DELAYED GRATIFICATION

Superficially, this year’s Global Order Book (GOB) paints the picture of an industry in robust health, with 821 superyacht projects in build or ordered globally, an increase on last year’s number of 807. However, a dig down into the detail reveals a decidedly more mixed picture.

According to our research, some 159 of those 821 projects should have been delivered before the GOB year-end of September 1, 2020. They are counted again because they are delayed and officially remain “in build.” Delayed projects are nothing new – each year the GOB includes boats whose deliveries have slipped beyond our year-end, but the sheer number this year is significant, and double that of an average year. Covid-19, clearly, has played havoc with superyacht delivery schedules around the world.

Not all delays are equal, however. In some cases, the economic impact of the pandemic has forced the owners of some custom projects, and shipyards building projects on spec, to adopt a “go slow” approach. Elsewhere, lockdowns deprived shipyards of manpower and raw materials, with inevitable consequences for delivery schedules. In other cases, crews couldn’t access boats to begin training or sea trials, and some owners, seeing delivery dates slipping past summer, have opted to receive their boats in 2021, in order to get a “younger” model.

If we were to halve the number of delayed projects to 80,