sex on a yacht

When a long-lost client phoned me from Washington a couple of years ago, I was delighted. He had been reading Boat International magazine on a flight and realized that he had left my old brokerage to start working for Camper & Nicholsons. When the global recession hit, he instructed me to sell his small fleet of 88′ to 112′ yachts as quickly as possible, recognizing that assets such as these would lose value quickly and that by liquidating them he would be in a strong position to survive and even thrive. during the turbulent times ahead. Now, he told me, he was back on the market and would like me to help him find his next yacht.

However, there was a small problem. As a result of the massive growth of his business, he decided to hire someone to handle all of his acquisitions; property, planes, businesses and yes, boats.

This “someone” was an accountant.

Now I have nothing against accountants. They serve a useful purpose by doing work that most of us find tedious and boring. A good accountant can save a business substantial amounts of money through wise tax planning and up-to-date advice. However, there are certain decisions that an accountant should NOT be involved in, and buying a yacht is one of them.

Honestly, I’d rather invite my accountant to a boat show than invite my mom to a strip club, or ask an accountant to help me buy a yacht than ask my mom to help me find a girlfriend. Core traits like a curvy body, a sexy smile, and how fun she is on a date would be totally glossed over in favor of less important attributes like reliability, longevity, and…um…a two-year warranty. A mother will make a decision based on thought and logic, a man, on the other hand, will base her decision on feelings and passion. A friend of mine once told me that his mother burst into tears when she introduced him to her girlfriend simply because he didn’t like her. Strange – that’s exactly the same reaction my client’s accountant had when I told him what the running costs are for a 46 meter yacht!

And this begs the rather interesting question of “why do financially successful people buy yachts?” How is it possible that a man who has spent years developing an enviable ability to make a profit and avoid losing money suddenly buys an item that will do the exact opposite?

I discussed this with a yachtsman over a decade ago when I was working as Sales Manager for the Ferretti Custom Line shipyard. The client had an insatiable appetite to negotiate the price of each change order, and he clearly felt that controlling costs was just as important as seeking profit. One night at dinner the customer talked about how hard he had worked to achieve his wealth and said that as a result he did not spend money without giving due consideration to every purchase, large and small. I ventured to ask what “due consideration” had led him to purchase a superyacht, knowing that the annual running costs alone would finance a small military coup.

I’m not very diplomatic, I know… but I had to ask.

A smile spread across the customer’s face. “David,” she said, “you just can’t imagine it.” “Everything you do on a yacht is so much better. I eat on a yacht and the food tastes better, I lie on a yacht and sleep better, and David,” she said as the smile spread even more, “Sex. It’s so much better. We have a yacht.”

Barely a year after that conversation I was able to put these comments to the test when, in a moment of extraordinary generosity, another client invited me aboard his 100-foot yacht for a week’s vacation. Just for clarity, and knowing that my wife will probably read this article, I should add “Yes. This was the week we went to Mallorca together.”

People talk about spending “quality time” with their partners, as opposed I imagine to the “sleazy time” that can be spent in front of the TV too exhausted to talk after a day of fighting fires in the workplace and, if you have small children, possibly also in the living room. If the quality of time can be measured in the same way that we measure the quality of food and drink, then “yacht time” is an Iberian acorn-fed Pata Negra, shavings of white Italian truffle from Alba on a plate of the best pasta. , it’s a plate of Danish oysters washed down with a cold bottle of Chablis, an experience so intensely pleasurable that for the brief moments you partake of its pleasure nothing else matters, no problems occur to you, no difficulties exist. You are there, in the moment, together and happy.

Another yachtsman put it well when he spoke of his grandfather, an extraordinary man who had started his business in a garden shed and grown it into a business empire employing more than 50,000 people. The family owned spectacular estates around the world and regularly stayed in the best hotels this planet has to offer, and yet, he said, “the only time I see my grandfather relaxing is on his yacht.”

This is a common theme when talking to the families of highly motivated CEOs and business owners. They just never completely disconnect from their business, not at their city house, not at their country residence, not at their Malibu beach house, not even in a penthouse suite at the Burj Al Arab. But they relax on their yacht. It may take a week to resist answering your cell phone and another week to stop checking your emails, but by the third week you’ve finally synced up with “yacht time.” Stress levels return to normal, priorities refocus, food tastes better, sleep is deeper, and life’s most intense pleasures are magnified to unforgettable proportions.

And herein lies the secret that unlocks the disciplined control that many high net worth individuals maintain over their purchasing power. Business success and financial rewards are exhilarating and leave a legacy that can benefit generation after generation of descendants, as well as provide work for an army of delighted accountants. However, the frenetic intensity of this lifestyle needs a balance, a pressure valve that brings life’s PSI back to a safe level. A yacht is not a luxury for these men and women, but a necessity, albeit an expensive one, to enrich their lives in a way that is not quantifiable on a balance sheet, to receive a return on investment that is not measured in currency or market values. Actions. .

My advice to UHNWIs around the world who may be reading this and thinking of attending the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show this year is simple.

Leave your accountant behind.