Daill Mail - 08.08.2019

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galleries, boasting collections

worth hundreds of millions.

Other owners store their wine

on board. One lady had her

Sunseeker adapted to display

her vast collection of vintage

designer handbags.

While it’s easy to assume these

people leading these extraordinary

lives are all oligarchs or oil

barons , Bryan Jones insists that

at least 35 per cent of Sunseeker’s

customers are British and

invariably self-made.

‘We see it time and again,’ he says.

‘They are British families who run

their own business, have worked

all their lives and now they want to

enjoy their success together.’

Whoever they are, they expect

top-end service and a degree of

luxury most of us can’t even

imagine — even when they’re

working out.

‘They’ve got multiple homes with

gyms, but the boat is the crowning

glory, so the gym has to be of the

very highest spec,’ says Edward

Thomas, a former crew member

who set up bespoke superyacht

gym-fitter Gymmarine.com. He

supplies bench presses hand-

covered in Hermes leather and

kettle bells in leopard print. Golf

balls made from fish food are also

popular so clients can practise

their drives into the water without

fretting about the environment —

and pretty much anything else.

‘What they want, they have,’

says Edward.

It’s a good thing the owners all

have such fun on their yachts,

because these beauties burn

through money.

The general rule of thumb is that

both annual depreciation and

running costs are about 10 per

cent of the purchase price, not

including crew or diesel. (It costs

from £800 to fill the fuel tank of a

small Sunseeker — and the bigger

the yacht, the higher the cost.)

Not that anyone seems to hang

onto them for long: most owners

trade them in — like cars — every

two to three years. Given that the

customised build time can be up

to 18 months, they’re ordering the

new one months after stepping on

to the current one.

One captain I spoke to said

seasoned owners can become so

blasé about a new £20 million boat

that they don’t even celebrate when

they first get on: ‘They just swan on

and ask where the gym is.’

For most, the thing that matters

is size. ‘You always dream bigger,’

jokes Pierre.

Especially if you get to trump any

of your yachting pals. And some-

times, just sometimes, things

aren’t possible, however much

money you have. When one owner

wanted his superyacht decorated

with a skull and crossbones —

illegal under maritime law — he

had to make do with just the giant

skull, instead. Apparently, it looks

rather good.

Some people might say that

superyacht owners have more

money than sense, but after

spending a morning on my sleek,

glossy, gorgeous, Sunseeker about

to set sail to meet her new owners

in Portugal, I am no longer one

of them.

I can completely see the attrac-

tion, and would take to life as a

superyacht owner very smoothly

indeed. If only I had a spare £20 mil-

lion, plus another £10 million to

cover the crew, moorings, fuel and

depreciation — I’d snap one up.

Plus a few fish-food golf balls, to

offset my carbon footprint.

Daily Mail, Thursday, August 8, 2019

LES THE WAVES!

galleries, boasting collections their own business, have worked covered in Hermes leather and

c

in

fr

sm

th

o

tr

tw

cu

The Haves and the Have-Yachts: Jane aboard the

£20 million Sunseeker with its huge Jacuzzi, luxurious

bedrooms, dining room and marble bathrooms

Superyacht sales are rocketing,

thanks to brilliant British

craftsmanship — and hundreds of

self-made UK tycoons are spending

fortunes fitting them out with

every luxury, from Hermes

gym equipment to fish

food golf balls

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