How the yacht market has changed in 2026 - expert Andrei Lomakin's opinion

In a corporate interview, Andrei Lomakin, head of West Nautical and a world-class expert with 25 years of experience, shared his views on the changes in the yacht industry under sanctions, the criteria for buying European yachts today and the evolution of the image of their owners.

For several years now, the Russian market has been under sanctions. Do you note any changes, did you manage to adapt and find a way out in this situation?

Sanctions were introduced in 2022. As we know from world history, in about the fourth year there is a certain erosion of sanctions. The year is 2026, and we see that a person who wants to buy a yacht, one way or another buys it. If we are talking about ultra high net worth individual (UHNWI), then, according to statistics, more than 50% have moved the center of vital interests outside of Russia: someone teaches children, someone lives, someone is engaged in business. This does not mean that they have forgotten about their country, they just spend most of their time outside of Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc. This, unfortunately, is a natural process when the situation in the native country undergoes some changes. Therefore, those who have passports or a residence permit of another country and live there have no problems. Those who mainly live in Russia, but still leave and have some rights to live in another country, may face problems. For the most part, they will be associated with the ability to pay for a yacht, since the European banking system is now very carefully looking at the center of a person's vital interests. But recently, a huge number of PSP providers have appeared in the world who take risks and are ready to make payments within the framework of the law.

And what about those who live in Russia and do not have a passport or residence permit of another country?

This group of citizens is the most difficult to buy a yacht in Europe, but there is a parallel import, which with certain difficulties and a rise in price allows you to get a boat in Russia. Again, no one canceled Turkish yachts, boats from the UAE or Brazil - the world is big and lives not only by European shipyards, so if a person sets a goal to buy a boat, then he can do it. In principle, we know that several yacht service providers and dealers got in the crosshair and, unfortunately, one of the largest Russian yacht groups has been sanctioned, but the rest of the world lives and works. Observing certain rules of the game, companies can make an offer to a Russian-speaking client.

One way to adjust is to buy something that has already been built and is legally located in, say, Turkey or the UAE. Do you have such boats? How quickly can they be re-registered to a Russian beneficiary and according to what scheme?

We do not have boats specially put up for sale for some group of customers. We manage the yachts of the existing owners. Basically, we help build, manage the fleet, help with the charter, etc. When a Russian-speaking client wants to conduct a deal to purchase a yacht, this is a huge number of issues related to KYC (Know Your Customer - the procedure for identifying and verifying the client's identity), collection of documents, with a potential future flag, team, location, payment processes related to acquisition, subsequent content, etc. This is a huge set of issues that no unprepared person will deal with. We are often approached by specialists from family offices to help shape a solution for them.

That is, there are some solutions?

Yes, there are a large number of individual solutions that always undergo a comprehensive analysis for legality and enforceability. It is important not to break the law of any country. Nobody wants to make a deal and then run around all his life and explain why he broke the law. Therefore, today the analysis of legislation, the analysis of the transaction and the consequences is a huge work that requires comprehensive study. Our company offers many beautiful tailor-made (individual) solutions. On the one hand, we are careful not to go into the "red zone." What is prohibited is prohibited. We are trusted to manage several dozen yachts, we conduct a large number of transactions and present the best brands, so we maintain the integrity of our deals. At the same time, we have the opportunity to find a large number of filigree and interesting solutions.

The attitude of Italian, Dutch, British and other European shipyards towards Russian-speaking customers? Has it changed over the years under sanctions?

Certainly changed. If Amels in 2022 at the Monaco Yacht Show did not let customers and brokers with a Russian surname on board the yacht (and I think that people will remember this fact for a long time), now the situation has changed a lot. In 2023, we had a yacht ready, ordered before the imposition of sanctions in 2022, but the Dutch government forbade the plant to transfer it to the customer. Good lawyers have been found suing the Dutch government. After 10 months, it was decided that, taking into account the center of the customer's vital interests, he was allowed to pick up this yacht. Since then, the factories, although they look very carefully at their client, began to sell yachts to people who speak Russian. That shock in the market of 2022-2023 passed: the states gave certain explanations. Today, if you are in a certain client group, you can come and order a motor yacht.

Are Russian-speaking customers important for European shipyards? Is lifting of sanctions expected in Europe?

Until 2021, every fourth client at the Italian shipyard Sanlorenzo was Russian; every third customer on Benetti was Russian. If we are talking about yachts over 80 meters - Russian customers accounted for more than 35%. If we are talking about the Dutch shipyard Heesen - more than two-thirds of the customers were Russian-speaking. Of course, the departure of these customers is a huge shock for the industry and for some shipyards. At some point, Heesen (which produced an average of 5-6 boats a year) turned out to be seven boats for Russian customers: four were blocked by the Dutch government, and three were frozen at the construction stage. Roughly speaking, this is the annual revenue (hundreds of millions of euros), which was a huge challenge for the shipyard. Today, it operates debt-free thanks in large part to a strong investor.

Should we expect easing of sanctions in the foreseeable future?

Hard to say. Sometimes you can't even predict what will happen tomorrow, so making predictions for the future is a thankless task. From a business point of view, it would be beneficial for all parties to mitigate, or even better, the complete lifting of sanctions.

Did the shipyards from other countries manage to occupy the vacated "European" niche: Turkey, the UAE?

Partly yes. As I know, there were several good boat sales from the UAE: in a year and a half, five contracts for Majesty Yachts were signed with Russian clients. Turkish shipyards also sell. Definitely, countries that have not imposed sanctions sell more and benefit from the political decisions made.

Chinese cars are already in full swing on Russian roads; are Chinese shipyards increasingly participating in Russian yacht exhibitions? Will the yacht industry repeat the path of the automobile industry?

Nobody knows. The Chinese are historically known as the "seafarers' nation with their backs to the sea." When the emperor sent his sailors to see the world outside of China, they returned and said: "There is nothing special there." So it was decided not to develop the fleet, unlike the British or Dutch. Historically, the Chinese are not very strong in this direction, although they have their own shipyards. They are not visible on the European market, I have not observed any special big breakthroughs on the Russian market either.

Which countries are the main buyers of yachts today?

Today, the concepts of nationality and geographical affiliation of the buyer are greatly blurred. We know about the mass exodus from England of rich people who moved to Italy, Switzerland or the UAE. Moreover, if a person has lived in England for the last 10-15 years and has a British passport, it is not a fact that he was born there, and not in India or Russia. Identifying the buyer has become very difficult: the Moscow-born comes to the stand and says: "I am an Israeli from Switzerland." He graduated from a Moscow school. There are many such examples. When we talk about the HNWI (High-Net-Worth Individuals) or UHNWI (Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals) segment, identification is extremely difficult. Probably, today the criterion is not where the buyer comes from or where he lives, but where he pays taxes or where his center of life interests is located.

For a long time, the average age of the owner of the yacht was about 50 years. But it seems today yachtsmen are very younger?

Of course! Today, the owner of the yacht is getting younger. At the beginning of the century, the average age of a buyer was 60-70 years: people worked all their lives to buy a dream. If 20 years ago there were practically no owners under 40, today they are even under 30! There are already many buyers above 30! Moreover: a person of 25-27 years old is a real buyer of yachts (successful entrepreneurs, crypto traders, participants in the IT market). Last year, we handed over to the 37-year-old customer an 88-foot yacht, and also handed over a 62-meter man a little over 30! There are many of them: the yacht market has become younger.