APP LETS YOU LIVE THE YACHT LIFE
Yachting the French Riviera carries connotations of champagne-fueled deck parties, zipping around the turquoise sea on jet skis, and having a crew to spray your sun-dappled face with Evian mist – all for the bareminimum price of $10,000 per week.
Until now, those without five- and six-figure budgets have had a hard time living the yacht life. Either you “know a guy” who can rent you a boat for the day, or you go through official channels with a charter agency. A few hours on a small catamaran in Cannes? It can run upward of $1,000 after rounds of contract negotiations, commissions, and carbon-copied forms.
Or you can bypass the system and live out your booze-fueled seafaring dreams for a mere $117 per day.
That’s the promise behind Float, a disruptor that launched in June in Monaco and St. Tropez — and that’s quickly expanding to other major seafaring markets. Think of it a bit like Airbnb. The accommodation site lets you rent a room in an apartment or the full apartment, depending on how much you’d like to splurge or save. So does Float: It lets you book just one “seat” if you don’t have seven friends to defray the cost of a yacht charter, or you can gather a group of friends and buy out a sleek little cruiser. Take the former approach, though, and you may end up making new friends when you drop anchor for a swim.
“We’re more like Netjets than a water taxi,” said Float co-founder Jeanjacques Boude, drawing a comparison between his startup and the Berkshire Hathaway-owned pioneer for fractional private jet ownership, which took a hit during the recession but is stable and growing after 53 years of operation. Airbnb and Uber also have inspired his approach. “We sell day charters by the seat or by the cabins for a few days on board, all through a fully digital app,” he said.
Indeed, the service is more experiential than a water taxi. Though Float will shuttle you to a buzzy beach club in Pampelonne or La Mala for the day, the appeal is more about being on the water than getting from Point A to Point B. You sail, you clink glasses, you swim in the Med; maybe you go fishing or take out some jet skis. Eventually you make your way to the destination port for a few hours before returning to where you started.
Booking takes two to three minutes: You sign up on the app or website, pick your origin and destination, select the number of seats you want to book, and input your credit card. Moments later a boarding pass is sent to your Apple Wallet. No contracts, no surcharges, and no hidden costs.
Ruinart Champagne and canapés are included, as well as a full crew. A concierge service can book dinner at the hot new restaurant of your choice or help you bring a DJ on board for private dance parties.
These aren’t megayachts in the vein of Azzam, the record-setting 591-footer owned by the emir of Abu Dhabi. Currently, Float’s two vessels are of much humbler proportions, one 49 feet, the other 59 feet. It is investing in larger motor yachts as it readies to launch in other destinations. If all goes according to plan, Boude said, Float will be operating three ships in Miami by November and in Ibiza, Mykonos, and Corfu by next year. He also expects to secure at least one 104-foot superyacht offering overnight trips from Miami to the Bimini islands for $1,000 per person per night.