Cruising Pace
What does it take to build Southeast Asia’s premier yacht event? We spoke with Singapore Yacht Show’s founder Andy Treadwell to find out more about the evolving yacht industry and his plans for its 10th anniversary celebrations in March 2020.
ALMOST A DECADE ago, the Singapore Yacht Show (SYS) had just 12 boats at the marina and the waterfront playground that we know today as the Quayside Isle and W Hotel locale was merely a construction site.
But that didn’t stop Andy Treadwell, founder and CEO of SYS organiser, Verventia, from ensuring that the right wind was in his sails to take the show from strength to strength.
In fact, come March 2020, SYS celebrates its 10th anniversary at One°15 Marina Sentosa Cove and is expecting a whopping 16,000 visitors.
“We launched the Singapore Yacht Show in 2011 as a sister event to the Monaco Yacht Show, when my job was to develop new business around the already hugely successful Monaco show,” says Treadwell. “It was created at the request of the industry, just after the global financial crisis and everyone was looking for a new market – so all eyes were beginning to focus on the big latent market in Asia.”
Singapore was the perfect spot to seed a new, burgeoning yachting community in Southeast Asia. While the show has become a must for high net worth individuals to see and be seen, behind the celebrityheavy, glitzy cocktail soirees is a brewing business with economic opportunity for Singapore and the region.
Treadwell, an events and yacht show veteran, has long touted Singapore as a “bright spot” and a hub for yacht sales in Asia. “We are seeing increased levels
“We launched the Singapore Yacht Show in 2011
as a sister event to the Monaco Yacht Show.”
of interest, not just from our traditional visitors from Southeast Asia, but with each year, visitors are coming from further afield – mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and even Australia and New Zealand. There were some tremendous sales last year and all our biggest clients did really well,” says Treadwell.
Yachting, however, has always been more of a Western pursuit and is fairly new to Southeast
Asia. When SYS started out, “there were a lot of fundamental issues to solve in this region before any major development of the industry could happen”,
says Treadwell. “There is no affinity with the sea as a pleasure ground, for a start, although that is changing now as wealth is handed down to younger, slightly more adventurous and leisure-focused generations.”
One of the bigger challenges in the business has been “and still is, to an extent, a lack of understanding by all the regional governments as to the scale and importance of the economic impact that a developed yachting industry could bring to local communities”, Treadwell says.
Nine years later, the once-12-yacht show draws almost 100 yachts to the marina and over 15,000 visitors each year. Treadwell opines that luxury and yachting brands have a better understanding of the market and its growth potential now.
“Over the years we’ve witnessed tremendous growth and increasing importance of SYS to the global industry, which is manifested in terms of the size of the yachts that we have had on display,” says Treadwell. “The 75m superyacht Anastasia, or most recently the 77m SilverFast, certainly turned a few heads when they entered the marina!”
The show has seen a variety of yachts come through the marina – from massive superyachts and family cruisers to smaller sailing and fishing boats. Green technology has become a highlight. Just last year visitors got to see Silent 55, a 16m yacht from SilentYachts that boasts 30 solar panels on its roof, as well as the fuel-efficient sailing yacht, the Fountaine-Pajot Catamaran Alegria 67.
Yacht co-ownership has also become a new business opportunity, with players from SeaNet to Pure Latitude offering management and maintenance for multiple owners of the same vessel – reducing individual costs and growing the yacht-owning community.
The yacht industry continues to evolve and the Singapore community also benefits from the arrival of these businesses and their vessels.
“The event exposes our team to new technologies and industry trends and elevates our team’s understanding of the industry as well as enhances
Yacht co-ownership has also become a new business opportunity, with players from SeaNet
to Pure Latitude offering management and maintenance for multiple owners of the same vessel.
the yachting, marina lifestyle element we offer to our members,” says Arthur Tay, chairman and CEO of SUTL Group of Companies, and the man behind One°15 Marina Sentosa Cove, where the show is held every year.
Treadwell recognises Tay’s contribution to the continued development of the show as the team at One°15 are “undoubtedly our most loyal supporters”, alongside other supporting organisations, Sentosa
Cove Resort Management, Sentosa Development Corporation and Singapore Tourism Board.
Ultimately it is teamwork that has made the show the success that it is today. “Our exhibitors and partners really enable us to put the show on year after year. Without their continued support and enthusiasm, without all their boats and other display products, there wouldn’t be a show,” says Treadwell. “We’re also lucky to have many loyal clients who are willing to invest in bringing new and innovative products to the region (and) I’m extremely lucky to have a committed team of passionate individuals, all totally dedicated to delivering the very best yacht show in the region.”
When March 2020 comes around, we are looking forward to a marina filled with stunning yachts. Confirmed exhibitors (at time of print) include yachting brands such as Azimut, Ferretti Group and Princess, as well as lifestyle brands such as Art Works gallery and Castaldi Jewels.
This milestone event will be busier than ever, with a mix of water and land activities, and returning favourites, the Supercar Parade, Gala Evening and onwater Demo Platform.
“I look forward to meetings of like-minded individuals who share our passion, catching up with old friends and making new ones, and finding out the latest trends in yachting,” says Tay. “The show is a celebration of the constant evolution of yachting trends and the next wave in the development of marina tourism in this region.”