Nothing shocking about learning that the number of superyachts being built has hit its highest ever as they are the world’s wealthiest favorite new toy. These obscenely rich people who certainly make millions in a day and have religiously abstained from traveling, shopping, and splurging for months, owing to the pandemic, made the adage, ‘Money saved is a superyacht earned,’ come to life. They saved enough money (or developed a liking for superyachts aping their fellow billionaire friends) to result in a whopping 25 percent increase in superyacht orders with a record 1,200 boats commissioned.
Even smaller boats resulted in a 30.5 percent increase year on year. The previous highest level of orders was seen more than a decade ago, in 2009, of 1,008 superyachts, according to figures in the latest Global Order Book, published by the magazine Boat International. Still, in contrast to the ordinary working man or woman who had a tough time making financial ends meet, the world’s richest actually made good money during the pandemic. The surge is not a result of them saving their allowances.
According to Sky News, billionaires saw the steepest increase in their share of global wealth since the World Inequality Lab began recording figures in 1995. They boosted their net worth by an additional $3.60trn last year. Boat International editor-in-chief Stewart Campbell said: ‘Records are tumbling across the superyacht industry… the smaller superyacht sector is on fire, with many product lines sold out for the next few years. But there’s also a record number of the very biggest boats in build, as well as explorers, which shows once again that today’s superyacht owners are getting more adventurous.’ Among the countries that flaunt a fantastic coastline and billionaires who enjoy it by getting superyachts are Italy with 523 orders and the United Kingdom, which ranks fifth with 81.
