According to a recent BOATPro report, Americans own the highest number of superyachts worldwide, commanding an estimated 25-40 per cent of the global fleet. A shipyard that knows this only too well is Ocean Alexander, a brand that has rapidly risen to the forefront of the US yachting industry. Its popular Legend, Revolution, and Explorer lines and the newly launched Puro series cater to diverse market demands. BOAT’s Hannah Rankine caught up with Ocean Alexander’s head of global operations, Dan Mundy, to understand the US yachting scene, the appeal of Ocean Alexander to today’s American yacht owners and the future trajectory of this vibrant market.
Are there any differences in trends between East Coast and West Coast superyacht buyers?
The West Coast is definitely more conservative and has been with us longer. It's not that there is a variance of wealth, it’s the reality of where people can go and their lifestyle. California can be quite restrictive - they don't like marinas and boats littering their shoreline, they want to see everything protected and beautiful. The taxes are also very high there, not only on the purchase of the boat but on the ownership of it too. Then you shoot over to Florida, which has the Bahamas as an amazing cruising playground and some nice boating around Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Miami, but there is a tax cap. So there's no one trying to figure out tax strategies on the East Coast and getting things like new marinas is much easier. Regulation is much friendlier to the yachting community at large.
Looking at the yachts in attendance at Ocean Alexander’s two recent owners’ events, our East Coast Rendezvous and West Coast Rendezvous, you can really notice the difference in the market. While the East Coast showed much wealth with some of the newer Ocean Alexander models, the West Coast gives you kind of a walk down memory lane with some of the more classic Ocean Alexanders, a sampling of the history of this company.
Have you noticed a shift in the demographic of your clients over the years?
Without a doubt. I would say that the shift probably happened between 2018 and 2019 when we introduced the Revolution series. There was probably a belief that the Legend series was pretty traditional and embodied a typical motor yacht for the American market. When we launched the Revolution series, we had no idea it was going to be such a shift for us. Initially, it may not have been a younger crowd but definitely a younger lifestyle of the same demographic. They saw something that was a little bit more aggressive and forward-thinking. There are more owners than I have ever seen today in their 40s and early 50s. Our data shows that many owners of a product we sold over the last three to four years converted out of those ‘household names’ of European boat builders and into Ocean Alexander.
What sort of features on board Ocean Alexander yachts cater to this “younger lifestyle”?
Undoubtedly, the concept that I would say that has put a tremendous dent in the market is the skylounge. Instead of having a more traditional open flybridge design, I think you need conditioned air, especially in a warm market like Southeast Florida and the Bahamas. Having this massive space, almost like a little penthouse, gives you 360-degree views all the way around and elevates you from the water level, giving you more privacy from surrounding boats. The introduction of the beach club has also been a game changer.
So when you combine the two, you have the beach club at water level, which has been imagined in different ways by different owners, then as the day goes on, you could migrate up to the skylounge. It's like having a house that borders the sea where you can go to the beach in the day and then you can go up to the highest floor of your house and look out over the ocean as the sun sets.
Have you seen much of a demand for eco-friendly and sustainable yachting solutions among US buyers?
We are not hearing a lot as far as demand but we are investing a lot as a company. Everybody needs to be a good steward of the environment. Our waste treatment systems put out a product almost equal to a domestic water purification programme. We are looking at how we can spend money to make sure that waste is disposed of properly and not recklessly.
It’s the same with drinking water. The most important thing when you're out cruising is hydration. We have the technology now where you can have perfectly good drinking water on board that comes from desalinisation rather than provisioning a yacht with 50 cases of water and huge amounts of plastic waste.
Then, of course, there’s dealing with the engine manufacturers, generator companies and emissions that end up in our waterways. As technology improves and we start to see hybrid solutions that work, we try to be at the forefront of them. The difficult part in any industry is how the marketing talking points meet the reality of use. It's great to have talking points on, for example, electric cars, but if you can't go far enough to get anywhere and there's nowhere to charge it, there's a problem. Technology is sometimes really fast, sometimes it takes some time. Moving a vessel that weighs a third of a million pounds through the water requires power to do it. Yes, you could use electric propulsion to get you started, but it won't get you too far. As this technology is evolving today, we are having conversations regularly on how we can support it and find ways to get it onto our vessels.
How will the US superyacht market evolve in the next five to 10 years?
We continue to have a really strong cadence of sales. Looking forward at the order book, it still has plenty of sold boats in it, which tells me that people are still confident in forward-looking. As a general statement, my outlook is very positive. We were very strong going into the Covid phenomenon and now we're on the other side of that. With so much advancement happening in technology and so many people coming into the industry during these times, exceptional growth has come from that. This was an industry and a lifestyle that a lot of people maybe thought about and they actually acted upon. Ocean Alexander today is very strong, our brand recognition is incredible and our market share is industry-leading.
To find out more about Ocean Alexander’s range of superyachts, contact the shipyard today.
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