Global standard

Since its foundation in 1947, Fraser Yachts has grown to become the world’s largest superyacht brokerage firm with 15 offices including Monaco, London, Fort Lauderdale and Sydney.

They also manage every facet of the business, from sales, chartering, yacht management, software support, crewing and construction.

Peter Redford (pictured above, second from right with Julian Chang, Director SE Asia, Domenica Redford, Roberto Georgio, Executive Chairman, and Eugenio Cannarsa) is managing director of Fraser Yachts, Australia. He agrees Australia has the potential to attract a lot more superyacht charters and refits, but there needs to be a concerted effort to make the changes needed to facilitate growth.

Here, Peter speaks with Ocean about the evolution of the local market and its future.

How has the Sydney office of Fraser Yachts tapped into the market since its opening two years ago?

It’s been quite a successful launch for us (into Australia/NZ), with boat sales and brokerage. We’ve sold two Australians yachts in Europe, and vice versa we’ve had Europeans come and buy yachts here. So it’s been a good exchange for us in terms of our location. We’re not on the other side of the world as we often think we are, and we have a lot of Australians with superyachts.

Are Australia and Fraser now well positioned to capitalise on the projected 10 to 15 percent growth over the next decade in the Superyacht industry in the Asia-Pacific region?

Last year Fraser sold superyachts valued at 500 million euros, we effectively sell a superyacht every seven days. So the whole industry for us is a dynamic one, and from Australia’s point of view one of the superyachts we sold recently we’re undertaking some extension work on it, and that work is in excess of 10 million dollars. That’s 10 million dollars income for this country, that typically would have gone outside of Australia. So it’s a very significant industry for Australian workers.

The superlative sailing superyacht Southern Cloud, for sale through Fraser Yachts.

Is infrastructure keeping pace with the demand?

The infrastructure is here.  What we’re missing out on I think is a lot of the visiting boats that would come here and get work carried-out on them because Australia has a very good reputation as a supplier of quality tradesmen. Also, we’re quite a stable economy in terms of currency, it’s quite a stable country to put your money into.

Where we miss out I think is the visiting superyachts, it should be a lot easier for that to happen in terms of our taxes and entry permits.

www.fraseryachts.com