Another busy year for ClearLine at the Monaco Yacht Show, which apart from METS is probably our busiest event of the year. This time around we had four clients taking stands and a long list of contacts with which to touch base and have a chat about plans for 2009. Preparations in the months before had been intense, with newsletters to be worked on for both Humphreys Yacht Design (printed) and Rainsford Saunders Design (electronic), and press materials for the Natural Mat Company, who were showing for the first time at Monaco. Navico had also taken a stand, but with no new products to talk about at this point of the year we just had a watching brief there.
As usual the atmosphere was great, and the site even more packed than ever with more two-storey stands and an extra pontoon for the yachts. The superyacht sector, with its long waiting lists at the yards, remains upbeat despite the current financial crisis, and the show hummed with the sound of business being done.
Perhaps the only thing missing this year was a real ’signature’ yacht. Over the last three shows we had Mirabella V, Maltese Falcon and Alfa Nero. This year the biggest boat at 88m was Anastasia – certainly impressive, but kind of lacking that wow factor. All was not lost, however. On our way back to the airport we ducked into Antibes for a coffee – at the top of the superyacht dock was ‘Dilbar’ – 110-metres of gleaming conspicuous consumption! That’s what I call a superyacht.
