Born in the period from 1984 to early 2000s and raised during the heyday of online technologies and social networks, they are not just changing the portrait of a conventional yacht owner. They have totally different views on what yachts and time on board should be like. How will this “rejuvenation” to the age of 35-45 affect the yachting industry and what matters to generation Y most?
Stay connected
The first priority is fast and stable connection “just like home”, necessary for communication, work, entertainment and using latest onboard systems that optimize handling and operating a vessel.
Covid restrictions experience added even more importance to it: the global switch to remote work turned out to be a new and often preferred life format. Not many people are planning to go back to the office. There are quite a few options to ensure good connection on board these days, but if you think not only of coastal areas, it is believed that the best strategy is hybrid solutions, using the advantages of different groups of satellites – low earth orbit, medium earth orbit and geostationary – switching from one to another automatically for optimal coverage and speed.
Be responsible
Customers are getting “greener” not only in terms of age. Most major shipyards are investing actively in the development of more eco-friendly kinds of fuel (we talked about it here), hybrid propulsion systems and lower emissions technologies, while designers start thinking of using the architecture of the vessels for natural shade and ventilation.
A more conscious attitude to gaining and consuming energy on board gradually turns into a more conscious attitude to consumption in general. Millennials seem to be ready to make sacrifices and pay extra for greener technologies and equipment.
It looks like the status and prestige that are most often associated with owning a yacht are less important to them than the footprint their yacht leaves on the environment. It is important for this generation to see that their values are not just shared, but followed, too. In answer to this, some European shipbuilders like Italian Sanlorenzo, Dutch Oceanco and Damen Yachting or Finnish Baltic Yachts initiate various projects in terms of corporate responsibility not only to the planet, but to their customers, business partners and employees, too.
According to Henry Hawkins, CEO of Baltic Yachts, “in the coming years we can expect to see increasing scrutiny from clients as to how we conduct ourselves and our respect for the environment and each other.”
Thirst for adventure
Millennials want new opportunities and true adventures, even if the infrastructure is poor, or there is a need to get a special permit from the local government, or to pay a lot more for a helicopter, a submarine, an off-roader or a walking guide for a «sea+land» format.
The new customers seem to get bored at crowded anchorages in the Mediterranean, as there’s nothing much left to discover and explore. What they really want is to come back home as winners, who survived a dangerous adventure, captured it on their phone camera and shared it on social networks. And it is one of the reasons that there is a growing demand for expedition vessels, that are capable of opening new horizons, rather than conventional “white” yachts, as well as for more and more exotic locations offered by charter companies all around the world.
“The main change that we have seen in bookings from younger clients — approximately 45% of our charter clients are under 40 years old — is in the destination choice. Younger clients are looking to get off the beaten track and have an ‘adventure’ charter”, says Frances Edgeworth, charter broker at the Fraser Yachts Monaco office.
So, what’s next - the Cote d'Azur? No, thanks, Svalbard and the Northern Lights, please…
Not on the phone
Interaction with the new generation of customers at the pre-sale and booking stages has almost totally gone online. Millennials seem to ignore traditional advertising tools and skip laudatory reviews, but they do scrutinize manufacturers and brokers’ social media pages, check out customer and expert reviews, ask for virtual tours of the boat, etc. They value real stories, reputation, tone of voice on the media and fast and flexible reaction to their requests.
As an example, one can look at what it was like with a request to use cryptocurrencies: following Denison Yachting and private jet charter companies since 2018 more and more brokers and shipbuilders started adopting bitcoins and etherium.
“We have a reputation for being first to market and use a lot of technologies, but it's really just about trying to take care of a client,” explains Bob Denison, President of Denison Yachting.
Invest in experience
Based on consumer behaviour studies, generation Y tends to value the process rather than the result, and to invest in experience and not ready-made products. Hence, millennials’ reluctance to buy production boats, where the only thing they can change is the colour of the upholstery.
On the other hand, due to lack of time and expertise, as well as a desire to have everything here and now, they rarely opt for building a fully custom boat from scratch.
In answer to the request for the opportunity to personalize one’s boat without spending tons of time and delving into technical details, shipyards offer either numerous opportunities for customizing their vessels or platform projects. The latter allow the customer to organize the space on board to their taste. For instance, they can blur the lines between exterior and interior spaces, which is a trend that we have already written about here.
Today platform yachts are built by Sanlorenzo, Heesen, Damen, Baglietto and others. Recently even Oceanco and Rossinavi, known for custom superyachts exclusively, have come up with their platform projects, too, which are Simply Custom and Nolimits respectively.
Portrait of a millennial
As active users and consumers of visual content, many of the millennials value the features that appeal to the eye and look good in the photo and video. One of the recent examples is King Benji explorer from Dunya Yachts, the owner of which told Design Unlimited studio that “every wall has to be so crazy that if someone were to come on this boat, they would want to take a photo in every single room”.
By the way, the owner of King Benji that we mentioned above, Josh Golder, is a vivid representation of the new generation of owners. As described by Greg Marshall from Gregory C. Marshall Naval Architect, who developed the exterior design and architecture of his new boat, Josh is a driven and energetic forty-something person, who wanted to build an explorer with a true ability for crazy adventures, with every imaginable toy on there and numerous large doors and windows to feel a real connection with the marine environment.
What mattered most to him when he was choosing a design studio and a shipyard, was their ability to give him personal attention. Although at times even the most experienced professionals went silent and took his requests for whims – like it was with the plunge pool that was half cold and half warm. And to make sure Golder was happy with the final design project and layouts, he was not offered to look at them on paper or on the screen, but to walk around a giant three-dimensional scale model of his yacht wearing 3D goggles – quite in the spirit of the new tech-savvy generation.
Millennials started changing the yachting industry, which is traditionally ready to listen to the customer. They set lots of new trends that one has to reckon with. It is unlikely that each and every customer will want an explorer and head for Antarctica, but the arrival of generation Y will certainly affect what yachts and time on board will be like in five to ten years’ time.
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