While many are still reeling from the impacts of the global pandemic, we’ve now moved far enough away from the event to garner insight into how its impacted attitudes and behaviours, and whether new trends have emerged from those dark years. In our context – yachting – there aren’t many people better placed than Michel Chryssicopoulos, Global Managing Partner at IYC, to shed light on how the pandemic impacted the yacht market.
Michel, can you briefly introduce yourself and explain what you’ve been up to at IYC?
My name is Michel Chryssicopoulos and I’m half Danish, half Greek – a combination of two heritages. I lived in the US for quite a few years before joining the family yachting business in 2003. My business partner and I then bought IYC in 2016, working hard to reorganise and restructure the brokerage house, shaping it into the solid, lean and aggressive company that it is today. We hired quite a few young people and we’re doing very well, riding on this extremely strong market that we’ve all witnessed these last few years.
March 2020 came as a shock to all of us. During those early months it truly felt like we had come to the end of an era. The market performed in the exact opposite way then our initial reaction presumed it would: during these past three years we’ve followed the market, and possibly out performed the market on both the brokerage and new build side.
Last year alone we had 91 superyacht sales, across our 14 offices. As we speak, we have eight new build projects underway, including the 43.9-metre Project Illusion that you featured in How to Build It, as well as two superyachts exceeding 70-metres, both under The Italian Sea Group umbrella. There’s a lot of exciting stuff to come.
Personally, I haven’t seen issues in supply chains causing an effect on large custom builds, yet. There are many ways to overcome certain hurdles, and I haven’t been confronted with longer lead times on our larger projects. We are dealing with a couple of series yachts, and I can feel the supply chain pinch more here, whether that’s sourcing engines or spare parts.
Have you seen any recent changes in attitudes to cruising destinations?
We definitely have seen a huge uptick in those looking to charter the waters of Greece. Pre-pandemic, the region accounted for less than 15 percent of the global charter market, but now it's the most visited destination, claiming close to 30 percent of the market. We have a big presence in the region, with 50 superyachts available for charter in Greece alone – all of which were pretty much booked throughout the whole season. 
You know, it's a tough question. We’ve definitely seen an increase in young people entering the market, especially those from tech and crypto sectors. Notably, at the beginning of the year, we had a central agency on an 80-metre superyacht that was sold to someone that had made their money through Bitcoin. It’s a sector that’s been hit pretty hard these last few months, so we’ll likely see a downwind here. But there are definitely newcomers in the market. 
There has been a significant uptick in American transactions – a region that has always been a huge driving force for our industry, but specifically for IYC as we're also US based. I do expect with the US and Europe parity right now that the US will continue this drive. A Euro-denominated yacht is now better priced by 10-15 percent (quote, unquote, cheaper). Couple this with the depreciation scheme, which is expiring in the US at the end of the year. I think we can expect a nice last quarter to wrap up the year with a good bang – and then worry about 2023!
Have wider conversations on sustainability-driven any market trends?
Catamarans – both sailing and motor – are trending. I was cruising the Greek waters this summer and smaller catamarans are literally in every bay. It’s a trend that I believe is here to stay, and the market will keep on expanding both in terms of offerings and size. Five years ago catamarans were few and far between, and now it's definitely a segment of the market to watch. 
We're aiming to become a tech company, so investing very heavily on the digital side of things, mainly for charter but for sales as well. We’ve acquired an IT company with 10 developers, and we’re aiming to have an E-commerce environment on our website, within the first quarter of 2023.