Xclusive Yachts may not be a well known company in the Med, yet, but Amit Patel and his team have been breaking the mould in the Middle East and setting the trend, we found out more.
There are few people within the industry who can truly claim to have brought more people onto the water than Amit Patel and his company Xclusive Yachts. While Dubai may be a waterfront city, with innumerable companies touting the opportunity to spend time on the water aboard Jet Skis and other water toys, the yachting industry in the region was arguably nonexistent in the mid-2000s. That was until Patel entered the scene, establishing a boat and yacht charter company which has since exploded into a highly successful day cruise, onboard events and tour company.
It all started when I was 21, I was managing a private yacht in Dubai on behalf of some wealthy individuals who lived in London. They rarely used the yacht and I saw the potential of a commercial opportunity whereby I rented it out here and there to people who didn't own their own vessels. The owners were supportive and I seized the opportunity, working out how to formalise a licence and register the company as an official business.
The issue was that no one operated a business like that at that time, the activity of renting out boats literally didn’t exist in Dubai and it was very difficult to introduce a new type of activity to the government. We even had to build our own code, but gradually the business became established and that was the birth of Xclusive Yachts.
From the beginning we were typically offering yachts of 70-foot and below for 2-3 hour charters and we were booking two, maybe three charters per week, today the charter scene has changed dramatically. 
In those early days we were booking a 2-3 hour charter for around 20,000 dirhams, today that same yacht will charter for around 2,000 dirhams, but rather than two charters a week we do three to four charters per day!
Not only has interest grown, demand for larger yachts has also grown in size. We started off with that 70-footer, then bought an 86-foot, then a 48-foot and so on. Today we own more than 70 boats, ranging from tenders right through to the two superyachts we acquired in the past two years. What we’ve seen most of all is the diversification of the demand; we have fishing boats, sports yachts, tenders. You name it, we have it! The demand has really just grown and we’ve grown to meet it.
What led you to establish the sea school and subsequently the boat club?
As the business grew, other companies also popped up in Dubai offering similar services and we realised we needed to diversify beyond buying and renting boats. We also wanted to be able to expand our clientele and the best way to do that was to get people onto the water. In Dubai you need to own a yacht in order to drive it, and that can be extremely limiting, so we established a sea school to train people to drive boats.
We are an RYA sea school in Dubai and we have hundreds of students training and learning how to drive boats every year. The next step was to open a boat club for boats below 12 metres, so students could get their powerboat qualifications and then immediately have access to boats on their doorstep.
Members pay a monthly fee and the idea is that we remove the hassle and cost of owning a boat yourself, giving members the opportunity to drive as many yachts from the Xclusive Yachts fleet as they want per month. People want to be able to arrive at their boat and everything to be in working order so that they can maximise the time on the water, without the headache of worrying about breakdowns or technical issues. That is what we offer to our members.
The great thing is that we are getting people on to the water, making that first connection between them and the sea and it is that first step that creates future yacht owners. We recently had a student come to the school to do his powerboat licence who’d never been on the water before. He’s just got in touch with me saying he’d bought a 35-metre yacht!
Yachting is an elite activity and has historically been reserved for the wealthiest segments of society. What we wanted to do is give everyone the opportunity to experience yachting in an affordable way and that's why we introduced yacht tours. For $50-$100 we offer a three hour cruise, with food and drinks and the opportunity to tour the top sights from a yacht, with 15-20 other people, with a swim in between.
The offering has been massively popular and now we operate 15 boats at the same time doing five tours per day, but it's still an exclusive experience. We have an arrival lounge before departure where guests are met and can get coffee in a comfortable and cool environment, before being taken onboard by the Captain and crew. Despite the number of charters per day, we have always prioritised excellence and so the experience is always deluxe, with good food and great service. 
Before Covid we were looking into European expansion and the purchase of Behike was the first step in that direction. She is being managed fully by Camper & Nicholsons and we are now deciding whether or not to bring her to Dubai, or to retain her in the Mediterranean and use her as a base for the business there.
After we bought Behike we decided to buy a similar sized yacht in Dubai and we came across Stardom in 2021 and have just finished refitting her interiors. With Stardom we are about to launch our latest product called Superyacht Tours which will be a level up from the Yacht Tours we already run.
Like the other rentals, she’ll be available for 2-3 hour charters, but guests will have the full European experience. We have a fantastic chef, a DJ and a brilliant crew and we can offer her for 30-50 people to enjoy for an afternoon at an affordable price, something which does not currently exist in Dubai, or really anywhere else. We are really excited about this and we can already see that the demand is there, so there's no doubt that the product will do very well. 
Definitely. Our first vision is to launch a Boat Club in Europe for 12-14 metre yachts. But before we start buying vessels we need to really look into the numbers and the possibilities. Dubai is far more open when it comes to regulations onboard, such as how many people are permitted on a vessel during a charter, than in Europe, which will have an impact on the business model. For the moment we are looking a bit closer to home with expansion into other parts of the Middle East, and that is already keeping our hands full!
Amit will be speaking at next week's Gulf Superyacht Summit, to buy tickets and get the full programme, head to the website.
This article was originally published in Issue 43 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.