Fraser Yachts Reviews the First Quarter of 2011

ST TROPEZ, FRANCE, April 06, 2011 (Press-News.org) Sales

Last year saw definite strides being taken towards a market recovery even if they were slightly shorter strides than anticipated. 2010 saw the luxury yacht market experience a 30% growth in sales from figures the previous year, reaching a total in excess of 2.5 billion Euros.

On the market in general, Fraser Yachts CEO Hein Velema commented, "Hopefully, the strong start to 2011 is an indicator of good things to come for the rest of the year. Perhaps we could even drop the term "cautiously optimistic" and just reduce it to "optimistic" if you look briefly at Fraser Yachts' sales as an indicator, you'll see one per week (over 24m) year to date. If that carries on at a steady rate then things on a global level will definitely be looking up by the year end."

Although brokers have not witnessed the predicted levels of sales forecast, they did however comment on the steady and significant increase in both the number as well as the value of yachts being sold during 2010. Fraser Yachts have reason to be optimistic of the year ahead based on first quarter figures. CEO, Hein Velema continued, "We are optimistic based on our results for January and February 2011 that the brokerage market has hit bottom and that 2011 will be a year of consolidation."

Charter

Although last year's predicted luxury yacht charter recovery failed to materialise this year has got off to a good start with definite signs of a market recovery.

"We had very encouraging bookings throughout the winter and yachts are still being booked so the season looks like it's going to carry on for a few more weeks yet. We were fully booked in the Caribbean over the holiday period," comments Velema.

Clients from traditionally strong chartering nations are beginning to return. Nations such as America, UK, Italy, France, Ireland and Russia are all looking to book their super yacht charter as normal. Vessels available for Italian and Mediterranean yacht charter are in a strong position with clients seeming to prefer the traditional luxury yacht charter zones to the more exotic destinations. It is unclear whether this is down to security or simply general economy.

Refit

Keeping up with the general industry recovery the refit side to the luxury yacht market also seems to be heading in the right direction. An increase this year of 30% over the first quarter of 2010 is encouraging, although this rise has come due to a greater number of contracts rather than any increase in overall value. Unusually there has been an increase in owners opting to perform serious refits to smaller yachts (20-25m). It seems owners are choosing to refit and modernise than trade up at present.

Fraser Yachts is a full service yachting company offering super yacht charter and mega yacht charter, luxury yacht sales and construction, as well as yacht management and crew-placement services. For further information regarding any of these services please visit the Fraser Yachts website at www.fraseryachts.com.