Superyachts are floating markers of power and luxury, and sales are booming. As Australia hopes to lure more of the vessels and their elite clientele, what do we know about this world?
Visible from the footpath at the water’s edge, the superyachts berthed at Melbourne City Marina bob gently up and down, their sleek and shiny exteriors reflecting the placid waters below.
In a recent memoir, the longtime Australian seafarer and superyacht captain Brendan O’Shannassy writes: “Until space travel becomes a commercial reality, [superyachts] are the greatest display of wealth on the planet.” There are only about 120 superyachts owned by Australians, concentrated mostly around Sydney Harbour and south-east Queensland. About half of them are charter vessels. It’s likely all of them have, at some point, been through Captain Richard Morris’s hands.
The Sydney Olympics in 2000 began to usher in a new Australian era for superyachts, Captain Richard Morris says.“That was the beginning of superyachting in Australia,” Morris says. “Prior to that, only a few people here had superyachts, because there was the tall poppy syndrome – high net wealth Australians were reluctant to show their extreme wealth.”Morris says. The marina development was partly to accommodate the super wealthy who were planning to bring their yachts down for the Games.
Australians used to be more reluctant to display their wealth on things like superyachts due to ‘tall poppy syndrome’, says Captain Richard Morris.Until just prior to the pandemic, superyachts could not come to Australia without the owner paying a hefty tax on the vessel, with the visiting multimillion-dollar vessels treated as though they were being imported permanently into the country. That changed with the passage of the Special Recreational Vessels Act 2019.
The industry estimates that the local market for superyacht charter or purchase is 1% of the population. It sees it as a subset of the cruise market, which is estimated to capture about 5% of Australians.
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