CNI’s Super Yachting Index
Last night, in the model room at the New York Yacht Club on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, the world’s largest charter company attempted to quantify the scope of the global large-yacht industry with statistics never before made available to the public.
The release of the first annual Super Yachting Index from Camper & Nicholsons International marked the first time that any company has released superyacht industry information of this magnitude, particularly in terms of charter data. The report, based on CNI’s internal research as well as industry resources such as the broker-only database called MYBAnet, includes the first-ever published data about things like the number of 80-foot and larger charter yachts in the world, the number of weeks being booked for charter vacations, and the average value of those vacations.
“We decided to do this because there is a lot of misinformation being given to the public about the superyacht industry, particularly in the lifestyle magazines,” explained Laurent Perignon, CNI’s director of marketing. “We also believe that the superyacht industry is no longer a cottage industry. It is quickly becoming a global industry, and all true industries make their statistics available to the public. As the world’s leading superyacht company, we wanted to take a leading role in this.”
Perignon admitted at the start of last night’s presentation that the Super Yachting Index was compiled without the assistance of any other large-yacht companies–CNI’s competitors–which he hoped would make their data similarly available for annual industry-wide indexes in the future. Also, this first index is based on information from the 2007 calendar year, which will become the benchmark for data compiled in future years. There is thus no yardstick against which to measure the index’s assertions or compare its pronouncements.
Still, with by far the world’s largest charter fleet, CNI has its hand in a fair percentage of the world’s large-yacht business. That means this first attempt to quantify the universe of luxury yachts is coming from a global leader in a position to take highly educated guesses in areas where hard data is difficult to compile.
I have read the entire 43-page report, which includes sections about everything from how large yachts are constructed to how the brokerage process works during a yacht sale. As you might imagine, I paid special attention to Chapter Three: The Charter Market–and was surprised by some of the numbers CNI has put forth.
Today here on the CharterWave Editor’s Blog, I am going to give you some of the raw data from the report, as there is a good bit to consider. Tomorrow, after I’ve had a chance to follow up with Perignon on a few questions, I will offer my analysis of what these data mean to you, as a reader interested in booking charter yacht vacations.
Here are some of the assertions from the CNI Super Yachting Index’s section on charter:
* There are 830 yachts available for charter in the 80-foot-and-larger size range. These charter yachts account for 20 percent of all 3,800 superyachts afloat.
* 60% of those 830 yachts fall in the 100- to 165-foot size range, making it the heart of the superyacht charter industry. Yachts from 80 to 100 feet make up 27 percent of the available fleet, with yachts 165 feet and larger comprising the remaining 13 percent of the fleet.
* 100- to 130-foot yachts accounted for 63.5 percent of the charter bookings in 2007. Yachts from 80 to 100 feet did 21 percent of the bookings, and yachts from 130 to 165 feet did 15.5 percent of the bookings.
* With a handful of exceptions, no yachts larger than 240 feet are available for charter, even though the largest private motoryachts being built today surpass 500 feet in length.
* About 75 percent of the 80-foot-and-larger yachts available for charter are motoryachts, with sailing yachts comprising about 25 percent of the available fleet. About half of those sailing yachts are at the small end of the superyacht scale, between 80 and 100 feet long.
* More than half of the worldwide superyacht charter contracts being written today are in euro rather than the U.S. dollar, which represented virtually all contracts just a few years ago. Given the current exchange rate, this indicates that charter is in practical terms becoming more expensive.
* The average duration of a yacht charter vacation is 8.75 days.
* Charter clients vacation onboard smaller sailing yachts longer than they vacation onboard larger ones, while the opposite is true of motoryachts, with the larger motoryachts inspiring longer stays.
* The 830 charter yachts 80 feet and longer performed a total of 2,750 weeks of charter in 2007. About 200 of the 830 available yachts represented some 50 percent of those 2,750 weeks of bookings.
* The Mediterranean accounted for 70 percent of all charter vacation destinations, with 56 percent of charters occurring in the Western Med and 14 percent of charters occurring in the Eastern Med.
* The Caribbean was the second-most popular destination, with 15 percent of charters occurring there. Florida and the Bahamas were next, at 7 percent combined, with New England trailing at 2 percent.
* U.S. and British clients booked 60 percent of the charter vacations that took place in 2007. Russians made up just 8 percent of the charter client base, but spent nearly twice as much money as any other nationality, booking larger yachts for longer periods of time.
* Corporate charters represented 8 percent of the bookings in 2007, with more than 90 percent of bookings for vacations–primarily by families.
* About half of the smaller yachts are booked within a month of the charter date, while charter yachts 165 feet and larger are typically booked from four months to a year in advance of the charter date. Middle-range superyachts are typically booked three to six months before the charter date.
* About 50 percent of people who charter a yacht will do so again, typically within two to three years. Some 30 percent of charterers go on to purchase their own yacht, while about 15 percent of charterers never return. [Note: These figures do not equal 100 percent.]
As I said, this is a lot of data to digest, some of it inspiring follow-up questions. For instance, I am curious to learn more about the assertion that just 200 of the 830 available yachts did half of the 2,750 weeks of charter in 2007. That would mean some 75 percent of yachts available for charter in the 80-foot-plus range are booking just two weeks of charter each year, a number that, as I told Perignon last night, sounds surprisingly low to me.
I’m also interested to ask about a few statements in the index, including one page that says there are about 100 retail charter companies worldwide that include hundreds of brokers, but that “bona fide charter brokers are usually associated with a large brokerage house,” such as CNI. In my experience this is not true, as there are plenty of reputable independent brokers (as well as brokers who make mistakes while being backed by major companies).
Despite these handful of questions, I believe Camper & Nicholsons International is to be commended for taking a leadership role in attempting to quantify the superyacht industry for the public. As those of you who are regular CharterWave readers know, I often have a dickens of a time trying to verify statements made by yacht owners and management companies because there simply are no public resources available. I also regularly am confounded by mass-media outlets that publish articles about charter that are outright wrong, and CNI did a good job of ensuring that many of those general-interest reporters were invited to last night’s presentation in the publishing industry’s Manhattan hub.
In short, this new Super Yachting Index has the potential, over years, to fill the longtime void created by missing and misleading information–especially if other large companies follow CNI’s lead in making their general data available for the index in future years. CNI’s effort to quantify the industry publicly is, in my opinion, a large step in the right direction for the future of charter itself.
More on this tomorrow, from an analytical instead of a raw-data perspective. If you have questions of your own about this report that you would like me to pursue, you may leave them for me in the comments section of this blog, e-mail me at Kim@CharterWave.com, or contact Camper & Nicholsons International.