Small superyachts with big ideas

X-Space Photo: Sanlorenzo

Small superyachts with big ideas

X-Space Photo: Sanlorenzo

Kinship

Small superyachts with big ideas

When does a yacht become a true superyacht? The answer may surprise you – and it means you don’t have to spend tens of millions to enjoy the superyachting good life.

By Charlotte Thomas | 24 March 2022

It’s easy, in these days of fast news and faster social media, to see headlines and hero shots of the latest luxury leviathans being launched and to equate that squarely with the word ‘superyacht’. But it’s also easy to forget that these giants, as impressive and as desirable as they may be, represent just a tiny fraction of the fleet, at the very top end of tailor-made.

It’s important to realise this, because it’s also easy to see superyachting as being accessible only to the richest of the rich, yet in reality nothing could be further from the truth. For one, there are a growing number of fractional ownership schemes, and similarly a charter can provide the ultimate holiday experience but without the cost and complications of actual ownership. Moreover, at the opposite end of the size range to the headline-grabbing 100-metre yachts are a veritable swarm of luxurious vessels which don’t cost the earth but which are still superyachts, offering that ultimate in superyacht experience.

Small superyachts with big ideas
Small superyachts with big ideas

“Most yachts will take owners where you want to go – the personal threshold is where is your individual limit of adventure,” begins Ian Sherwood, a superyacht broker with Burgess. “Every major shipyard will build a boat that will take you to the Norwegian fjords, the Highlands of Scotland, Alaska or wherever. It might not take you into the ice itself but it will take you on some pretty wild, wacky adventures.”

As Sherwood points out, there has been a slew of larger yachts launched in the past couple of years that are showing just how far a superyacht can take you – the 88.5-metre Olivia O, the 68.2m Ragnar and the 77-metre La Datcha are just three examples of yachts built with serious purpose in mind – but that doesn’t mean that smaller superyachts are any less capable. “Typically the 30 to 40 metre segment is dominated by the faster, composite boatbuilders like Azimut, Ferretti, and Sanlorenzo, but there’s a growing splinter group within that size sector where suddenly custom-built metal boats are becoming popular again,” Sherwood says. “There’s Moonen in The Netherlands and Mulder too, both of whom have 36-metre models that have proven wildly successful steel-hulled yachts with a transatlantic range.”

Small superyachts with big ideas

Photo: Numarine

Small superyachts with big ideas

Photo: Numarine

Moonen’s Martinique model has sold two already this year, highlighting the demand for the superyacht experience in what, until fairly recently, was considered the larger end of the boat market – indeed, to get on the list of the world’s 100 largest yachts in 1990, your superyacht only had to be 45 metres in length. “The Martinique is a successful design,” confirms victor Caminada, Sales Director at Moonen Yachts. “And actually, it’s a package that holds a lot for a 36-metre – it’s a high-volume boat and at the same time it’s a fast displacement hull, meaning it has a relatively high cruise speed.”

Buying into the size range around 30 metres also doesn’t need to mean any compromise on social spaces and special features. Benetti’s Oasis Deck, which has proven highly popular, is now being offered on a 34-metre model, meaning an aft pool on the water and drop-down terraces more typically associated with much large yachts. The rise of the pocket explorer is another example of how yards such as Cantiere delle Marche and Numarine are showing that anything the big boys can do, the smaller superyachts can do just as well.

Small superyachts with big ideas

Project Fox

Small superyachts with big ideas

Project Fox

Then there are the other custom projects such as Project Fox, currently in build at the Pendennis Shipyard in the southwestern corner of the UK. This lean and lithe-looking 35-metre vessel borrows that forward superstructure workboat styling seen on yachts like Olivia O, and adapts it to a smaller package that can offer the ultimate superyachting experience for a fraction of the cost. Indeed, its huge aft deck can carry tenders up to nine metres in length. “The problem with some smaller superyachts is that once you get to those wild places you’re then limited because you may only have a smaller tender,” Sherwood explains. “The appeal is to get away from the crowds and go somewhere new where there isn’t the infrastructure. The huge toy carrying ability of a yacht like Project Fox means it’s not only a platform to take you to interesting places, but also to facilitate your enjoyment when you get there. And she has a 3,600-mile range at 12 knots – she’ll cross the Atlantic and she’ll carry two big tenders while doing it.”

Or, as James Ratcliffe – Managing Partner at Q London, the studio responsible for Project Fox’s layouts and interiors – puts it, yachts like this offer complete flexibility. “It could be a great day boat for a party, or as a little private island with all the toys you could want,” he enthuses. “Or it could be used as an explorer, or it could be used to go and relax for your family. It could be someone’s first superyacht.”

Small superyachts with big ideas

Photo: NEKTON

Small superyachts with big ideas

Photo: NEKTON

Moreover, smaller superyachts don’t preclude the option to give back to the oceans. “There’s a huge application for potential science and research, and things like the Nekton project (with its Yachts For Science arm) are really interesting in how yachts can be utilised to support scientific research when the owners aren’t on board,” offers Sherwood. “A yacht like Project Fox is perfect for it, in terms of towing things, carrying big things, in terms of putting scientists on board. I think it’s really exciting to have that at this scale, offering the same opportunities as extraordinarily big boats like Olivia O and La Datcha.”

It all comes back to the same thing – size actually doesn’t matter when it comes to superyachts, and superyachts are not all larger than life. The vast majority of people enjoying the superyachting good life are living unique experiences on unique yachts at the 30-metre end of the spectrum rather than the 130-metre end, and that means that there are fewer barriers to superyachting than most people realise. “You don’t have to spend an 80-metre budget to have a yacht that will take you to interesting places,” Sherwood concludes. It’s a pretty convincing argument for taking that first step.

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