That ice-cream is a 66-metre catamaran calledHodor. Named after the burly accomplice of the Stark’s in Game of Thrones,Hodor shadows the $US160 million ($247 million) mega yachtLonian,itself boasting a swimming pool with a glass bottom doubling as the ceiling of the floating beach club below.
“We’re not getting involved in all the hype around the industry and all the beautiful stuff. We see ourselves as naval architects and engineers that are there to solve a problem,” Crowther said. “That’s how we’ve approached it,and that’s worked for us.”
Crowther said demand for the vessels was linked to the ups and downs of financial markets,particularly for those who made their fortune in crypto.
“We had one project that was on the drawing boards and the cryptocurrency[markets] went down,and the project got pulled,” he said.
While economic volatility could temper demand,the market for support vessels is likely to only increase as the industry matures,says Rory Jackson,head of super yachts at maritime analysis firm VesselsValue.
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“The super yacht market is still pretty young,in a professional sense it’s only really existed since 1997,” he said. “The market for support vessels is diversifying,which is probably a testament to its potential longevity,but demand for them is certainly increasing.”
Super yachts,and their various add-ons,are notorious emitters. An American-owned super yacht with a permanent crew,helicopter pad,submarines and pools emits about 7020 tons of CO2 a year,according to research from Indiana University academics Richard Wilk and Beatriz Barros. By comparison,the average American contributes about 15 tons of carbon to the atmosphere a year.
Jackson said the industry was working on hydrogen,sail-powered and electric alternatives,but bringing those technologies to market would require a wealthy owner to take the risk on a new technology.
Buyers are unlikely to come from the Russia billionaires who once pumped their riches into the industry. Dozens of oligarchs have had their super yachts seized since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The first of those to sell - the 70-metreAxiomaowned by oil and gas tycoon Dmitry Pumpyansky - fetched $US37.5 million ($57.9 million) at auction in September.