The Scotia 44 at Slip 10B

Strictly Sail Miami at Miamarina, Bayside ran from last Thursday to this Monday. We had incredible weather with a light northeaster keeping temperatures in the 70′s and 80′s. I exhibited aboard the Scotia 44, a Canadian model being built at Snyder’s Shipyard in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. We had a steady stream of clients very complimentary about her unique old world charm and sexy new age lines. Nationalities spanned the globe from Italy, Spain, China, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and all across North America. Certainly there was a proud plurality of Canadians admiring the fine craftsmanship of their country and romance of Bluenose II.

Three specific features of the Scotia 44 seemed to attract comment, admiration, and awe:

The Real McCoy of Oz

1. Plumb, Fine, Flared Bow: The Scotia 44 features a dramatically flared bow with an incredibly fine entry. I and attendees constantly chatted about the difference in performance between the fine, plumb entries of the adjacent Beneteaus and which lack the Scotia’s flare. Our most seasoned Scotia sailor touted that compared to their previous Catalina 400, the Scotia really cuts through seas. I joked that next year the more blunt nosed Beneteaus would copy our flare.
2. Airy Interior: The combination of the light interior wood and large windows made the interior incredibly airy and open feeling to visitors. They loved the contrast from the darker veneer of the Beneteau, Tartan, and Passport comparables.
3. Twin Engines: Most shocking to clients were the twin engines. “Why?” they almost universally asked. The answer is twofold: manoeuvrability and redundancy. One, you can spin on a dime. Two, if one engine fails, you can still motor into port with the remaining engine. The Scotia 44 will go 5 knots under one engine.

The show was productive way to generate leads, spread brand awareness, and get feedback on our new offering.

The Hylas 56 and 49 in the background.

Other Thoughts

• I was surprised to see another yacht, the Seaward 46, also featuring twin diesels.
• The multihulls had as much dock space as the monohulls.
• Traffic and parking was atrocious limiting attendance especially with the Heat backetball game Sunday afternoon.
• Hard to find a better looking boat than the Hylas 56.
• Hard to find better interior craftsmanship than on the Tartan 4000.

Joke of the Week
They are dredging the harbour in Halifax. A tourist was watching divers sitting on the gunwales of the smaller craft lean backwards, flip over, and splash into the water backwards. He tapped the shoulder of a Halifaxian and asked, “Why do they go in backwards?” The Halifaxian sat and thought for awhile without saying anything. After a long pause he said, “Well, if they dove forward, they’d still be in the boat.”

Sure to be a highlight in Miami - the new Hylas 56

This year’s Miami Show opens Thursday, the 16th, and runs until Monday, the 20th. Locations are the Miami Beach Convention Center, Sea Isle Marina & Yachting Center, Miamarina At Bayside. Larger yachts because of bridge height restrictions slip at Sea Isle while the majority of yachts will be at Bayside. Compared to Fort Lauderdale, the show is about sailboats instead of megayachts with most the major manufacturers represented as well as a good group of brokerage boats. The audience of Miami is international including a strong Latin American audience. Overall Miami is a show you will enjoy with many outside entertainment opportunities. Here are some items of interest to enjoy.

• Multihulls Galore – Strictly Sail has become a one stop shop for the best and newest multi-hull designs. Come by and compare Lagoon, Leopards, Outremers, Fountain-Pajot, and all the other major brands in one spot.
• Offshore Yachts – While they skipped Lauderdale, the high end offshore monohull builders like Hylas, Passport will be here with their latest models.
• International Flavor – Miami is truly a mixing pot of Latin American cultures and also European. The show is US based companies best shot to impress these growing markets who love yachts.

And feel free to stop and meet me in person at Slip 12B at Bayside representing Scotia Yachts.

Joke of the Week
(This joke is a variation of the one told last week inspired by an Australian couple I met who had jolly, twisted sense of humor.)

The operation went ahead but the Englishman woke to find a look of horror on the face of the doctor. “I’m so terribly sorry!!” the doctor said. “Instead of removing half the brain, I’ve taken the whole brain out”. The patient replied, “No worries, mate!!”

Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Stuart / Fort Pierce (affectionately known by the spoonerism Port Fierce) are the three areas where I most often interact with yachts. I have been reminded of this fact over the last few weeks as I have been tearing up the road on sales and service among the three cities. It is a two hour drive from Lauderdale to Stuart versus an hour drive to the Miami River area. Without doubt the largest brokerage market of the three is Lauderdale with 1,631 yachts for sale compared to 1103 for Miami and 574 in Stuart. Due to democraphics, geography, and infastructure, the areas vary dramatically in the type of people and yachts you will interact with.

Miami
The defining characteristic of Miami is her large latin demographic. And let’s be honest a seriously degraded infastructure from the Bertram and Merril Stevens heydays. The yachts here are mixture of 15% sportfishers, 20% motoryachts, 10% sail, etcetera. The key geographic structure is Biscayne Bay, a protected area for daysailing, racing, and otherwise messing around. Another 15% of the inventory is asking over $1 million.

Fort Lauderdale
Lauderale is all about the luxury motoryacht market and crew lifestyle. The best facilities and support groups make their home here to an ever higher end clientele. About 25% of the yachts in Lauderdale are asking over 1 million, 10% of the inventory is over 100-feet in length. Geographically there are 300 miles of navigable water among the Dania Cutoff, New River, and Intracoastal.

Stuart
Stuart is a more rural area with less sophisted infastructure than in the more developed south. It reminds many of what Lauderdale once was with an important difference – shoaler water. This depth problem has limited the size of yachts with only two 100-footers currently in the area and less than 5% with a valuation over $1 million. The lack of shoreside entertainment in the retirement style area has hurt the area’s growth (Orange Ave isn’t exactly Las Olas north). The area does have the deep and large basin port of Fort Pierce which eventually will see greater use when the local economy turns around.

Conclusion
Miami, Lauderdale, and Stuart harbor most of South Florid’s yachts. The other missing link I drive to is Saint Petersburg on the west coast of Florida, an area with 516 yachts for sale. The four cities account for 25% of the inventory in Florida.

Joke of the Week
A man walks into his doctor.
“What seems to be the problem, Johnny?” the doctor asks.
“Well Doc, I am just too smart,” says the patient. “I wish I wish I was normal and could enjoy myself like everyone else instead of over thinkng everything. Please help me.”
“I can make you of normal intelligence, but I must warn you the procedure cannot be undone. Do you want to still do it?”
“Yes, yes anything Doc!”
The doctor hooked him up to the machine.
“Now I am going to turn this dial, and it will lower your intellignce until we get to an average IQ.”
“Whatever you say, Doc. Let’s do it,” replied the patient.
The doctor started turning the knob.
“How are you doing?”
“Feeling good, Doc.”
Then all a sudden the doctor’s hand slipped and the knob went all the way down. The doctor panicked and tore off the electrodes from the patient.”
“Johnny, Johnny! Speak to me!”
The patient looked up at the doctor and said, “Go Gators Go.”
He had reached the lowest possible level of intelligence.

During Miami Strictly Sail, February 16th to the 20th, we will be aboard the new Scotia 44, “The HUMMER of the Oceans,” in Slip 12B at Bayside Marina. If you would like to schedule an appointment or receive more information, please inquire via Jordan Yachts. More information is available at www.ScotiaYachts.ca.

Every year, the dominant multiple listing service hosts a get together for brokers in South Florida. The event took place yesterday at the Panorama Ballroom at Pier 66. A couple hundred brokers and friends gathered to listen to the latest in online marketing, FYBA legislative affairs, and the poor European economic outlook. Overall themes were the usefulness of QR codes in print advertising, the growth of social media especially Facebook, and the important of mobile devices such as iPads and Android phones. I shared a table with my collegue Kevin, a Canadian broker named Don, a lovely charter broker named Nicole, and Trevor who owns First Mate Yacht Care and live blogged from the event.

While many of the tools presented we already use to market our yachts, I came away more excited than ever about our plans in the video, mobile, and social media spaces. I have seen some actual sales generated from our online activity and think we are developing some game changing ways to provide value to yacht buyers and sellers and validate our existence as a productive member of the maritime industry. Look for hints on these features as we continue to roll out new ideas in 2012.

Parable of the Week
A monkey and alligator came across a banana tree lush with ripe fruit. Banana trees were rare in that particular swamp, so they soon became engrossed in an argument to who the banana tree should belong to. After much debate, they agreed that they would split the tree and each take a half. The monkey who knew much more about banana trees coyly asked the alligator which half he wanted.

Moral of the story: In the long term, sometimes what is brown and dirty is better than what is green and lush.

A question came up recently about what new sailboats are currently being built with the continued economic conditions. To gauge this fact rationally, I took a survey of what is available on the brokerage market from 2009 to 2012. I also limited the search to yachts over 40-feet in length. The results are subject to limitations such as a variance for low volume, semi-custom manufacturers such as Hylas. Also the results say something about the length of ownership. Manufacturers with very happy buyers would expect them not to offer their yachts up for sale within 3 years of purchase. Albeit with those limitations, the results covered below do give guidance to which manufacturers are likely selling more yachts despite a down global market. Group Beneteau is the clear winner in volume with its Beneteau, Jeanneau, and Lagoon brands. Nautor Swan slightly edges them in total valuation for a single brand at $30 million vs. $29.5 million in Beneteau inventory. Swan’s number is buoyed by the 90′ Swan, Red Sula asking $11 million.

Columns in order are the manufacturer, total brokerage listings post-2009, number of listings that are larger than 50-feet, number that are smaller than 50-feet, and total valuation of listings. Records were limited to larger than 40-foot yachts.

A Take-Away
The biggest surprise to me had nothing to do with the volume or valuations of individual manufacturers. I was surprised at the high percentage of over 50-foot catamarans being built. Usually we say a 40-foot catamaran is equivalent to a 50-foot monohull. I was thinking that production would mirror this comparison and that as a percentage monohull manufacturers would be building longer yachts. In fact the exact opposite is true. Overall longer than 50-foot yachts make up 44% of the post-2009 production class while over 50-foot catamarans make up 49% of the total 137 catamarans built since 2009. Not only are catamarans double the width, but they are on average being built longer. Buyers are not trading off between a 50-foot monohull and a 40-foot cat. They are just purchasing 50-foot catamarans.

Other Statistics
Comparing overall trends in terms of overall location, number of hulls, and overall length, post-2009 yachts are more often found outside the USA (86% vs. 79%), more often catamarans (21% vs. 9%), and more often longer than 100-feet (5% vs. 3%). Please feel free to contact me for more information about my statistical methods and confidence intervals.

Joke of the Week
A farmer, his wife, and son from deep in the country travelled for the first time to a big city. The wife went shopping, and the farmer and his son were left wandering around the streets. They stopped in front of a giant skyscraper and starred in awe.

The farmer said, “Son – go get your mother.”

Celebrating 20 Years of Selling Yachts

This year, 2012, is the 20th year since Jordan Yachts incorporated and started selling yachts in Fort Lauderdale. This waypoint makes me feel proud and gives me pause to think about our impact in the community and more widely abroad. It never gets old to me to speak with someone who remembers Jordan, invariable with high regard from many years ago. I love hear their stories, the names and places oh so familiar. It helps me put meaning to my life and that of my family.

I also am continuously overjoyed as I interact with the same people who have been around for not just the 20 years of Jordan Yachts but 40 years of us engaging in the local maritime industry. What a good feeling it is to have business or personal relationships with people you have such history with. I hope they get the same good vibes back.

To any clients, collegues, partners, ectera, I hope to interact with you soon again in 2012 whether it is a phone call, an email, or the sale of another yacht.

Joke of the Week
A squirrel sat on the bank of a lake. In the center of the lake was a log with an acorn on top. The squirrel, desirous of eating the acorn, cleared a runway and scurried back. He ran as hard as he could, jumped the farthest ever in his life, and landed on the log in the center of the lake. He sat down and enjoyed eating the acorn.

A little later, an alligator stuck his hand out of the water and carefully placed another acorn on the log.

The Hunter 50: A Dying Breed?

Offshore mono-hulls demand a market share because of inherent comfort, performance, and durability trade-offs as compared to multi-hulls. But I question sometimes the longterm viability of production mono-hulls for cruising, those vessels under the brandnames Bavaria, Beneteau, Catalina, Hunter, Jeaneau, etcetera which are targeting more towards island hopping and coastal cruising than circumnavigation. Their design trajectory towards ever beamier widths and higher cabintrunks naturally ends in a catamaran design. Why would one purchase a production mono-hull when it seems their goals would be best realised with two hulls?

At the low end it is partially price. If you are looking at under 40-foot, production mono-hulls, they do not make many under 30-foot catamaran (the 10-foot difference is the baseline for comparing accommodations, ie. a 50-foot mono-hull is equivalent to a 40-foot catamaran). But at over 40-foot the options open up, and at over 50-foot you have many choices for an equivalent catamaran to match the price and accommodations of your production mono-hull.

Another price related argument is the cost of berths and haul-outs. It is true that berth prices can be double that of a mono-hull because of the difficulty in accommodating the extreme beam of a cat. But this beam issue is a facet of infrastructure and a short term one. New marina’s are being built to accommodate cats, and with ever increasingly sophisticated equipment, yard’s are able to more easily lift cats. Looking in the long-term, the costs of owning a cat will come down, and cat benefits like minimal draft and stability on the hard could make berth and lift costs increasingly reasonable.

So assuming we are in the larger market, cost issues will be mitigated in the long-term, and performance issues are less important than accommodations, what are the benefits to choosing a 50′ Hunter versus a 40′ Lagoon?

Winter Arrivals at Royale Palm

As foreshadowed in my summer report, autumn was show season starting with Newport in September and ending with the Fort Lauderdale show around Halloween. It started slowly which was not surprising. Clients go into research mode during the show season before either purchasing a new yacht or emerging with sticker shock. With the continued soft economy, especially in Europe, most former new build clients are purchasing late model pre-owned yachts. Fall Jordan sales included an Amel 48, Cabo Rico 36, and Freedom 38. New listings included a Brewer 12.8, Ericson 35, and TomCat 9.7. I did another delivery to Cartagena, Colombia, this time aboard a Leopard 46.

Currently the Royale Palm Yacht Basin is filling up with winter arrivals. Most of these have come down after summering in New England or Annapolis. The hurricane insurance restrictions are over, and these yachts want to enjoy the winter season instead of winterising. The sales business transitions south as well with the increased inventory, and the deferment of most northern sales until the weather warms. It is hard to figure how they sell anything up north during this season with yachts on hard and if not unbearable conditions offshore. Cruising is not that fun for most in cold weather.

Looking toward the winter and 2012, We have been super busy recently, so hopes are high for continued progress in the slow recovery of the worldwide economy in 2012. The end of the year holidays will slow things down this weekend and through New Year’s day. Then show season returns momentarily for the February Miami Boat Show. We will be there representing Scotia Yachts of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. So stop waiting and get on with fulfilling your dreams. I hope to see or hear from you sometime this winter.