly, though, Moore told me that the handful of inquiries still arriving are for the summer season in the Eastern Mediterranean. That’s unusual. Typically, yachts of this caliber are in great demand in the Western Mediterranean, and in particular along the Côte d’Azur, where they are chartered specifically so that the jet set can see-and-be-seen aboard them. The Eastern Mediterranean is the opposite environment. It practically begs the question, “If a megayacht is chartered in Croatia and nobody sees it, did the vacation really exist?”
And that’s exactly the point, Moore hypothesized. The titans of industry who can afford yachts of this caliber seem to want to return to yacht charter this summer after taking a couple of years off—but in a way that makes them appear respectful of the continuing global economic situation. After all, nobody with a conscience can lay off a thousand workers and then be seen galavanting across the South of France surrounded by such opulence.
It’s quite simple, as Moore put it: “There are no paparazzi in Croatia.”
For more information, visit the YachtWorldCharters.com Croatia page.
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, and is editor of the online yacht vacation magazine www.CharterWave.com.
