'Demand for luxury yachts is very much like the tides': Gulf Craft's Abeer Alshaali

Dubai: Your typical yacht buyer might delay the decision to buy a new boat – but quite unlikely to sink a deal altogether.

That’s according to Abeer Alshaali, Deputy Managing Director at Umm Al Quwain based Gulf Craft, about what works when it comes to selling pricey yachts to buyer prospects.

“Take a market like Europe – demand for boats comes and goes in, shall we say, waves,” said Abeer. “It’s very much like the tides.

“The good thing about Gulf Craft is that we are not reliant on a single market. While Europe remains an important market for our boats, we have diversified our (end-user) markets. While you will see us active in Monaco, we have delivered several yachts to Qatari clients, to Saudi Arabia, and in the US in the last two years.

“So, even if Europe is a slower market for new boat sales, it hasn't affected us.”

Gulf Craft sure has traveled quite a distance since being founded in 1982. Its Umm Al Quwain shipyard spreads over 462,000 square feet. Plus, there is a 100,000 square feet manufacturing and servicing facility in the Maldives, with another 800,000 square feet facility set for launch.

All that yard-age and boat making capacity come in handy as Gulf Craft builds on the legacy of being the go-to yacht maker in the Middle East.

Those credentials help when more yacht owners are calling on the UAE to be their home base. But if those individuals already have their boats, would they buy more?

According to Abeer, “I’ll be honest with you – they will eventually want to trade in or upgrade to a new one. They usually do that after four- or five years. I have seen yacht owners do that, plenty of them. The market for new boats in the UAE is pretty good.”

Gulf Craft is doing a lot on the ground to keep things that way. “We are building the ‘Majesty 160’, which of, course, will be super-luxurious and will debut in 2026,” said Abeer. “Out in Maldives, we are in the process building a new factory, and here in UAE, will transfer our older service center in Ajman to a new factory. There is also a super-yacht service center in Ajman.

“The thing about Gulf Craft is we do not acquire somebody else’s boat building facility – we would rather build new.”

That would resonate well with all those prospective boat buyers out there...