LUXURY ON WATER - BUSINESS DAY ONLINE

Owning a yacht or a cruising on a yacht is the ultimate extravagance. It is pleasure on water to be enjoyed with beautiful champagne; Ruinart, Krug or elegant wine; Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes, a grand white wine with oysters and great company. Whether you are on a yacht for sport or for sailing, water on a beautiful object is a luxury feeling. You have to drink fine wine or champagne when cruising on water and smelling the breeze.

Yachts are becoming prized possessions of Africans. Recently, 65 Fairlane squadron yacht worth 1.721 million euros was purchased from South Africa to its new home in Angola. Opulence, comfort, timeless grace packaged in twin Caterpillar C18’s whose performance reaches 35-knots.

Generous living spaces for entertaining and relaxing, with a, sun pad or sunbed and seating or dining area.

“The views are spectacular and every care in the world just melts away as you glide along the waves with the wind on your face,” explained Derrick Levy, MD of Boating World, boating brokers, exporters and importers specializing in luxury motor-yacht market in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fine craftsmanship and furnishings as well as hand-worked cabinetry are hallmarks of the newly launched Fairline Squadron S65. The bar area has been designed to handle Krug, Canard Duchene champagne, Laurent Perrier, and other drinks expected in a luxury environment.

Being summer time, it is yacht season from Monaco, St Tropez, Antibes, Cannes to Monaco.

Several companies design yachts for competitive sport or pleasure sailing. Every year The Festival de la Plaisance de Cannes, otherwise known as the Cannes Boat Show, offers boat-lovers the opportunity to preview some of the finest yachts afloat. The event is held in two French Riviera sites, the ‘Vieux Port’ and ‘Port Pierre Canto’. The Cannes show is for buyers and lovers of luxury on water. 

To create a new lifestyle of living on water, the leading yacht builder Wally combined designs with the luxury house Hermes, to create a luxury yacht that costs $150.8 million.  The yacht is 58m in length, 32m witdth, with 20 crew and can host 12 guests.  Its performance is 12 knots cruising speed (13.8mph), 14 knots maximum speed (161.1mph), with a 25 meter long swimming pool, the deck has been created with water resistant buffalo leather with an ecological aspect included. It has diesel electric propulsion for efficient motorization.

Burgess charter yachts of different sizes and lengths. The Maltese Falcon has a length of 288.7 feet and can hosts 12 guests, with a costs of 350 000 euros per week. The Vertigo yacht with a length of 224.3 feet can host 12 guests and its rates are 225 000 euros per week.

What if you want to own the yacht?  You first decide the purpose of the yacht. Is it a motor or a sailing yacht that you desire? What performance are you looking for? High speed? What about the size and what restrictions does it have? Will you need access to a location with a beam, draft or will you face height restrictions? Is the water at a certain level to support the yacht? How many guests will you have? What are the guest carriage requirements? Will they cruise onboard and or sleep on board? Where will the yacht be docked when not in use? Cape Town? Monaco? Italy? Are the parts easily available for maintainance in the areas where you will cruise? Do you need crew? What is the size of the crew? Will this crew manage your expectations? Will the yacht accommodate the crew? Where do you plan to cruise your luxury object? Antibes, St Lucia, St. Tropez? Can your yacht have access to mantainance there? Do these ports provide full service?

The next step is the interior. What kind of leather do you want, the bar size, swimming pool, Jacuzzi, do you want exotic leathers for the yacht? The Black Pearl yacht has an interior designed similar to a tailored suit, an Armani suit to give it a luxury feeling. The Marie yacht was designed to embody tradition, romance while remaining modern. It was built with a library containing a leather-bound collection of 16th, 17th and 18th century classics.  Period marine paintings, and 15th century-style suits of armor – all add an interesting twist to the contemporary furnishings aboard Marie yacht.

It is pleasure, on water, luxury while cruising, after all isn’t luxury all about enjoyment?

Maryanne Maina

MBA in Luxury Brand Management

HEC Paris, School of Management

@njerimaina

laluxe@gmail.com