RUSSIA: Moscow yacht merchants from around the world are chalking up record orders for next year's yachting season

Far away from any sea or ocean, this yacht on the outskirts of Moscow might look somewhat out of place. But, cruise a few minutes down the same Moscow river, and you will find a yacht club that parks dozens of luxury yachts. Just off Moscow's ten-lane northern ring road and tucked between an expo-centre and high-rise apartment blocks, the Crocus Yacht Club is just one of many yacht clubs that have sprung up in the Moscow region in recent years. Although most Russians still barely live above the poverty line, an economic boom fuelled by high oil prices has brought huge wealth to some. They are the so-called New Rich and for them it seems no longer a status symbol enough to drive in a Bentley or Ferrari. For Moscow's super rich it is now fashionable to go to restaurants by private yacht. And the fact that Russia's waterways are frozen for most part of the year, or the lack of a sea nearby does not seem to bother them. "You can take it to the river Volga, to the river Aka, you can cruise all the way to the Caspian Sea or to the Black Sea. There is plenty opportunity for serious travelling from here," said 62-year-old yacht owner Misha, while looking to buy a second yacht at a yacht show. But others admit that it is more about owning than serious cruising. "It is, yes, we can say it is kind of toy, of course, but I like it," said 29-year old Sergei Kormarov. Attitudes like these attract yacht sellers from around the world to Moscow, especially during autumn when they need to collect orders for the next season. At frequent staged yacht shows, complete with pretty girls and gala-parties, sellers are trying to turn the attention of Moscow's rich to their boats. Andrey Boyko, who has been in business for five years said the market has seen sales double each year and this autumn saw another boom in sales. "In the first year we only sold ten boats. The next year we sold 20 to 25. The year after that we sold almost 50 boats, then one hundred and now, this year, only our company and its affiliates sold 178 yachts. That is a lot, even by European standards," said Boyko. Boyko is also the owner of the exclusive Burevestnik Yacht club just an hour's drive north west of the city. He says club members normally come in the weekends and only use their yachts to cruise to a river-side restaurant of club. But they want big and powerful boat nevertheless. "When you talk about a powerboat for lets say half a million dollars, they can buy a boat like that in a split second. In Europe it takes you months to sell a boat like this, people walk around, test drive it. Here they test drive it and then they say OK where can I pay. It is completely different," said Guillaume Vorstelman, president of Premium Boat Service (PBS), a Dutch company that sell American-built motor yachts. But it is not only foreign brands that are looking for big bucks. Realising that in today's Russia personal status is decided by the size of the boat, a group of Russian businessmen in 2003 made a joint venture with Moscow's shipbuilding company to built super mega yachts. "We understood that we can make very good and exclusive super yachts of the highest quality for a price that is 20 to 30 percent lower than in the west. We want to attract all the clients that are currently buying from western companies, we want them to come to us. We want to conquer this market completely," Vladimir Shchelin, sales director of Timmerman Yachts. Using the name of the Dutchman who taught Tsar Peter the Great about shipbuilding in the Netherlands, Timmerman is the first Russian company to build luxurious yachts. After building their first yacht for Russia's President Vladimir Putin, the company has since completed four mega yachts and has eight more yachts under construction.

ITN Source | October 14, 2006

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