Clipper Oil: Winter 2022 Yacht Newsletter

Winter Yacht Newsletter

March 2022

2022 Miami International Boat Show Recap

Enthusiastic crowds were all smiles as they celebrated the return of the 2022 Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show. The troubled waters created by the pandemic have calmed enough for boats to fill the docks of Sea Isle Marina, One Herald Plaza, the Museum Park Marina, and the IGY Yacht Haven Grande Marina at Island Gardens. Boats up to 49 feet also made their way on dry land for a full-scale display in the newly renovated Miami Beach Convention Center along with just about everything imaginable that makes the boating lifestyle such a joy.

There was an enormous showing of the latest boat models due in part to the shipping delays created over the last two years, and those that didn’t make it time for the Fort Lauderdale show made it to Miami to everyone’s delight. We tested out the new SŌLACE 415 CS that’s powered by Volvo Penta’s diesel engines with inboard/outboard drives as well as the Beneteau Swift Trawler 48 and Leopard’s 46 PC that will showcase in an upcoming Southern Boating issue.

(Source: Southern Boating) Continue Reading

Why More Superyachts Are at Risk of Running Aground

Running aground has to be near the top in the pantheon of nightmare scenarios for yacht captains. Being at the helm when the boat is damaged and inducing the guests to spill their drinks is bad enough. But the mauling to the skipper’s reputation can be even worse. Careers have been fatally holed below the waterline by less.

And yet we are in the grip of a growing trend for explorer yachts and holidays off the beaten track. Every yard building yachts from 20 metres up is urging us to stop quaffing vintage Krug on the Côte d’Azur and go adventuring. And as more owners follow the call, their crews have to grapple with the fringes of our watery world. In more remote areas there is almost no chart detail at all when you inspect the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), and in many others, the scant survey data available dates back more than a hundred years. Not everyone understands what they’re looking at.

(Source: Boat International) Continue Reading

With 5 Locations, the 2022 Miami International Boat Show Goes Big - and the Crowds Follow

Andrew Doole, president of Informa, organizer of the 2022 Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show, wasn’t exaggerating when he said show-goers would remember this year’s event for its “magnificent” scale. “I think it was the most successful selling show we’ve ever had in Miami,” Doole told Robb Report after Sunday’s close.

While that sounds like marketing hype, the buzz and crowd sizes observed during the show’s first four days should bode well for sales. Most exhibitors we spoke with were also upbeat about the show, and while a few reminisced about the good old days when the yacht show was located at Collins Avenue on Miami Beach, most seemed happy with the new format. With five locations—including the newly renovated Miami Beach Convention Center which was fresh from a $620-million makeover—this year’s Miami seemed to justify Informa’s title of the “The Largest Boating and Yachting Event in the World.”

(Source: RobbReport) Continue Reading

A Bite-Sized Guide to the 'Perfect' Charter Season

Is there any such thing as the perfect charter yacht? Does it exist? Owners do not always build their yachts with charter appeal in mind, but the commercial aspect of chartering is very appealing – if only to offset some of the running costs of the yacht and keep the crew motivated when the family aren’t on board.

With a combined 50 years of experience of chartering vessels, the Yomira team has plenty of experience working with owners and captains across a broad spectrum of superyachts, both motor and sail. There are, of course, countless elements that go into making a ‘perfect’ charter yacht and we can break these down into digestible bite-sized important pieces.

(Source: SuperyachtNews) Continue Reading

Why Now is the Time for an Australian Superyacht Adventure

Australia may be the smallest of the world’s seven continents, but it’s what surrounds it that counts: 25,800 kilometres of stunning coastline and the world’s largest coral reef system. In addition, its tropical and temperate waters, prime surfing spots, world-class attractions, exotic wildlife and a largely unexplored rugged interior are ingredients that should signal “superyacht heaven”. But for years Australia was something of a closed book.

If you wanted to cruise down under you had either to charter locally, clamber aboard a cruise ship or take your own boat; for some owners, that distance equals half a circumnavigation. Now, seeking to promote its country’s extraordinary offerings, the Australian government has passed the Special Recreational Vessels Bill to allow foreign-owned and flagged superyachts to charter in Australian waters. It’s a move that Andrew Cannon, general manager of Rivergate Marina in Brisbane, calls “a defining moment in Australia’s marine industry history.”

(Source: Boat International) Continue Reading

Boat Shows: Too Many? Too Few? Or Just Right?

Following the total shutout of boat shows in 2020, 2021 represented the first time the superyacht market was able to gather at shows once again, albeit in a limited capacity. By contrast, 2022 will be the first year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that the industry will have the opportunity to return to the full boat show calendar in earnest, but will it?

Even in the pre-pandemic era questions were beginning to be raised about how congested the annual boat show programme had become. The established boat shows remained steadfast and as emerging yachting economies sort to grow their domestic markets they copy and pasted the model implemented by the established locations with various degrees of success. The net result was a boat show schedule that raised increasingly pressing questions about cost, value, return on investment and environmental impact.

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to change nearly everything about our lives. It changed the way we interacted with friends, family and loved ones, it changed the way businesses operated, it changed the way children were educated, and it changed the way we travelled.

(Source: SuperyachtNews) Continue Reading