In this edition, we’ll get into:

📊 Median yacht sale prices doubled to $10.3M, with buyers going newer
🏛️ Blackstone's Safe Harbor buying MarineMax for $1.5 billion
🛥️ Three from one design team, a 60m world cruiser + two 39m catamarans
🌊 REV Ocean, the world's largest yacht at 194.9m, finally due this quarter
⌚ A G-Shock shrunk down to wear on your finger

Read time: about 6 minutes

August logged 37 sales against 35 a year ago, and $364M in disclosed volume against $339M. The median sale price doubled to $10.3M from $5.0M, and almost none of that is buyers paying more for the same yacht. Sixteen boats between 30 and 40 meters sold in each August. This year's carried a median yacht age of six years against fifteen, and they traded at a median $10.4M against $5.3M. Under 30 meters, prices barely moved. Above 40 meters the count was nearly flat, nine against eight, and last August held the genuinely large tonnage: five yachts over 50 meters against two this year, including the 78.4-meter Abeking & Rasmussen AMARYLLIS at €84M, which was 29% of that month by herself. This August's biggest sale, the 64.5-meter Benetti SEANNA at €44M, accounted for 14%. Boats took a median 314 days to sell against 296.

Busiest yard: Custom Line led every builder with 4 sales on the month.

🏁 Monterey Car Week auctions set a record at $748 million. Five auction houses moved $756M in collector cars over three days in August. The same three days last year did $432.8M. The old record, from 2022, was about $471M. Eleven cars cleared $10M on their own, and the top lot was a 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe once owned by Carroll Shelby himself at $42.9M, now the most valuable American car ever sold at auction. A brand-new electric Ferrari Luce went for $40M as a charity car against an estimate of just over $1.1M, proving some launch day nay-sayers wrong that it wouldn’t succeed.

🏛️ Blackstone's Safe Harbor is buying MarineMax for $1.5 billion. Safe Harbor Marinas, the Blackstone Infrastructure company and the largest marina operator in the world, is acquiring MarineMax at $53 a share in cash. About $1.5B all in. The $53 is a 96% premium to where the stock closed on January 30, the last trading day before an unsolicited $35-a-share approach went public. The company goes private, comes off the NYSE, and the deal is expected to close by year end.

🇮🇹 The Italian Sea Group opens bidding, offers due September 15. The Marina di Carrara group behind Admiral, Perini Navi, Picchiotti and Tecnomar formally opened its sale process in August. Non-binding offers are due September 15, binding offers October 15, with a possible signing around October 26. Two structures on the table: one is an asset deal covering the Carrara and La Spezia yards, the Viareggio site, all four brands, plus stakes in a woodworking firm and a Turkish yard. The other is a share deal that recapitalizes the company instead. One keeps the group whole, the other lets a buyer take the pieces it wants and leave the rest. Shares rose about 10% on the announcement.

✈️ Gulfstream took back the Los Angeles to Farnborough speed record. And no we don’t mean Ben Farnborough, Denison’s dutiful COO. On July 19, a Bombardier Global 8000 flew Los Angeles to Farnborough in 8 hours 46 minutes and took the record. Eleven days later, Gulfstream said “not on our watch” with a G700 covering the same 4,740 nautical miles in 8 hours 27 minutes and took it back. Gulfstream's president even sprinkled in a dig at Bombardier’s record, stating that real records get measured takeoff to touchdown.

NIHI Sumba in Indonesia is simply one of the world’s best resorts on one of the world’s best beaches. An hour's flight from Bali, on an island most people couldn't place on a map, thatched roofs in the traditional Sumbanese style sit above an empty gold beach and a wave that breaks with mechanical precision on the reef just offshore. Surfers know it as Occy's Left.

It started in 1987 with a couple who'd run out of patience with surf camps that offered nothing for the person who doesn't surf. Claude and Petra Graves spent more than a decade building the alternative on Sumba, then liked it enough to raise their children there. Christopher White and his wife visited in June.

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Triplets! But not identical. Three projects are open through Denison, all developed with the Tony Castro Design Team, each going three different directions. PERENNIAL is a 60-meter steel-hulled world cruiser. GEMINI is a 39-meter power catamaran. POLARIS is a 39-meter sailing catamaran, offered in a Cruiser version with a flybridge or a Performance Sport version that trades the flybridge for roughly 400 square meters of indoor-outdoor space on one walking level.

What stands out on PERENNIAL is what hasn't been decided yet. Her interior hasn't gone past 2D plan level, so the entire brief is still open, and her machinery space is already calculated for a hybrid setup if an owner wants one. Her price moves with the yard: €120M at a top-pedigree Northern European builder, €90M in Italy, €80M in Turkey. POLARIS runs the same way, €38M in carbon fiber in Northern Europe or €16.5M in aluminum in Turkey.

See all three →

▸ Cannes Yachting Festival: Sep 8 to 13. The 49th edition and Europe's season opener, split across Vieux Port for motor yachts and Port Canto for sail and brokerage. Roughly 700 boats from 5 to 50 meters, more than 680 exhibitors, and around 150 world premieres. Pro-tip for English speakers: it’s pronounced “can”, like tin can. Not “cahn” and not “cans”. Now go impress your family around the dinner table tonight with your newfound global knowledge.

▸ Newport International Boat Show: Sep 17 to 20. Now in its 55th year, the event spans more than 17 acres across six connecting sites in historic downtown Newport, showcasing a vast selection of new sailboats and powerboats, including some making their U.S. debut, along with the latest in marine equipment, gear, and services.

▸ Seattle Boats Afloat Fall Show: Sep 17 to 20. Since its inception in Seattle in 1978, the Pacific Northwest's largest floating boat show, the Boats Afloat Show, has consistently drawn in guests from across the US and Canada.

▸ Monaco Yacht Show: Sep 23 to 26. The 35th edition at Port Hercule, with about 120 superyachts including 43 delivered this year. The largest afloat is Oceanco's 111-meter LEVIATHAN, making her first Monaco appearance, and she isn't arriving alone: her 93-meter support vessel DRAAK berths alongside her, the first time the yard has shown a new build and a rebuild together. The largest of this year's deliveries is the 102.4-meter Lürssen NIXIE, whose beach club opens out to about 270 square meters, the biggest the yard has built.

Superyacht orders fall for a second year, average length hits a record. 1,093 yachts over 24 meters are in build or on order, down 45 from last year and down 110 from the 2023 peak of 1,203. Average length and volume both set records at 40.8 meters and 551GT. Italy accounts for 52% of it. Slots at the top yards are committed into 2028 and 2029, giving you ample time to cozy up to your billionaire buddies putting in orders.

REV Ocean, the world's largest yacht, is still due this quarter. At 194.9 meters, after more than eight years in build and a 15-to-18-month outfitting in the Netherlands that's now wrapping up. She was ordered by a Norwegian billionaire as a research vessel first and a yacht second, labs and expedition gear sharing space with the guest accommodation.

89 people cross the $30 million threshold every day. Between 2021 and 2026 the number of people worth more than $30M went from 551,435 to 713,626. That's over 162K new ultra-wealthy in five years, or 89 a day, somewhere in the world. The billionaire count now sits at 3,110.

The autumn art auction season opens next month. The major houses posted their strongest combined first half since 2022, close to a third of it out of single-owner collections. Fall is where the year actually gets decided, and New York's marquee week in November is the one to watch.

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FRANK Magazine gets to the heart of the matter. Its pages uncover the human interest stories that give yachting its passion. The humble highlighted, the entrepreneurial celebrated, and the daring showcased in full. From intelligent debate to cutting-edge science, risky sport to surreal charter experiences, FRANK never glosses over the details. Brazen at times, amusing in spirit, always transparent in discussion and, of course, always frank about the conclusions.

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Despite winning “Most Fashionable Senior Male” in my 2014 high school yearbook, I don’t claim to know what’s cool with the kids these days. So when I came across Casio’s “Ring Watch”, a miniature G-Shock watch to wear on your finger, I was confused and concerned. Confused about who asked for this, and concerned that a small portion of me wants one. - LD

You tell me, is this getting bought for Christmas as a gag gift or as a serious fashion choice →