Asia Pacific Yachting Conference 2017- talking shop in Singapore

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 5 Apr 2017 Like the telephone company says, “it’s good to talk.” Whether the principal benefit of a conference is listening to speakers or having coffee and conversations with the other delegates is open to question – maybe it’s a bit of both. In past years we have commented that the APYC programme seemed to consist of overseas experts shipped in to tell those of us in Asia how to raise our game. The theme of the Conference is always fairly similar, generally addressing the further development of Asia, ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific as a ‘yachting destination’, with the focus firmly on superyachts and the superyacht charter market end of the boating market.

Opening remarks from Andy Treadwell, CEO & Founder of Singapore Yacht Events, included the pressing need for regional integration and cross-border co-operation within the boating industry all across Asia. We can take that as read, although implementation of such joined-up thinking is tough, especially when boating and marine leisure activities (trying here to use as broad an expression as possible) are something relatively recently arrived on the governmental agendas in this part of the world – if indeed they have arrived.

The keynote address from Conference Chairman Martin Redmayne (The Superyacht Group) covered professionalism within the industry from brokerage to chartering to finance and crewing, and went on to outline some challenges and opportunities facing the superyacht industry.

This led on to a very informative presentation from Tahiti Tourisme, who seem to have got their governmantal ducks nicely lined up - meaning that the Marine Dept, the Immigration Dept and the Revenue Dept are collectively making things as easy as possible for visiting superyachts. “But it didn’t happen overnight!” said presenter Manoa Rey – seven years, to be precise. Tahiti Tourisme’s strategy has been to encourage visiting yachts to stay longer, make chartering as easy as possible, and put in place all the relevant infrastructure – Tahiti is a long way from the next stop, whichever direction that may be. It works. “A superyacht is a mobile economic ecosystem that contributes to the local economy, and to be encouraged.” Are we listening, Asia?

Prof Dr Indroyono Soesilo, Hon Adviser to the Indonesian Minister of Tourism, once again promised the audience that cruising through the Indonesian archipelago is “no problem”, so that’s good. It's practically an annual statement.

A panel discussion, ‘Asia Pacific Progress Report’, (Nigel Beatty, Asia Pacific Superyacht Association; Andy Shorten, The Lighthouse Consultancy; Rico Stapel, Boat Lagoon Yachting; Ruurd van Putten, Sailing Centre Vietnam) revealed that Japan has started getting visits from yachts via the Northwest Passage and that the Japanese authorities are climbing a learning curve that includes differentiating between a private superyacht and a cargo vessel, that cruising in Indonesia is “more about seeing than being seen”, and that recent heated excitement surrounding the Thailand Charter Licence has cooled off substantially.

After lunch, a further panel of Erwin Bamps (Gulf Craft), Martin Stothard (Echo Yachts) and Stephen White (Sovren House Group) asked the question “what does the current generation of yacht owners and charterers actually want?” Is the current ‘standard model’ of a 50m superyacht catering for 12 guests still appropriate? What about motor yachts aimed directly at day charter? And what about 36-passenger ‘mini cruise ships’? Martin Stothart described cruising in Asia as “expedition cruising, not superyachting as we know it… moving relatively short distances and usually from port to port.” Asia is not the Med: there’s more distance between the ports and less infrastructure when you get there.

Chartering a superyacht is not necessarily an economic afterthought brought in to defray costs – it can be a viable economic model, but it demands a different design of yacht. Not a boat drawn to one owner’s taste, but something targeted at generic hospitality in the design stage… like a small floating hotel. All food for thought.

‘Cleaning up Asian Waters’: a further panel discussion, involving Zara Tremlett (Phuket Yacht Haven), David Jones (Plastic Ocean Foundation) and Magafira Ali (Community Campaigner, Banda Naira). 300m tons of plastic are produced every year, an estimated 50% of it is used only once, and 8m tons ends up in our oceans, of which 20% originates from boats and ships. Plastic in our oceans is a huge problem, but it is not insoluble. First, stop it getting there at all. Next, remove it. And lastly recycle it into something useful. Plastic can be trapped and retrieved, chopped up and compressed, or even heated and turned back into oil (which of course is where it came from in the first place). Julian Chang (Seakeepers, Fraser Yachts) offered to get an engineering team on to a design brief to create a manually-powered plastic trash compactor – and we will keep you updated on that in due course.

The last session for the day was a look at what Asia can learn from the more mature yacht industry based in the Med. Ken Hickling (Sherpa 63), John Leonida (Clyde & Co) and Stephen White (Sovren House Group) had a few suggestions, some of which involved our old favourite, ‘joined-up thinking’. Well, it’s true. Just last week a yacht Captain in Cannes told me that neither he nor the owner of the 95’ vessel had any intention of cruising or chartering in Asia. “It’s just too hard. So many different regulations, and so much troublesome bureaucracy. No, we don’t want to go to Asia.” Asia take note!

Cruising the Med is an exercise in compactness and simplicity. It involves small distances, box-set history, and one annual season. Asia is a huge area, with a multitude of different cultures, long distances and multiple seasons (for cruising). It’s just not the same at all, and expecting to apply the Med Model to Asia is not a viable option – think again. In past years we have noted that the APYC has thrown up a good deal of “this is how it’s done in Europe” and not so much “how can we do it in Asia?” This appears to be changing. Today at the APYC was a ‘conference’ in the proper sense of the word, involving an exchange of information.

In briefly, the first day of APYC 2017 was full of information, and asked some pertinent questions that will no doubt engender further discussion. And now there’s tomorrow to look forward to.