How Often Do Billionaires Use Their Yachts?

Top private bankers from Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Northern Trust have been involved in financing a surge in yacht and jet purchases. There are 9,357 yachts over 65ft long currently on the seas, with about 85% of those being owned by billionaires. A yacht as big as Bezos likely involved around 400 workers and designers, and when completed, it will probably need about 60. Last year, yacht-makers sold 887 superyachts to wealthy people who had an increased need for privacy and private isolation during the pandemic.

The world’s super-rich spend 22 billion on yachts every year, according to UBS and Wealth-X’s annual World Ultra Wealth Report for 2014. The cost and maintenance of owning a yacht are not just the purchase price, but also the time spent on it. Most billionaires buy yachts to store, auction, and move valuable art, as a legal tax and customs avoidance strategy. They can also move capital (in the case of yachts) and maintain them.

The cost of a superyacht is not just the purchase price; billionaires spend tens of millions a year to maintain them. Senior crew members can earn many times that, with some prized chefs earning €25,000 a month. The list of tech billionaires is long and getting longer by the year, and as their wealth grows, so does the cost of maintaining them.