Following five extremely positive and successful days, the 2nd Palma Superyacht Show (PSS) was held amidst the congenial and pleasant surroundings of Old Port area, situated in the fantastic Spain yacht charter destination – Palma. The event closed its doors on Sunday, May 4, 2014.
Palma Superyacht Show 2014 hosted by the lovely Spain yacht charter destination - Palma Photo credit to GW-Yachtphotography.net
Local and international visitors were treated to a line-up of 56 glorious superyachts and 34 service & equipment related companies onshore. An approximate 50:50 sail to power ratio meant the Show could lay claim as being ‘one of the largest sailing superyacht shows in the world.’
High visitor attendance proved conclusively the ease of accessibility, friendliness and laid-back nature of this lovely yachting region hit the spot with many. The organiser’s strategy to coincide the show with the 1st May public holiday and for it to take place at the same time as the prestigious Gaastra Palma Vela Regatta, clearly worked well.
Combining these facts, the number of existing and potential superyacht owners and charterers known to have visited the Show at various times was reported by brokers and exhibitors to have been high.
Justifying participation, Steve Worral, from onboard electrical installers and service agents, OC3EAN and ETY said: “The Palma Superyacht Show attracted quality visitors, many yacht owners and senior crew and we are very pleased with the contacts we have made.”
2nd Palma Superyacht Show - Photo credit to GW-Yachtphotography.net
With three significant yachts in the Show, Burgess / Oceanstyle, Senior Broker, Jamie Small, said: “We have received an offer on each of the yachts we had at the show.”
Other MYBA brokers were equally enthusiastic about the Show: Marc Händle, Sales Broker from Ocean Independence said: “We had high quality clients on board SY Mystere and, in fact, on board all of our other yachts during the show and we will definitely continue showing high quality sailing yachts here in the future.” Marc added: “In my opinion the Palma Superyacht Show has already developed in to the perfect platform for owners and brokers to present vessels in a beautiful atmosphere and at the perfect time of year.”
Fraser Yachts Sales Broker, Giulio Riggio, confirmed: “An excellent and positive Show once again!” and Thorsten Giesbert, also from Frasers sales office said: “I received two very reasonable offers from qualified northern European clients on two of my yachts at the Show!”
Busy immediately after the Show had ended, Jochen Brill, Senior Broker with Dahm International said: “I went out for two sea trials with three different clients onboard Jongert 2900M superyacht SCORPIONE DEI MARI and M/Y ALEXANDER K”
Palma Superyacht Show 2014 - Photo credit to GW-Yachtphotography.net
Joost Goverts, Broker/Director at Northrop & Johnson said: “The show was very positive with a good number of clients with some returning up to four times to inspect the same boat. One offer has been made already and we are now working in expectation of a further two serious offers.”
But it was not only sales brokers who benefitted. Plentiful enquiries were made for luxury yacht charter, confirmed by Ocean Independence Charter Broker, Barbara Müller who said: “It was a very successful show and you could see the improvement from last year. We got many interested charter clients on our 3 charter yachts present.”
Natascha Weber, Charter Director at Northrop & Johnson Spain said: “ I am thrilled to convey that we received no less than 10 promising charter enquiries from qualified new clients, including six for charters in the Balearics and the rest for charters abroad. All we need now is a final and crystal clear ruling about the exemption of the Spanish matriculation tax on foreign flagged vessels that want to charter here and BYBA/MYBA brokers here will be rolling!”
During the Show, similarities were drawn between Palma’s growing reputation as a world-class sailing destination, and that of Sardinia who’s Marina Portus Karalis were exhibiting with even greater ambitions for next year. Zdenko Radman, Operations Director, said: “Next year we will have an even larger stand, enabling us to promote the five different marinas within our network and the Island of Sardinia as a whole.”
Having stifled the domestic industry for so long, PSS benefitted from an upsurge in interest following last year’s announcement by the Spanish Authorities of the exemption for yachts of 15m and above, of the harmful 12% matriculation tax.
Summarising the net effect, Palma based Nick Stael von Holstein, Medical Support Offshore Ltd said: “I’ve had the best sales of any Yacht Show I’ve attended in the last 10 years!” Likewise Kety Sierra, STP Shipyard Palma confirmed: “PSS has grown in just two years and is now a top quality event that attracts many professional visitors.”
With an official partnership agreement in place with MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association, PSS (in its present format) remains a dedicated public-admission ‘brokerage and charter only’ Show organized ‘by the industry, for the industry.’ And with Spanish and Balearic maritime authorities behind the continued growth and future prosperity of this show, expect to see an even larger and more successful event in 2015.
