Kicking fenders amid Monaco madness
Kismet's pool deck features disco lights and a "Milky Way" table. Photo: BlueiProd.
Chatting on the saloon deck of Kismet, Chris Cecil-Wright’s eyes crease into a smile. Not at the sight of the drizzle dampening the Monaco air, but at whether serious buyers are in town for the yacht show.
“Inevitably there are fender kickers but at the end of the day we all are, until we actually put our money down,” he tells us.
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Cecil-Wright, founder of the eponymous brokerage, has the luxury of not caring about buyers this time as he is here to show off the 122m Kismet to the charter market. She’s the owner’s third Lürssen in 20 years and a “cathedral of design”, according to designer Pascale Reymond. At €3m a week she needs to be.
“The people who are booking this boat could own it,” adds Cecil-Wright, who sold the owner’s last Kismet in September 2023. “It’s a half a billion-dollar boat, so relatively, it makes sense.”
READ: Cecil-Wright on the art of a yacht broker
Strolling through the Versailles-inspired main deck, you notice the warming marble tiles doing a great job of drying your soggy socks. You also notice the frescoes, mirrors, chandeliers, the carbon fibre grand piano that doesn’t go out of tune, the disco deck, areas inspired by Bali, Venice, the 1920s and space. The owner, referred to as “Mr K”, asked them to surprise him. “We did, and he loves it,” says Reymond.
Since launching in Germany earlier this year, Kismet has been “back-to-back” with charters when the owner hasn’t been aboard. “He really enjoys the project and the lifestyle it gives him,” says Cecil-Wright. “He loves people enjoying his boat.”
Why then, if it has already proved so popular, has Cecil-Wright paid for it to be on every billboard in town. Or even in Monaco at all?
“Somebody once told me that you are what you spend most of your life trying to be,” says the Briton. “If you spend most of your life trying to be the big yacht people, then other big yacht people come to you.
“The fact that you can see Kismet and Cecil Wright available for the charter market, everybody sees it. The journalists see it, other owners see it, the captains see it, the engineers, the owners, everybody sees it.”
Soon Kismet will moor up next to HMS Belfast in London and be used to entertain guests during the NFL games – the teal wall-covering up the central spiral staircase is a nod to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Then she will head to the Caribbean for charter season, which Cecil-Wright says is “booking quickly”.
READ: Dock talk – insights from Cannes
Kismet is for charter at €3m per week. Photo: BlueiProd.
‘Necessary evil’
On another pontoon, unmistakeable from its turquoise branding, Tim Davis, chief marketing officer, Burgess, muses on the marketing effort that goes into the Monaco Yacht Show.
“It’s … a necessary evil,” he settles on. He appears to reconsider, searching for inspiration in the darkening skies over the principality, but then shrugs and adds: “Yes, I think that’s what it is.”
Always keen to bring some outside disruption into yachting, Davis wonders whether his ample marketing budget couldn’t be better spent elsewhere. He quotes the old line, possibly from US retailer John Wanamaker: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.”
“Is it an industry show or a show for owners?” Davis ponders. “It certainly drains a huge amount of effort.”
According to figures released by IYC at the show, overall sales in the year to date are at 70% compared with 2023, with 469 yachts sold against 667 last year. It says it’s the lowest figure in recent years – 2019 was the next lowest with 517.
READ: The Cannes complex – easy as A, B, C
‘Feel fantastic’
But chatting to bankers and capital advisers at various gatherings around Monaco, you get the sense business is moving. They would say this, particularly when clutching a glass half full, but it appears there is plenty of lending going on. The picture seems more nuanced than the fiscal backdrop of high interest rates might suggest. Age and perspective on what is a normal rate environment, attitude to risk and strategic decisions with an eye on other parts of the client’s portfolio are the drivers.
“The lowering of rates, an ugly election cycle coming to an end and the S&P at an all-time high all seem to be providing some really good buoyancy,” says Bob Denison, president of Denison Yachting, just arrived from Florida. “It’s encouraging to see so many Americans on the docks.”
READ: ‘I wasn’t a great yacht broker’ – Bob Denison
At the pre-show Marine Money Finance Forum in Monte-Carlo, Dan Mundy, head of global operations for yacht builder Ocean Alexander, summed up the bigger picture driving the appetite of owners.
“If you fly into Aspen you feel fantastic when your G5 [Gulfstream G500] hits the ground until the G6 pulls in, or the G7 or the BBJ,” he said. “These people are looking for the ultimate experience.”
Back on Kismet, Lürssen’s co-head of sales Alberto Perrone Da Zara suggests talk of a “market” at the top end is a “non-question” for the company. “The truth is that in the world, the appetite for these incredible items gets bigger,” he tells us.
“Sure, the Russians are not so frequently at our doorstep anymore, but if you deliver a quality product and seriousness in how you do that, you can’t get it wrong. The clients are here, they’re willing to pay, they need to understand the value.”
He says Lürssen has built up 150 years of “brand equity”. “We’re very lucky. We’re like those restaurants that always have food,” he adds.
Kismet’s engine room corridor has a space feel, inspired by the film “Tron”.
Target rich
Cecil-Wright has just represented the seller, alongside Burgess, of the 90m Lürssen Phoenix 2, which had been on the market for a year. “We had two buyers bidding for it,” he says. “It was a team effort, always a bit of stress at the end….but deals come and go. And if you’re in the right place, at the right time, and you’ve done the right job, they go.”
Cecil-Wright thinks the market appears “quite sensible” and “not overheated”. “We’ve got plenty of sales on the go, an 84m new-build project, charter is up this year again,” he says. “I’m just enjoying steady organic growth. The market seems to sustain our little business fine. It would be very easy to overexpand. But we’re keeping it real.”
Despite the show’s potential as a “target-rich environment” for brokers, Cecil-Wright says clients are “much better off” putting in an offer after the show in order to properly assess the competition.
Which neatly brings us back to the notion of serious buyers.
“I know plenty of great clients who come and fender kick every year,” says Cecil-Wright. “Does that make them a fender kicker or does that make them just part of our community?
“I go to boat shows with no intention of buying a boat. I’m happy with mine for now. Maybe one day. But I stay current by kicking fenders.”
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