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Can Investing in Yacht Charter be profitable today? Yacht Charter Market Analysis

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In the last 15 years at Rodriquez Consulting we have served a variety of yacht charter companies and private owners who were keen on chartering their yachts.  We have created a Yacht Charter Business Plan download because more often than not we are asked to help them with their business plan but often times startups can’ afford to rely entirely on our team from the start so we decided to poor in some of our knowledge into a ready made starting point.  Undoubtedly the question we are asked most often is:

Is yacht charter profitable and/or is it a good business to get in? or Can investing in yacht charter be profitable in some ways?

In many industries the above questions would be rather simple to answer. However, in the yachting industry answering these questions with anything else other than “It depends..” requires us to get into a great level of details. At the very least, we need to get into the specifics of the size segment you choose, the primary geographic area and the yacht charter business model that you intend to implement.

Geography, Business Model, Size Segment of the yacht/boat/vessel

To most people Yacht Charter rates seem to be very high as an absolute per-week-value, but are they high enough when you consider the cost of the asset/s (the yacht/s) and its running costs? The latter can have a very large range as variable costs depending on how and where the vessel is managed and can make a significant difference. Ultimately, it the acquisition price (the price of the vessel) that is crucial but the variable and fix costs are the ones that can determine whether the operation (your yacht charter business) is profitable or not.  If you are looking to build a business plan to charter yachts and get in the business this article will be useful, however, you might want to contact us for more ad-hoc support. Read more

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Bill Gates charters Fincantieri built Yacht “Serene”

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Summer 2014 Microsoft founder Bill Gates goes on vacation with his family as a billionaire of his calibre should.

The NY Daily News captured some images of Microsoft tycoon aboard “The Serene,” a $330 million dollar yacht that according to the newspaper Gates and his family are renting for $5 million per week. To us this value sounds like wrong information as the Serene is listed at prices that are well below 2.5$ million per week [2.2 $ to be exact]

M/Y Serene is a Fincantieri built 133 meter yacht designed by Espen Oeino and launched in 2011. With a cruise speed of 15 knots and top speed around 20 knots The Serene has the following interesting interior features which we assume were appealing to Mr Gates as a discerning client

  • Indoor climbing wall
  • Dedicated children’s playroom
  • Two helicopter landing pads
  • Fully-equipped health spa and beach club
  • Multiple swimming pools [saltwater]
  • Underwater viewing room
  • Full conference room

Gates as you might imagine doesn’t own “The Serene.” He’s chartering it from Stolichnaya vodka distributor Yuri Scheffler. The Russia-born Scheffler is an interesting figure himself, who became famous for battling with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Putin’s attempt to nationalize and “redistribute” Stolichnaya’s wealth.

Though he does not own a yacht himself, Gates seems to be a fan of them. In 1994, he was married about a yacht belonging to his fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen famous Octopus was built a few years ago with an approximate budget of $200 million by German builder Lurssen Yachts.

Even if Gates doesn’t own his own yacht, although he clearly could, a clear sign of how the most solid representative of the U-HNWI group is often opting for chartering rather than yacht owning.

According to the Daily News, Bill Gates and his family regularly make use of the Serene’s on board helicopter to travel for tennis matches at the “billionaire’s playground” nearby Porto Cervo in Sardenia, while the boat is stationed off the coast. And like Allen’s yacht, the Serene also comes with its own submarine, which in the amenities and toy categories is slowly increasing in popularity.

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