Palma the charmer spotlights niche in market
Cassiopeia, a converted marble transporter, for sale at the Palma International Boat Show.
He pats the bronze-plated block and points out the shining brass work as he recounts the tale of how the 37m wooden sailing yacht Cassiopeia evolved from a marble-hauling workhorse into a coveted one-off classic back on the market after 14 years.
For broker Tim Langmead of Fraser Yachts, it is a story worth telling which elevates the sale beyond a mere transaction.
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Cassiopeia was built in 1939 to transport white marble from the quarries of Carrara in northern Tuscany down the Italian coast to Naples before entering her second life in the 1960s as a private yacht for the Fiat family. Now in her “third or fourth iteration” she has been extensively refitted and customised by the current owners.
“She’s theatrical this one, like a drama. She should be in a movie,” Langmead tells us as we chat under the awning on Cassiopeia’s aft deck one sunny morning at the Palma International Boat Show.
Niche market
Since listing her for sale at an asking price of €4.5m just after the Monaco Yacht Show last year, Langmead has had plenty of interest with repeat viewings set for Palma.
“It’s a niche market but there are families who have seen the silhouette of the boat around Sardinia every summer and contacted me as soon as it came on the market,” he adds.
“Sailing yachts are less than 10% of the superyacht market, and then a classic sailboat within that is much smaller, but as you walk around it you sort of fall in love with the boat.”
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Lady Hertha was a fire ship in Liverpool in World War II.
Langmead is also representing the 26m Lady Hertha, an elegant 1935 steel-hulled Yarrow & Co. motor yacht which was requisitioned during World War II as a fireboat filled with foam to douse blazes on ships bombed in Liverpool docks. Designed by G.L Watson and most recently refitted in 2024, the seller has owned her 14 years and would like to see her go to the “right home”.
“She’s gorgeous, a real work of art,” he says. “We’re waiting for a classic sailing yacht owner who needs a mother ship to go back to at the end of a day’s racing, have a nice dinner and a decent gin and tonic and go to bed while the race crew wash down the racing boat next door.”
For Langmead, the extra layer of history with a classic boat adds to the allure.
“A lot of these boats have tales, perhaps Frank Sinatra was on board or whatever, and that adds to it,” he says. “You are a custodian of these classic boats − as long as they are well maintained. You don’t want a bucket of bolts that has to spend three years in a yard.”
He adds: “All of the people who own these boats are smart people, very clever with their money so it’s a heart-over-head choice. Typically, they have had other boats but this is a lifestyle choice. A Jaguar E-Type is not the car to commute across London in, but it is beautiful.”
The 44m Magic is a 2025 Vitters with an asking price of €45m.
Exquisite boat
Cassiopeia and Lady Hertha encapsulate the charm of the Palma show, with a handful of motor yachts up to about 45m alongside sleek, clean-lined sailing yachts and old classics, plus a host of smaller vessels below the 24m threshold.
“This show has a great niche,” says Richard Lambert, head of sales for Burgess.
“The sailing yacht market has a steadily decreasing share of the overall market, but in saying that, you will see some stunning sailing yachts here.”
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Casting his eyes out from the upper deck of the 37m motor yacht Perle Bleue, put up for sale by owner Shayne Smyth, the Australian entrepreneur who is at the show, Lambert singles out Burgess’ 43.9m Lethantia, a 1994 Royal Huisman sailing yacht he describes as “absolutely beautiful” and a “labour of love”. Then there is the sleek, grey 44.3m new-build Magic from Vitters, an “exquisite, exceptional boat” asking €45m.
“The passion that a lot of the owners have for their sailing yachts is something a little different,” says Lambert. “It is about the journey rather than the destination in a number of cases.”
With his finger on the pulse of the overall superyacht market, Lambert is “quietly confident” verging on “quite optimistic”, despite world events, including tariffs, trade rows and conflict. Langmead’s phrase is “cautiously optimistic”.
“A lot of our clients like stability to feel confident to move forward in yachting,” says Lambert. “People are being slightly less bullish now, and maybe just putting the brakes on slightly but to counter that we have seen a real uptick in interest.”
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Sailing yacht specialist Will Bishop, partner of Superyacht Partners sold two boats at the show last year and is three-handed this year. He says the show is “going from strength to strength” and is seeing a trend for 30-35m performance boats given the added attraction for owners of racing and joining the regatta circuit.
As always, pricing the boat correctly is the key to a sale, he says.
“If you’ve got a good product that’s been well maintained and is a reasonably new build, it will sell pretty quickly,” he says over coffee on the deck of the 36.8m monohull Bliss.
“But when you’re buying something of 10, 15, 20 years old, then you obviously need to do a lot more due diligence and you need to be priced accordingly because the running costs of a 30m boat are very different from running a 45m boat.
“It also depends where it is in its life cycle. We’ve got Bliss here at €9.5m, which is a good price for a 15-year-old composite boat. It’s had a lot of maintenance and investment, and it will sell close to that asking price.”
The Palma boat show specialises in yachts up to 45m.
Glint in his eye
Bliss will, however, be a reluctant sale, he says.
“A boat you had in your 20s or 30s might not be the same type of boat you want in your 50s or 60s,” he says. “I was chatting with the owner of Bliss yesterday and he was telling me his favourite places to go in the South Pacific and you could see that glint was still in his eye; he doesn’t really want to sell his boat.
“But everyone goes through a time in life, with changes or different dynamics, don’t they?”
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Over on Nomad IV, the 33.4m 2013 sailing maxi, Bernard Gallay, CEO of Bernard Gallay Yacht Brokerage tells me it is the same story for his owner. He first put the boat up for sale in 2018 before deciding to embark on a circumnavigation, hopping on an off the boat as it cruised around the southern hemisphere. After a full refit in 2023, he is now selling to buy a custom catamaran. The twin-hulled market is increasingly important, Gallay adds.
Gallay described 2024 as an “absolute record year”, helped by two big sales in September and November which accounted for about 30% of turnover.
“Selling is so irregular, you never know, but this year, frankly, the start is not bad and charter is good,” he says.
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