“It’s time to tear up the luxury rulebook and redefine the outdated yachting experience for a new generation that values Freedom over Things.” Charlie Birkett of Y.CO shares his thoughts on the future of the yachting industry.
Over the past three decades that I’ve worked in yachting, I’ve seen how the industry’s trends have been revolutionised by the evolving priorities of owners and their charter guests. The world's wealthy are not only increasing in number, with the 2022 Wealth Report by Knight Frank recording a 9.3% increase in the number of Ultra-High Net Worth Individuals between 2020 and 2021 – but they’re getting younger too. By 2025, it’s estimated that 45% of the luxury market will be made up of millennials and generation Z. These clients are no longer interested in commissioning floating palaces and decking them out as symbols of wealth. Instead, they view their yachts as platforms for adventure, and are stocking them with everything from surfboards to submarines, helicopters to all-terrain vehicles, dive equipment and ROVs; and the list goes on. A new principled and adventure-hungry generation of yacht owners is coming, and they are turning their back on the traditional yachting experience and asking what else their superyachts can do for them. 
As an industry, yachting can be particularly veiled. Used to the type of client who values privacy overall, and whose loyalty can be counted on, it operates in a unique universe that is seemingly only accessed through an individual broker, and where an unlimited menu of options is available only to those in the know. But for the new hyper-social generation, who are used to sharing every aspect of their lives online, and who expect to find information at the touch of a button, this approach can be alienating. Just like our clients, we need to become better at sharing. At sharing the amazing escapades we create for our clients, to inspire future charterers. At creating platforms where opinions can be exchanged between charter guests and owners. And finally, at sharing responsibility for the client itself, for the overall betterment of the client experience. Just as at Y.CO, where clients are serviced not by an individual broker, but by the entire team working together to elevate their experience; we need to be less afraid to build upon a wider network of specialists, from specialist crew to local expedition leaders, drawing all the niches together in order to create something amazing for our clients. We call this our community. A network of talents and relationships that interact to make experiences on the water the best they can be.
For yachting to flourish, we need to evolve as service providers. It’s no longer enough to sell the yacht, arrange the logistics and send clients on their way. For many of our clients, for whom money and the ability to travel are infinite, a week or two cruising around the Caribbean no longer cuts it. They want to experience out-of-the-ordinary destinations in out-of-the-ordinary ways. That might mean a day spent kayaking with orca whales on the Antarctic peninsula or skiing virgin powder slopes in Greenland. It might mean a deep-sea submersible expedition in the Atlantic. Or it could be as simple as teaching their kids to swim in a deserted Croatian cove.
Whatever the destination, we always show clients what lies below the surface. Because the joy of the yachting experience isn’t just about the polished part; the amazing breakfasts, the Michelin-starred dinners. It’s about the two or three unforgettable moments – Gary and I like to call them escapades – that will stay etched in the client’s memory forever. It could be the thrill of their stargazing-obsessed son being shown to use a sexton by a crew member, or the characterful, colourful little Paella stop in the Balearics that nobody else knows about. Our job as experience-creators needs to go far beyond locating the yacht and suggesting the destination. It needs to surpass simply asking our clients what their favourite food is or what newspapers they read in the morning. It’s about getting to the heart of what a good experience looks like for them, then drawing on our community of talents and specialisms to create the kind of escapades that will remain in their memory for a lifetime.
The emergence of this new generation that doesn’t value owning in the same way as it values doing, raises the question of who the future yacht owners are. If we can build a trusted community and elevate the yachting experience enough to inspire this new, adventure-hungry audience to see beyond the asset and envisage the escapade; if we can help them imagine not just what their yacht is today, but where it could take their family tomorrow, then the popularity of yachting has the potential to expand in ways never seen before. It’s time for our industry to step it up, and we’re happy to be leading the charge.
This article was originally published in Issue 41 of SuperYacht Times newspaper. To read more stories like this one and to never again miss another issue of the SuperYacht Times newspaper, subscribe here.