Rich people want status symbols
Jeff Bezos is right on trend with super yacht
By Diana Dittmer
2/5/2022 9:02 am
The luxury ship business is booming. Never before have so many yachts been sold as during the pandemic. The ultra-rich are much richer thanks to the low interest rate policy and the stock market boom since the Corona crisis. Top earners like Amazon founder Bezos are faced with a luxury problem: where to put the money?
Director Steven Spielberg treated himself to a bigger one last year, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has a new one, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wants the very biggest one. They are called “Seven Seas”, “Solaris” or “Y721”, they are extremely exclusive and are at the top of the wish list of many super-rich: super yachts.
As data company VesselsValue reports, 887 such vessels were sold last year. That is an increase of 77 percent compared to the previous year, compared to 2019 it is even more than twice as many. The outdoor trend in the pandemic is thus also confirmed in the luxury segment: the club of the super-rich likes floating domiciles that resemble palaces. That doesn’t come out of the blue.
According to VesselsValue, a key driver of the boom is a desire for recovery from the pandemic. People are looking for distance and security. True to the motto: “Buy a boat, corona can’t swim” (buy yourself a boat, the virus can’t swim), commented “Boat International” editor-in-chief Stewart Campbell to the BBC last year. In addition, a yacht also increases the range of movement during lockdowns in a pleasant way.
Pandemic gold rush
Another important driver is the extraordinary increase in wealth among the ultra-rich. Since the pandemic, they have been able to afford the luxury of security and freedom of movement even more easily. The increased demand has also pushed up the prices for ships, but thanks to booming stock markets and the low interest rate policy of the central banks, many super-rich made more money than ever during the Corona years. Even the recent stock market turbulence doesn’t make much of a difference.
According to Oxfam, the ten richest billionaires alone, which include company founders such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg or investors such as Warren Buffet, have doubled their wealth from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion during the Corona crisis. “For billionaires, the pandemic is like a gold rush,” commented Manuel Schmitt from Oxfam Germany recently. And if you don’t have enough money or aren’t liquid at the moment, cheap loans can help you “buy social distance” with the plan, Bloomberg quotes an asset manager as saying.
The flood of money has sparked a competition for status symbols, it seems, which, however, sometimes has absurd consequences. This shows the latest major project by Amazon founder Bezos, who also went among the hobby sailors. The second richest person in the world after Tesla boss Elon Musk is currently having a huge sailing boat built by a Dutch shipping company. Cost: Reportedly $500 million.
Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better
With a length of 127 meters and a lot of comfort and high-tech, as insiders report, the “Y721” is no less than a contender for the title of the world’s largest sailing yacht. “Solaris,” Oligarch Abramovich’s new ship, which he treated himself to last year, was more expensive by comparison, but at 140 meters it reportedly falls short of even the top 10 of the current global luxury fleet.
The problem with Bezo’s new yacht: He doesn’t really get any further with her at first. At 40 meters, his new three-master is too high for that. A historic bridge in Rotterdam, built in 1878 and rebuilt after German bombing during World War II in 1940, blocks the way to the open sea. Because the gigantic yacht does not fit under the Koningshaven Bridge, it has meanwhile been said that it will be dismantled for the passage. The shipping company and Bezos would bear the costs. However, the mayor of Rotterdam has since denied this.
Even if a solution is not yet in sight, Bezos is likely to be on the winning side in the end. Because an end to the race for larger, faster and more expensive yachts is not to be expected any time soon – even if interest rates rise and prices on the stock markets fall. Superyachts are not normally viewed as investments. But the demand is immense, the prices will not drop in the foreseeable future.
Building new ships takes years. Materials are scarce due to supply chain issues and expensive due to increased raw material costs. Labor is also scarce and the used market is empty. “It’s a great time to be a yacht owner,” Bloomberg quoted VesselsValue’s Sam Tucker as saying. “Those who bought a year ago could now potentially sell at a profit after enjoying a free superyacht season for free.” Bezos has to get there first. When in doubt, he takes his spare yacht. He has ordered another ship called “YS 7512” from the manufacturer Damen Yachts