EDITORS NOTE

EDITOR’S NOTE

SUPERYACHT KNOWLEDGE EDITION 2

By the time you receive your new edition of Superyacht Knowledge the 2022 Summer season will be over, and by all accounts, and from what I hear, it will be remembered as one of the best on record.

Considering the problems, or maybe because of them, our fleet of yachts have been kept incredibly busy with Owners, or Charter Guests, seemingly wanting to be at peace on the water. As expected, many yachts have not travelled long distances, held back, one would assume, by the cost of fuel, but they have still needed Yacht Agents, these lynchpins of our industry have been kept very busy, opposite to the dearth of clients many had through 20/21.

Yacht Agents have a very narrow window of opportunity to make hay, only a few summer months, during which they have to make the income they need to carry them through to the following year, while at the same time keeping their qualified staff in employment. Captains/ Owners may complain about agency invoices but the nature of professional yachting is such that if you want Agents to maintain the quality services yachts need, they have to, in some way, pay for the winter months.

Let’s now delve into the new edition of Superyacht Knowledge, as readers of Edition 1 know, it is an eco-friendly concept that allows companies the space to explain themselves fully to a perfectly targeted readership that own or operate the worlds fleet of large professionally run yachts. Many Captains find their suppliers through referral, seeing this in operation on my www.SuperyachtCaptains.com forum is interesting, who is good, who is exceptional, who falls by the wayside, all intriguing stuff, but in Superyacht Knowledge I endeavour to take the best of these companies and many others that I have known personally over many years a step further and to hopefully make life onboard a great deal easier.

Wouldn’t planet Earth be an incredible place if just one company efficiently supplied fuel, only one crew, only one agency services, but the world does not work like that. Certainly not the world of luxury yachting. At a guess 95+% of Owners have only one vessel. To compare this to the commercial shipping industry, where one exceptional company owns upwards of 700 vessels, the yachting industry is fragmented and massively over regulated compared to my time at sea in the 80’s. It is tough to access in scale as it is divided into small units, each one needing the professional services of many specialist companies to operate.

New companies are constantly appearing as Crew move shoreside or individuals break from established businesses, they have 1 or 2 yachts/friends to cater to, rarely enough to survive, many cut corners to bring down prices as charged by the more established and regulated firms, many disappear, but the good ones thrive. They grow because of Knowledge, Commitment, Networking etc. and believe me just those three points alone are all expensive ideals to fulfil. Knowledge costs time, money, the best knowledge is not free, be it subscriptions to specialised platforms, time spent at conferences, courses etc., commitment is not having vacations, missing home and family, putting the company first above all other things, and networking is a lifelong task, from the day you step into this industry to the time you step out, every day is a networking day, everybody your persona crosses is a possible future client.

Superyacht Knowledge magazine encompasses those three, for our clients we disseminate their knowledge and offer it to our readership, without knowledge a yacht would never leave its berth and this magazine would never be published. Commitment, providing editorial for Superyacht Knowledge takes commitment from our clients, as does producing the magazine itself and it does not end there. It then has to be delivered onboard, if promises are made in this industry, they have to be upheld and it takes commitment. And networking, Superyacht Knowledge is a great networking tool, let’s not forget, networking is often considered to be a faceto-face experience, some hate it, others thrive on it, but every piece of knowledge transferred is a network stepping stone, Superyacht Knowledge is a networking tool, when you read an editorial and have a need for the product/service you can make contact with the company concerned and get personal. Enjoy.