THIS YACHT’S JUST SUPER
$25M MASTERPIECE CRUISES IN
THE superyachts are coming, with city marinas gearing up to cater for a big boat flotilla.
Berth bookings have started flowing in less than a year out from the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast with Southport Yacht Club rushing to build new berths to cater for them.
The club plans to build up to four superyacht berths on top of the nine it already has at its marina. It has confirmed its first superyacht booking, coming from overseas for a month during April’s Games, and is close to confirming two more.
Gold Coast City Marina at Coomera, which last month hosted the country’s first ever Superyacht Rendezvous to promote the sector, has shifted the 2018 event forward so it is one week after the Games due to the expected big boat influx.
Southport Yacht Club general manager Brett James said he had always been confident superyachts would descend on the Coast during the Games.
“We are looking at putting in three more berths and maybe one more on top of that,” Mr James said.
“It is definitely something we need think about.”
Gold Coast City Marina CEO Trenton Gay, the driving force behind the Superyacht Rendezvous which attracted 16 boats, said he expected double for the next event.
“Our 2018 Superyacht Rendezvous will be at the end of the Commonwealth Games because a lot of superyachts will already be here,” he said.
“One of the superyacht captains said you know how you got 16 this time, you will struggle to fit them all in next year because there will be that many.”
Mr Gay said the marina was already looking at how to cater for more and it could probably handle an extra eight yachts.
One of the world’s best su- peryachts, a $25 million sailing superyacht called Pumula, is currently moored at Southport Yacht Club as part of a world trip.
Owned by a European family, the sleek 37.3-metre vessel was judged World Superyacht Awards sailing boat of the year in 2013.
Coast-based Northrop and Johnson Australia managing director Cameron Bray, who specialises in superyacht charter bookings, said his group aimed to have 10 available during the Games and some would be booked as high-end accommodation.