Even Bigger News Than Expected
One of the yachts I toured today here at the Genoa charter show is the 295-foot Lauren L, which I previously told you about last week here on the Editor’s Blog. Her recent refit (and I do mean recent, as she just opened her doors today, after completing finishing touches yesterday) was just as lovely as I had expected, based on previous work I’ve seen onboard boats from management company Liveras Yachts.
The big news from my time onboard, though, is that Liveras is already preparing to go even bigger–with a pair of 108-meter sisterships to be built here in Europe during the next three to four years. The company is in contract negotiations with two separate shipyards, neither of which are in Greece (where Liveras has done yacht construction and refit work in the past).
I got a sneak peek at the rendering for the exterior profile, and boy is it sleek and sexy, words I wouldn’t typically use to describe a 354-foot boat. Interiors are still under discussion, but each boat is likely to take anywhere from 26 to 40 guests. They may build one of each, so that clients who want more cabins can have them, and vice versa.
“We believe the market is growing in the Russian and Middle East in terms of clients,” Kyri Kyriacou, the company’s director, told me as we sat on Lauren L’s aft deck this afternoon. “They want new and big. At the moment, even with Lauren L and Alysia [sistership to the 280-foot Annaliesse], we haven’t got enough weeks of the year for all of our clients.”
That’s saying something, as those boats combined can take almost 80 passengers in a single week. But demand is strong, even sight unseen. Kyriacou told me that Lauren L, fresh out of the yard, already had a client book her for the entire month of August at a base rate of 700,000 euro per week. (I’ll post a First Impression review with exclusive photos soon so you can see exactly what that kind of money will get you on charter.)
The new yachts are expected to be in the Mediterranean during the summers, and perhaps in the Maldives during the winter season–instead of the more typical Caribbean cruising ground. Again, that is in great deal because of the clients Liveras already serves.
“My feeling is that there will be more business for us in the Maldives,” Kyriacou says. “Our clientele is primarily Middle Eastern and Russian, and the Maldives is the same time zone for many of them.”
Very big news from Liveras Yachts, indeed, not to mention what a pretty refit Lauren L was in and of herself.
And that’s just my first day here at the Genoa show. Can’t wait to see what I learn on the docks tomorrow.