Superyacht Investor London 2020: Day One who said what
(Photo by Ben Hoskins)
The first day of Superyacht Investor’s 2020 conference opened with a session on what keeps captains awake at night, before moving on to consider the trend towards more sustainable yacht designs, cyberattacks and a host of other topics. Here we report key quotes from the opening day of the two-day conference staged at The Landmark London on February 5th and 6th.
Richard Bridge, Bridge Yachting
- “Managing people is the biggest part of the job of being a superyacht captain.”
Piers French, Superyacht Captain
- “There are owners out there who will not take no for an answer.”
Corey Adcock, Superyacht Captain
- An old captain once told me: “What we do as captains is drive boats and deal with other people’s crap”
Jamie Edmiston, Chief Executive, Edmiston
- “Over the past 12 months, I’ve seen a noticeable shift in people’s opinion to environmental situations.”
- “There have been a few yachts sold to Chinese buyers, but I wouldn’t say it [the market for superyachts in China] has exploded yet.”
- “The yacht shows are either a complete waste of money or fantastic depending on if you sell yacht.”
Olivier Blanchet, Head of Jet & Yacht Finance, BNP Paribas
- “This industry has to move fast in the right direction. How we respond to this challenge will be key to the success and the longevity of this industry, including maritime bankers. Definitely for banks, we have to go further than the Poseidon Principles. One of the key features now is to assess the carbon footprint of our portfolio.” [The Poseidon Principles provide a network for integrating climate considerations into lending decisions to promote shipping decarbonisation].
- “If you look at the scope of private banks, there are very few who can lend money against yachts. It’s not necessary to have this type of product to be a private bank.”
Paolo Cassani, CEO Camper and Nicholsons
- “My opinion is not to persuade owners but to guide them. It’s part of a wider approach to the market that brokerage companies should have. I think it’s a matter of better knowing our customer to match their expectations.”
Simon Brealey, Principle for Mechanical Engineering, Lateral Naval Architects
- “The future is zero, zero carbon, zero emissions, sustainable.”
- “If we think differently about all aspects of the yachts there’s lot of low hanging fruit to be picked off here.”
Jenny Matthews, Chief Officer & Founder, She of the Sea
- “We heard here today we face a crew shortage. But we do not face a crew shortage, we face a competency, talent and passion shortage.”
- “We need to realise that we need to value competency over gender.”
Richard Masters, MD & Partner, Master Yachts
- “If you go up to the 60m range and above, there is a big jump in the qualifications that the crew need for the horsepower.”
Will Christie, Head of Sales, Y. CO
- “There a more and more of these bigger boats coming out but are the owners going to be able shift them [when the times comes for resale]?”
Per Bjornsen, MD, V. Ships Leisure
- “Luxury cruise liners are becoming more commoditised.”
Mathieu Salomon, Technical director,Camper & Nicholsons Marinas
- “A typical UK household uses 0.5 kw and a superyacht uses about 500 kw.”
Tony Browne, Marina Director, Porto Montenegro
- [Regarding birthing locations popularity] “It is not just a question of catering for these yachts it’s a question of demographics too.”
Campbell Murray, Blackberry
- [On the subject of cyber-attacks] “There have been several real-world examples of hijacking, using cybercrime on a ship.”
Malcom Taylor, ITC Secure
- [Responding to the claim there’s nothing you can do about cyber attacks] “It’s an incorrect view, there’s a lot of things to significantly manage the risk so you can sleep soundly at night about it.”
- “There is one cardinal sin you can make about this subject and that is to ignore it.”
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