MONACO (AFP) — Always more beautiful, always more expensive and always longer, yachts on display at this week's Monaco Yacht Show (MYS), the biggest mega-yacht show in Europe, are a perfect illustration of the increasingly lavish demands of billionaires.
"Compared to the aviation or automobile industry, we are for the moment, a micro market," said Luc Pettavino, the show's organiser. "But the sector is developing exponentially."
And at present, demand for these ocean-going palaces is greater than supply.
"The market is still small in comparison to the dozens of billionaires born around the world every year, each one of whom aspires to owning a yacht," said Pettavino.
So great is the demand, waiting lists can only get longer with yachts ordered this year standing a good chance of not being delivered before 2013.
In total, 97 yachts - 60 percent of them over 40 metres (132 feet) long - are on show this week until Saturday.
More than 500 exhibitors are present, among them the 15 biggest custom yacht builders in the world, as well as equipment providers, designers, architects and various technicians.
This year alone, 800 yachts of over 24 metres (79 feet) in length - with either sails or motors - are currently being built around the world. And according to MYS figures, between 2005 and 2010 the number of these craft, measuring over 25 metres (82 feet) in length, will double, while the number of those longer than 50 metres (165 feet) will triple.
Clients are for the most part American and European, but the profile is changing. "In the last two or three years, we have also been seeing Asian clients, notably Chinese," said Johan Pizzardini, MYC spokesperson.
The very biggest yacht on show in Monaco this year is the 82-metre-long Alfa Nero (270-foot), built in The Netherlands by the OceAnco company.
The "greenest" boat is the 50-metre-long Tribu, which notably boasts water recycling equipment, non toxic paint and heat filtering windows that reduce air conditioning usage.
She has been awarded the "Green Star" prize this year, by Rina, the gold standard Italian yacht builder.
The price of these boats, and the identity of their owners, is a very private matter.
Michele Flandin, marketing manager of OceAnco, will not comment on the price of the Alfa Nero, but the biggest vessels are known to cost over 100 million dollars (70 million euros).
As to maintenance costs, they run to somewhere between five percent and seven percent of the initial value of the yacht, including equipment costs, port fees and general upkeep, explained Flandin.
Although the biggest private yacht in the world is currently the 160-metre (528-foot) long Dubai, owned by the Sultan of Dubai, it will soon be outdone by the aptly-named 165-metre Eclipse, currently under construction for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
The Eclipse, which has among other useful items, several helicopter landings and a pool, is also stocked with a submarine, just in case anyone suffers an aerial attack and needs to leave in a hurry.
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