Review of the Market 2024-2025

By Sue Grant, berthoninternational.com

Another year, another Berthon Book, this year the twentieth iteration of the publication which is now part of the fabric of the Berthon Sales Group. Putting it together is always a favourite job for us, starting with ideas and deep thought in my trusty shed, and then mild surprise as Berthon clients, supporters and team members step up to the mark and agree to write for us.

BERTHON INTERNATIONAL HQ – LYMINGTON MARINA

Of course, a vital part of the recipe is the Berthon fleet, both new and pre-owned, all of which have a place amongst its pages. As we move inexorably towards more use of moving imagery, we are now supporting our in-house publications with Collections of interviews, still imagery and a lot of moving imagery to show our brilliant yachts and the people that work on our team internationally.

The Berthon Book cover shot always creates lots of discussion around location – for we aim for iconic shots of sea and headlands, that are a RIB ride away for Harry Shutler our in-house photographer. Most shots seem to involve oilskins, extreme discomfort and finding a day with the right light. This year a swim for Harry was also included to get the perfect angle. Naturally, pleas for a waterproof camera continue to be ignored, mainly by me! This year’s shot is of Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight, just outside the Solent. The image taken inside a double cave formation captures the Bay’s iconic rock stacks.

2023 was a challenging year as the Covid bounce diminished to a wobble with prices normalising and sailors taking a break from breakneck yacht acquisition. 2024 is proving a more balanced year, with the pricing landscape normalising to 2019 levels and a more dynamic market for all our offices. This is against a backdrop of truly awful international news with the tragic troubles in the Middle East, the continuing conflict in Ukraine and political instability in many other parts of the world. With half the planet voting this year for administration change or otherwise, this adds to the uncertainty on Planet Earth.

As if this was not enough, we are still not being kind enough to our planet and the climate is telling us this loud and clear. British weather has always been a subject of enormous interest to the British and we are famous for starting most conversations with mention of it. These days it is not so much a British foible but something that the whole world talks about with concern. We are proud of the yachting industry for the innovation and work that is being done internationally to make yachts cleaner and greener and to address the carbon footprint of yachting. Organisations like MYBA of which we are members, are working on this tirelessly and the use of renewables, solar, wind and electric drive, all help to make yachts tread more softly and more in harmony with Earth.

For all of this, yachting provides escapism and an opportunity to explore, discover and spend time with family and friends in a way that is unique. Whether you are cruising locally or crossing an ocean, the opportunity to shrug off the cares of our 21st century life is welcome to all. For this reason, people are still interested in yachting in all its forms and are investing in its unique ability to adjust the work life balance to just the right tipping point.

We saw clearly that the market was changing in 2023 and so we made some important changes in 2023 and into this year to continue to be effective as a Group. For sure, the biggest change has been in marketing and delivering better marketing for our fleet via photography, video, and online marketing, which is now fundamental to the way in which yachts sell. I am old enough to love yachting magazines with that wonderful smell when they arrive fresh from printers and the excitement of opening their pages for the first time to read, front to back, finding my favourite sections. They are piled up in my office and they are old friends. However, their effectiveness as a marketing tool is dwindling. This publication will appear in hard copy to great excitement, but I know that the majority of reads will be on-line and that the videos featuring the articles is a key part of the offering.

New yachts passed a Rubicon in 2023, as the demand diminished just as manufacturing was ramping up together with cost – up an eyewatering 15% to 35% – caused by increased labour and materials costs, driven by unhelpfully high inflation and interest rates. We felt that we wanted to sell new yachts to owners and not to be owners ourselves. At these increased prices, we feel that owners want to have a stake in their new yacht, to watch her in build for them, and not to simply pick out a yacht already built for stock, not personalised to their wishes.

This means that our new yacht portfolio is somewhat changed. We are delighted to represent Solaris Sail in the UK, East coast of the USA and in Sweden and Finland. This year has seen the delivery of a 40ʼ, 64ʼ and the first of the mighty 74s. We have a 64ʼ and 55ʼ in build for 2025 delivery. Excitingly, we are now also representing Solaris Power in the UK. Epic sinuous retro motor yachts with epic sea keeping and sweet lines from the board of Brunello Acampora, who writes for us this year.

BERTHON USA – NEWPORT BERMUDA RACE ABOARD THE MOODY DS54, SOUTHERN CROSS, IN THE FINISTERRE CLASS. © BRF STEPHEN R CLOUTIER

Also in our stable is the Pegasus 50ʼ and we are looking forward to a larger sister which will be equally fabulous. Of carbon for fast, easy, short-handed sailing from the incredible designer Marko Pas who has been a friend of Berthon for many years. Propulsion via electric drive is an option.

We continue to work with Rustler, looking after their interests in the USA, and these captivatingly pretty yachts continue to win hearts and minds in the American market. They are perfect on the East Coast with their larger yachts sailing far under the American flag.

Also in the USA, we are pleased to represent Moody. This European import is perfect for local waters and capable for the trip to the Caribbean, giving owners the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful double season.

In the UK, we maintain the same crew and watch as the clock ticks and the number of collective working years at Berthon grows for us all. The Sales Group is managed from this office with the help of our wonderful marketing team, and we understand that the voyage towards excellence does not end and that we can always improve, so we work hard to innovate and to continue to up our game. It is a fun process in an environment where we are all boat mad and love the yachts that we market and sell – many of them multiple times.

The Mediterranean is a very busy market currently, as Brits, Americans and other non-EU nationals are enjoying the opportunity to cruise on Temporary Arrangements without the payment of VAT. Of course, the European contingent is also strong as good weather, practically guaranteed sunshine, wonderful ports and great cruising are on offer. We decided that we needed to be focused, so with heavy hearts, we closed the French office at the beginning of 2024. This gave us the opportunity to increase our footprint in Palma de Mallorca – Berthon’s home in the Mediterranean. We have a new sales office in Palma and the service operation in Palma continues to grow exponentially under the guiding hand of Andrew Fairbrass.

It is a big area so we have added a service point in Valencia as well as an effective Berthon face in Italy in the form of Filippo Martini, who has been able to guide us through the complexities of the yacht market and unique sales process, in a territory where amazing yachts of all hues can be found in brokerage captivity.

We all love Sweden for its stunning coastline, pretty ports and the extraordinary high quality yachts that are built on its Island of Orust. Our offices at Henån in the heart of the island, a hop and a skip from Najad and Hallberg-Rassy, continues to grow. Of course, this has been assisted by a relatively weak Swedish Krona but to be honest it has more to do with the lovely yachts that are found in Sweden which enjoy a 16 week season in temperate climes before being decommissioned and then wrapped up in warm, snug sheds for the winter. Their condition is excellent and who wouldn’t want a yacht in such sparkling shape? Magnus Kullberg and Fredrik Sundberg run the Swedish team with great effect and the growth curve for this office is truly amazing.

The USA market has had its challenges this year, particularly at the start of the year, where yacht buyers sat on their hands and didn’t even lift a phone or tap an email to make an enquiry. This all ceased in mid-Spring and activity is now as we would normally expect and the team are busy with both local and international enquiries and sales.

The Southern hemisphere is another great market and new are enjoying taking our first tentative steps into yacht brokerage here. We have always had some traction in
this exciting market, but we are now focusing on doing more by working with local partners.

For all our offices, we have noticed that smaller yacht sales are the most vulnerable, in contrast to our segment where there is enthusiasm, contracts and sales. We believe that only when smaller new yacht production levels fall significantly, will small yacht sales recover. For now, there are far too many yachts chasing too few yachtsmen which is never a successful recipe for success.

We make a point of keeping the Berthon Book pure without advertorials or advertising from others in the yachting industry. The articles (which you will find far more interesting than this scribble) are all on subjects that interested us and we hope that you will find them fascinating too.

We do not seek to sell you goods and services from others but simply to provide you with what we think is a rattling good read, as well as a chance to have a look at the current Berthon fleet.

The yacht business is changing and becoming more complex. The need for thorough KYC (Know Your Client), knowledge of contract, VAT, title and the rest, is for sure more complicated than ever before. The wonderful world wide web has allowed us to do so much more, and so much faster, but of course it has also brought with it many pitfalls, most of which we could never have anticipated even a few short years ago. The increase in cyber crime with on-line criminals finding ever more ingenious ways of mis-directing funds, money laundering and a legion of other new crimes, make the use of yacht brokers who understand the risks and have the systems in place to deal with them, totally key.

FILIPPO MARTINI – BERTHON ITALY © FOTO STUDIO TACCOLA

Buying and selling yachts today is a serious business and the days of a handshake at the Yacht Club and a cheque passed across the table at lunch are long gone.

For all that, it is a fantastic industry in which to make a living and none of us would really want to do anything else. Specialising in high quality sail, power and performance yachts from 40 feet to 120 feet, we have some amazing yachts on the fleet from full carbon rocket ships – light as a feather and strong as an ox – to 4 wheel drive explorers with range enough for a cruise to the moon, to performance power yachts housing a ridiculous number of horses, to gentlemens’ launches, to the captivatingly pretty or those with presence and plenty of attitude. We love them all.

We so hope that you enjoy this edition of the Berthon Book and we look forward to joining you on your journey to yacht purchase or sale.

Fair winds and good sailing from the whole Berthon team.

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