Despite a turbulent period during the height of the pandemic, the boats and yachts industry is rebounding with UAE’s Gulf Craft calling the first quarter of 2021 their “strongest” in three years.
On Sunday, the shipbuilding company premiered the world’s largest composite production superyacht, the Majesty 175, which was sold for $35 million (the announced price before the extra options and additions). The luxury superyacht was manufactured in the UAE over a period of four years, despite the financial and logistical difficulties imposed by coronavirus.
As people accepted that “the pandemic was here to stay and adapted to it,” the last quarter of 2020 saw signs of improvement and the first quarter of 2021 “was better for us in terms of demand than the past three years, even better than before coronavirus,” said Mohammed Alshaali, chairman of Gulf Craft. He credited these results to coronavirus related restrictions creating increased demand.
“What helped us in the global boats and yachts industry is that, because of the border closures, people were unable to move freely, go to hotels or travel to big cities. They therefore decided to seclude themselves in a private place, and the best place to do so is in a yacht or boat,” said Alshaali.
“I know people who used their yachts once or twice a month before the pandemic and now use it every day because they find it a safe haven where they can control who is on board, be it the crew or who they invite to join,” he added.
Gulf Craft sold two yachts to customers in Europe during the pandemic, showing the boat and sealing the deal with them over video communication platform Zoom.
“This is how our life is changing and we are adapting to that and still being able to deliver and ship our yachts,” said Alshaali.
This followed a difficult period during the pandemic which “hurt Gulf Craft very badly,” said Alshaali describing a bleak situation where his company had to halt production for a while, were unable to secure material and faced “financial challenges” with creditors asking for cash payments and customers not paying their bids on time.
However, production of Majesty 175 continued and “with a lot of dedication, effort and hard work from the team, we were able to finish it the way it is,” said Alshaali.
As global demand for boats and yachts is on the rise, worldwide supply is low due to manufacturing and logistic delays during the pandemic-related lockdowns, creating a sellers’ market, explained Alshaali.
This is positive news for Gulf Craft which has seen its UAE-manufactured brands of yachts and boats gain traction in global markets and recognition as industry leaders following its pioneering work with Majesty 175.
“Building a superyacht out of composite material had never been done before, and people doubted we could do it, but we did it with Majesty 175 and we are now hearing that big companies in Europe are following suite which means we opened new doors for this industry,” said Alshaali.
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