Palma Superyacht Show opens with big ambitions

30 April 2014

The second Palma Superyacht Show opened this week, with big ambitions for the future and a focus on sailing superyachts.

The event showcases brokerage and charter yachts over 24m in length, and runs from 30 April to 4 May. The number of participating superyachts has grown significantly since the first edition of the show in May last year, with a last-minute surge of around 10 yachts bringing the 2014 total to 55. The word on the pontoons is that the number of serious buyers has increased too.

‘In the last 20 years the Balearics have become one of the most important nautical centres in the Mediterranean, so the boat show has been growing with that,’ says Chema Sans, director of the 31-year-old Boat Show Palma, out of which the Superyacht Show developed. ‘Now we want to be the biggest brokerage superyacht show in Europe. We are planning to dredge an area to increase draft and next year we will have room for much more bigger boats.’

At 28, the proportion of sailing superyachts on the dock is notable. It reflects the Balearic’s reputation for good sailing and the number of sailing superyachts already berthed in the vicinity. Well known hulls include the 38m Fitzroy Ganesha, CNB Bordeaux’s 33.65m Hamilton II and 43.2m Vitters Mystere and 40m Concorde Mirabella. The largest yacht on show is Vitters’ sailing yacht Thalia and the youngest, and arguably most significant, motor yacht is the 2013 Moonen 100. See yachts for sale at the Palma show.

The Palma show was started by the Balearic Yacht Brokers Association and is the only public-admission superyacht show organised by the industry. Significantly, it is supported by MYBA in order to prevent the price increases that have made many other European shows prohibitively expensive for some owners to show their yachts. ‘A 47m motor yacht at the Antibes show came in at €12,200, Palma came in at €6,800,’ says Matthew Fisher, a broker at Dubois Yachts and chair of the MYBA sales committee, who had been doing some research for a client.

‘The agreement with MYBA is to help secure the future of the show for the industry, so that it continues to be run competitively by the industry, for the benefit of the whole industry,’ notes Toby Maclaurin, former MYBA president.

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