Superyachts: the bigger economic picture

A small city on the western shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, US, might not seem the most obvious superyacht hotspot. Manitowoc – population around 30,000 – doesn’t boast the glamorous sophistication of Monaco or the glorious solitude of a Tahitian atoll. But what it does boast is one of North America’s – and the world’s – leading builders of yachts and superyachts. Indeed, since 1863 Burger Boat Company has been quietly constructing, innovating and celebrating its beautiful vessels, some of which have gone on to win major awards. Burger is that classic example of the true impact that someone has on tens of thousands of people, and wider communities, when they drop that cheque.

“The purchase of a yacht employs a lot of people,” begins Ron Cleveringa, Vice President Sales and Marketing at Burger. “Moreover, these jobs are not service industry jobs – these are skilled tradespeople performing their craft in creating something very special. And these people have wives and children and mortgages and car payments. They’re out buying clothes and going to the grocery store, and doing all the things that keep the economy rolling. It’s an incredible redistribution of wealth.”

Cleveringa likes to draw an analogy to a scale that people can more easily relate. “It’s really no different than you or I buying a car,” he offers. “When we buy a new vehicle, we just employed X number of people who built the car. You’ve got all the people who supplied components. And then you’ve got your local service businesses that do the oil changes and the brake jobs and transmission work, whatever it takes to maintain your vehicle. So spending, say, US$50,000 on a new pick-up truck is no different than, say, Jeff Bezos buying a US$500 million boat – it gets distributed to everyone downstream who helped produce and helps maintain that vehicle. The only difference is the number of zeros.”

Of course, with a little thought most of us realise that the design and construction of a superyacht involves a large number of people beyond just the manufacturing side – there are the naval architects, engineers, interior designers, and myriad others who are involved. But Cleveringa draws another interesting parallel that shows the reach goes beyond traditional yachting industry positions. “The yacht industry is really kind of unique, because a yacht builder essentially builds an envelope that a lot of other components go into that are built by other manufacturers,” he explains. Think about it for a second – that’s pumps, motors, systems, engines, refrigeration, all the mechanical stuff, and way beyond. Every nut, bolt and rivet comes from somewhere, and is produced by someone. “For example, we don’t build the stabiliser systems, we go to a manufacturer who specialises in that,” Cleveringa continues, “and they have skilled craftsmen and engineers who design and build that stuff. These are actual manufacturing jobs that create wealth and provide value [to the wider economy].

“I walked up to Steven Spielberg’s boat (the 86-metre Seven Seas) a while back with my wife, and she said, ‘It’s huge!’” Cleveringa smiles. “I told her how much it costs to build and maintain and she said, ‘That’s a lot of money’. I said yeah – and Spielberg’s giving it to people like us, and people like the guy who runs a small electrical supply company who sells components; he’s giving money to them too – that’s how that guy makes his living.”

The impact goes beyond the economic, however – which takes us right back to Wisconsin, where we started. Manitowoc isn’t a classic superyacht hub like Antibes or Palma or Fort Lauderdale, yet Burger’s creations have become a key element of the town’s identity. “It brings a huge amount of pride to the community,” Cleveringa enthuses. “We’ve got a population of 30,000 and we often open up the launch ceremony to the community, and we’ll get hundreds and hundreds of people turn up because of the pride in the community of what Burger does.”

It extends not only to local community jobs – Cleveringa cites cases in Burger where there are two or three generations of the same family working in the yard at the same time – but also to civic responsibility. The late, legendary Floridian shipyard owner Bob Roscioli, Cleveringa recalls, actively promoted various yacht trades among young people and would hire ex-convicts to teach them a trade and get them back on their feet. Similarly, in 2006 Burger set up the Burger University to provide new and ongoing training in all trades and departments. “You know,” Cleveringa concludes, “there are a lot of caring and loving people in the superyacht industry who are able to do what they do because someone like Bezos buys a boat. If he were just to stick that money in the bank, what good does that do anybody?” It’s true – just ask the people of Manitowoc.