Merijn de Waard is a well-known figure in the superyacht industry, having founded SuperYacht Times, a digital media platform that provides the latest news and information about luxury yachts. In this interview, we had the chance to sit down with Merijn and learn more about his background, his passion for yachts, and the challenges and opportunities he has encountered in his career.
Merijn shared his experiences and insights about the industry, including trends he has observed, his thoughts on the future of superyachts, and the factors that make a successful yacht business. He also discussed the role of digital media in the industry, and the importance of staying ahead of the curve in a fast-paced, ever-changing landscape.
Overall, the interview offered a fascinating look at the superyacht industry, as well as an inspiring story of an entrepreneur who has turned his passion into a successful business.
Brought to you by SHIPSHAPE
Transcript ————
Farah [00:00:08] Hello and welcome to the Shipshape Podcast, a series of podcasts where we meet amazing people and talk about their experiences, personal, technical and all related to the maritime world. Come and dive in. Dive in, Dive in.
Georgia [00:00:42] This week on the Shipshape podcast, we speak to Merijn de Waard, founder and director of a Superyacht media company, Superyacht Times based in one of the world’s coolest cities, Amsterdam, and read by CEOs an ultra high net worth individuals all around the world. We speak to Marine about how he grew slightly from a yacht Spotter’s Hobby website to one of the most respected and innovative media companies in this API industry. My name is Georgia Tindale and I’m a freelance editor and writer within the Maritime Sphere. And I’m joined by Merrill Charette.
Merrill [00:01:14] Merrill Charette out on a liveaboard on a tasking to Tashiba 36 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Georgia [00:01:20] Good to have you here on the podcast with us.
Merijn [00:01:22] Thank you, George. Great to be on the podcast. And it’s like you’re one of the few non Dutch speakers who can pronounce my name correctly, but I guess you had some practice over the years.
Georgia [00:01:34] Absolutely. And we definitely had a little chat before we began to make sure that we got it right. Because I know you’ve had all sorts of mispronunciations. Maureen, what’s been your favorite mispronunciation of your name over the years?
Merijn [00:01:46] I think what you heard the most is Maureen Bergen. But I mean, some are meringue like or magic, I’ve heard, But that was more like a funny thing. You know, like, I think most people say, Maureen, because I enjoy debate. And, you know, I don’t know, it’s I and the R is a bit tricky. And so merengue is quite challenging. So most of the time as Maureen, sometimes I even introduce myself as Maureen just to avoid, you know, like repeating it’s five stars.
Georgia [00:02:14] Thank you for that. So you’re recording this, I believe, from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, is that correct?
Merijn [00:02:21] Correct. I’m in my office in the Amsterdam on the capital, you know, in the center of Amsterdam.
Merrill [00:02:28] Why did you choose Amsterdam as like the base of headquarters?
Merijn [00:02:32] Well, I basically grew up in a small place called Emerald and Zain, and that’s like 30, 40 miles above Amsterdam. And I grew up there. And when I started in 2005 selling pictures, there was still living there. And then I had a friend who runs an office in a city nearby. So then we moved there and, you know, like it’s all nice and fun to live and work in the place you grew up as a kid. But then I just thought of, you know, like I want to go somewhere else and, and Amsterdam. And my point of view is the coolest city in the Netherlands. And so I said, I’m going to Amsterdam. And so actually, I think I rented the office before I had a house. So we had a small office on one of the canals and the guy’s truck, which was the basement of the. So it was me, myself and Martin Johnson together Finance Company. But I was a bit lucky because one of my friends I met in Antigua by the Scottish show he was he works for Marina Montenegro in Nairobi. So and then he’s one of my good buddies is is does she should go and meet them. So I met this guy Spencer, and and he said, well, actually, you know, we met and then a month later I met him again in sort of France. And he said, well, actually I’m going to work with Max Montenegro. We’re looking for a place in Amsterdam. So yeah. So I said, You can take my place. So okay, that’s cool. So then a week later, we were at another butcher in Genoa and he gave me the key that I’d never been to see this whole place. No idea. So and then I went to the street in Amsterdam and had no number of doors to look for the door first. And then you know that I had a place in Amsterdam for a very affordable rate. So, you know, then it all worked out. And Amsterdam is just a fun, vibrant city, especially during the twenties. So that’s why it was Amsterdam then. It’s still Amsterdam. I’m still living here. I’m still working here. How old are you? I am 39.
Merrill [00:04:31] So, you know, I was looking at kind of some videos of that you did on the history of Superyacht Times. So it seems like it’s kind of shifted and grown with the times when you first got into it. I mean, it was just a it was a passion for Superyachts.
Merijn [00:04:47] I liked big boats since I was very young. I mean, you’ve seen the videos as well that we sell them to Dutch legs and you realize, Oh, that’s bigger than we have. And I think when I was younger I was quite fanatical about a lot of different stuff, you know, like I was collecting all kinds of stuff from small cars to, you know, like, what else did I have? I had this I recall these coasters to put your drink on the I mean, I had all kinds of different collections of everything. And and in the end, it became mostly to a small castle like these these historic cars and boats. So in the summer, it was more I started. And with collecting stuff backwards, this was when I was ten years old or something. So, you know, that was my early. These and then was before the Internet. So it was mainly calling the shipyard and was really scared to call them and say like, okay, I’m this ten year old kid and can you send me some brochures of your boats? And so, you know, the these that guys like Fetchit, Mona and Lewis and they would just send me envelopes the packages with and that was, you know, like I really enjoyed it It was really cool So and it was free though, because magazines were quite expensive, like in like boats and that’s in a boat exclusive mirror and they never got expensive when you couldn’t get them for kids. And this was fun. Yeah. And then I got started, you know, at the Internet, you realize there’s other people who are crazy like yourself. Enjoy big books. So you got websites like yours, but the dot com and remote, the forum where you could basically talk with other people. And that’s also how I met Martin, who I started together with really it was in two years, but we started emailing about loads and exchanging ideas and we matched each other the first time in April 24 at the for lunch at such a for lunch then actually that’s also the company where he works now. So it was a fun little thing, but I’m not sure I was answering kind of question, but it just was rattling and it was.
Georgia [00:06:45] Just basically how did you get from being this kind of hobbyist thing? And then obviously it’s grown into something a lot.
Merijn [00:06:52] Like, Hey, so what the business? So basically, I mean, amongst these yacht spotters, there was also Chris and Christie’s on social media, Krystal 303 and he is a very good amateur photographer. And you know, I started taking pictures of boats as well because I wanted to take a picture of every single boat over 20 meters in the world. So I just started collecting that and that I always need to have a mission, some kind of thing, you know, like, okay, if I like this, what is the goal I want to achieve? And I wanted to get a picture every day, which was kind of hard, but, you know, you need to start somewhere. So I started taking pictures of all kinds of boats. And Chris said to me, then, you know, like I met them a few times and sometimes I sell pictures. And this was around 20 trade for just four of us. And then I said, okay, you know, so you can sell pictures. So I went in to the south of France because obviously there’s a lot of big deals there. So I went to the south of France with a digital camera of my uncle because he had blog and I started taking pictures of all the boats and there was one new boat, a 47 meter heesen called Yalla. I said, okay, this is a new boat. Nobody has seen it. So I’m going to email this picture to all these magazines and boat exclusive. The German magazine was the first one who bought my picture for, I believe it was €50. So then I thought, okay, that’s cool. So people buy pictures and I was studying it at the time. So then I said, okay, I’m going to make a website yacht hyphen images dot com and that I’m going to put up all my pictures like a stock photo library. And because I knew some other and to just the photographers, you know, like amateur I mean good amateur photographers who like big boats also said, okay, I will sell you your pictures as well. And we split, you know, like what we sell it for. So you get 50%. I get 50%. So I had crew members. I had the captain of the cruise ship was actually my favorite because he was tremendous, tremendous up and he had a high angle before the drones were there because drones, not everybody has a drone. But back then, all the pictures were taken from eye level more or less because all you need to stand on a brace. But he was standing on the bridge of the cruise ship and the boats passed by. So he had a nice he looked down on it. So it had a good angle for his pictures. Plus, he was three months between all the boats. So he took a lot of pictures of all these boats as a as a yachting. It was also a dream because you saw pictures of budget never seen before. And then this because something is nice, but it is not an amazing business. You know, like Baghdad magazines and budgets, especially the U.S. magazines, you know, by remote, especially with top pilots, you know, because the top on with the biggest boats in the world, that the shipyards would not always have photos or were allowed to get photos. It was New York and you supplies with 50 of the hundred boats. And then, you know, it was a few thousand dollars, which was as a student. But it’s good business but it’s I wanted to bit more than just the photos because I also kept track of all the boats in the world ready to act. France. But I wanted to create a goal line as well. And besides sailing pictures, it’s like I said, there’s not ever going to be a huge Mubarak. Then I knew I didn’t have the skills to be a good photographer, so I didn’t want to pursue that as a career. So then I thought, okay, there were patrimonial to form and yachts there. But you know, Patrimonio was owned by his magazine and yachts. But there was one a friend’s friend of mine was Ravpower, and he was running that. So I thought, you know, I, I already had a lot of pictures of new boats, the Netherlands, because we’ve got a lot of boats. So I said, okay, I’m going to renovate it in June 26. I said, I go to the south of France and I’m not going to look for a job. I’m going to build a website called Superyacht Times. And two things are important. It has a database of all the boats with a picture of all the boats. Daily News. So that we just started making that Martin and myself and we hired a programmer. We gave him 5000 because the only women who had a year were like, after six months it was finished. And we were like, I think it was the first couple of days of January 27, and that’s how we started.
Georgia [00:10:51] So one of the through lines in what you’re describing is Superyacht news. And obviously as someone who has doubled quite a lot in Superyacht News myself, I know what that is. But not everyone listening to this podcast is an avid reader in the superyacht industry as I am. So marone, what would be a news story within the CPA industry that people might be interested in reading about?
Merijn [00:11:15] I mean, I think the news that does us is not the nicest news. It’s usually casualties, buyers of boats because, I mean, it’s that’s what attracts the most traffic because I think that attracts traffic from people outside of yachting would just say, oh, wow, what’s that? You know, I guess a blazing big boat on fire. It’s not my most favorite news because I like boats, because what we pioneered in the beginning, like in 2007, we really had to search hard to find news every day because companies would do a press release twice per year, not like every day like and so at the so it’s a bit harder. So one of the things because we started with businesses, we always had unique content, unique pictures of boats. And the biggest thing is usually the launch of a new year because that’s what also gets a lot of traffic. Plus people are naturally curious to see, okay, what is the newest, coolest boat out there? You know, like so having the first pictures of a new launch in New York is very, very important to us. And that’s how all that’s how we have started. And I mean, there’s loads of other news, you know, like boats sold boats on the market. You know, they business updates, acquisitions, I mean, you name it, this design still goes well. Design concepts. I mean, I think in the like, I think we we go a bit broader these days that we do a bit more. And there’s news also a bit more business news that we’re going to we started the technical magazine goes out to build it and you know, on our soon to be relaunched website, we also have a section for how to build a bit more technical in-depth news stories as well.
Merrill [00:12:49] When you were first getting into this whole thing, especially with the images, I’m sure that businesses weren’t too forthcoming with giving you images right off the bat. How have you seen the industry change over time? I’m assuming there are a lot more open these days.
Merijn [00:13:05] Yeah, I mean, in the beginning we had to sell the Internet to very let’s explain to people that, you know, like, okay, there’s also people who like to look on like, nah, we do. There’s two brands that we do events, you know, first we had the saw the Internet in the beginning and that probably started reading it themselves every day. And so they are you know, it’s actually provides, you know, other people read it and we actually had owners of one or two build boats. We came to the shipyard friends out of all our pages, you know, with all the boats that like that had seen and getting pictures, you know, like I think as media, it’s never been so difficult to get the pictures from the shipyards or the brokers because they all want the business. The idea that what has changed is that they are more proactive, you know, because they want to really stand to something and push you to publish it. So they are a lot more you know, when we started we really had to email and call companies do have anything new. And they said, well, you know, what do you want? And now is really I don’t know if they have a new chair in your office, you get a press release almost, you know, So it’s like, is the world upside down now? Is more you need to filter out. There’s a lot instead of calling and chasing it. But we still like to do the chasing a bit because you want also unique new stories. Because if there is a press release, everybody gets it. And sometimes we get it before other people because we quite big in a separate industry and you know you can do that. But overall a press release is everybody gets it and then it’s less uniques. But we still always try to find unique new stories so important.
Farah [00:14:44] This show was sponsored by.
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Farah [00:15:44] Welcome back to the Shipshape podcast.
Merrill [00:15:51] How does Superyacht times differentiate itself from other yacht focused publications?
Merijn [00:15:57] For me, there are not so many. I mean, I’m quite a critical reader that I find things very quickly flashy content or not interested in bad results, or people don’t know their facts. And I think what makes us set apart is that we are quite die hard yards and Tunisia. So we are quite critical on ourselves and on all of these. And we like to get the facts right. We like to be first. We like to have everything and we like to create our own content. And I think those things that applied a bit and I think if you look at it in the superior media, you know, I guess I mean, I would say we probably have one real competitor and then a few others. But I think it all depends on, you know, there’s no there’s only us that I think got into knots to know we’re really on top of the news and really competitive and getting it. Plus, we also have both have the manpower to do so. It’s not like we are a one man band or a two man band. There is proper editorial teams. And I think for us, it’s kind of hard to. When we started, it was easier to run something with two people because it was just me and Martin okay, do a bit of sales and you do a bit of writing. But these days you need to make newsletters, you need to do YouTube videos, you need to do write articles. You need to do. You get a lot more so you have a lot more communication. You have Instagram, you have tech, though. You have Facebook. Yep, LinkedIn. So as a publisher, you needs you have a lot more varied jobs and everything creates more bargaining. You get more traveling and you can get more traveling. You know, like you need someone who helps booking. The floods are organizing things and then you need a bigger offer. So you need again, it’s so everything becomes bigger. And I think these days, running media, if you do all that, you need quite a few people to, you know, to execute on things and to do a level of quality that you know, you feel good about. And it’s fun, you know, like it’s a but it’s not as simple as it used to be.
Merrill [00:18:04] I can’t imagine that everyone that you bring on with your editorial team is really coming from the marine industry. I know Jorja joined you guys before she had even understood anything about boats. But how do you train someone to, you know, talk boat?
Merijn [00:18:21] Most of the people who write for Rose, I have not worked. I have no relationship with boats. I mean. Francesca relationships. She worked on boats. So it made my life very easy because he trains them and she knows boats and she works. But I think, Jorja, you started but also back then, Gemma and you know, you guys had no affiliation with boats before. And I think what we’ve always done is bring people to the boat shows. You know, they get them to boat shows, visit boats, go and see and meet people. We, of course, also had two people who were into boats like Shaul and Tom. And we also have people in know we’ve got to have an intelligence team who keeps track of the database of boats and everything. So they’re quite good at fact checking stops. You know, this length is incorrect. This boat name is spelled wrongly, so we have quite capable people in house and there is always check on stuff that goes out from new people. And I mean, with everything I think we look normal for, okay, it’s nice if there is an affiliation with your thing or the marine industry, but I think those are we need good right that we can interview people, ask good questions and translate that and interesting stories. And I think if you have that skill, the boating stuff, you can learn, if you cannot write or you cannot translate something in a nice story, then the subject doesn’t matter. If you need to learn that as a writer, it’s probably been more difficult. So I’d rather have good writers and learn them about boats than the other way around.
Georgia [00:19:48] Yeah, and that makes me that’s very validating for me because that’s exactly what I always say. You can learn the boat stuff, but you can’t necessarily learn to write if you don’t already have those those skills. So Marone obviously, Superyacht times has grown and developed and you now have your fingers in approximately 56 different pies at any one time. But one of the things you’ve kept going is a print newspaper. Now, some might say that’s an interesting decision in today’s media landscape. Talk to us a little bit about what made you guys keep going with a print newspaper.
Merijn [00:20:22] I mean, the print newspaper started in 2014 week. You know, I like to try new stuff. What do I get for know? Like, I mean, like I’ve been doing this since 2005. So in order to keep on going, you need to do new stuff because I cannot promote myself. So in order to entertain myself, I need to do other things. And before the newspaper. We actually did an Effect magazine called Superyacht Experience and we did is Open magazine was 2013 and thought like, it is going to be amazing. People like it because it’s like almost like the trend. You can browse through it, but then you can also go up and down interactive and things. And it just didn’t work because it all looked cool and everything. The content was good, but it’s very hard to get readers on either because, you know, like for a website, like a central link, you click on it. I got to read what is iPad magazine. I need to send you a link to the downloads, to the iPad, to the App Store, and now you need to be coincidentally on your iPad that you download it and then you need to download this this issue and then you had to read it. It was complex. So, okay, we did three for each 2 to 3 issues of that and said like this, it’s too hot. And I always liked prints because, I mean, I collect all the magazines and I mean we moving offices in six months and it just scares me a little bit about the amount of stuff we have collected over the last seven years. But that’s another story. But so I like print and also really as a media company, if you have print, people take you a little bit more serious because I don’t know why, but I think if I print super easy, you know, print is a lot easier than digital because it’s, you know, you can design whatever you want. There’s no technical implications. You just printed on the page and then you have to have it. And and distribution is also not so complicated because you’re a little bit switched on. So what we did for the newspaper, we said, okay, we’re going to make a newspaper. We just do one issue first, 2040 and we do 24 pages. And the difference is that the articles in the newspaper were a bit more in-depth content, and for our website we had to produce stuff every day and that was fine for that day, but the day after it was old. And so you didn’t have a lot of time to invest in one article because if you wrote an article in 30 minutes or 8 hours, you know, the 30 minutes would just get them same amount of traffic almost as the 8 hours that in in the newspaper, we had the opportunity to create more in-depth content. So that was one thing. Secondly, we wanted for the brand to be at times, if you have print, it’s good because I can go to a blowjob and take a pack of these newspapers and give them to people and they see us to put on to put out. Yet that’s certainly a lot of companies still like to advertise in print and to have the combination portfolio of print and digital. You know, that worked quite well. And I think also for my ego it was good, you know, like having a print publication business. They say, you know, you get a print publication very important. And also from a distribution perspective, because we could reach people where it’s I wasn’t sure if we would reach them online and then we could they could learn about the Times brand and maybe start visiting your website. So what we did is we have an intelligence team to track all about who owns them. And especially in the US, you know, like us on their boats behind their house in Fort Lauderdale or, you know, like they own the boats. It’s all a little bit more public. So we just started looking at, you know, who owns this boat? Okay, he left this house and go to the yellow pages or whatever and just find all his neighbors and then send them a newspaper as well. So we built up this database of a lot of homes, more than $5 million. And then the newspaper and we we did four issues. Then the year after, I think we did a few years, six issues, and now we’ve back it’s four issues. And I think that’s right, because if you get in print every month, it feels too soon. Always, you know, like I should another one and then another one. So and with quarterly, I think it’s just about fine and it still goes very strong. Last year we had the best year ever, I think, in terms of advertising. So the revenue from four issues last year was better than we ever did with six issues.
Georgia [00:24:32] Print every month is also hard work for the editors. Speaking as a former editor.
Merijn [00:24:37] Yeah, no, no, it’s very hard. And every two months is still hard, you know, like and I think that’s why every quarter is fine. I think it’s it’s the right balance. Plus also, you know, like, how big is this industry? So, you know, like how many people can become repetitive as well.
Merrill [00:24:51] It’s one of the things that you brought up, which I feel like we should head on, is that of trying new things and innovative ways to really try to create awareness. And obviously when you talk about Marine, you can see a tendency on many companies to do the same thing over and over and over, even though they it doesn’t necessarily work. So how do you really know when to move on from like a test?
Merijn [00:25:17] I usually don’t think so. It’s very long about something you’re not like. It’s I think I have been in this industry for a long time and I know exactly who our clients are and readers. So financially I was like, you know, how much would it cost us if it goes wrong? If it’s not so much, it’s worth a try. And I mean, I think if, you know, like, it’s not like we we do a lot of crazy. I mean, I made it in 2016. I had this. To do an event in London. And it’s I you know, like events was another thing. You know, we had prints, we had digital and then, you know, like the ego runs events as well. So we did party during the Met straight. Okay the party is this is my story is basically when we moved to Amsterdam in 2010 11 we said okay during the Met Straight, which is in marine equipment and trade show in Amsterdam and that is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And it’s I like the event because there’s no yards or anything, but a lot of people from the business died and we said, okay, we should do like a drink in our office. So we invited 50 people and then someone came to me. This event that at the Met said to me, Are you do this event tonight, right? I can be sponsor it. I mean, a set of people of beer and pizzas. We put some poses on the wall and you’re a sponsor so it’s okay. I’ll do it. And somebody did. I got 500 bucks. And then in zero eight, I go to the bar around the corner from the office and I said to the guy once, It’s okay if we give you 2000. How many people for how long can we drink? Well, from 6 to 10 for 152 of the people. That’s okay, you know. And I called for company. He said, Do you want to sponsor this for €500? Let’s do okay, let’s do it. And then from there on, we started to develop. And I always thought, like, it would be really cool if you can do a party for a thousand people. And that’s what we did in 2017. For the first time, I think we run the the biggest nightclub in Amsterdam and we had 1200 people and it became like a thing in itself, this party. And then COVID hit, obviously, because and I wasn’t, you know, like we stopped the party, which I was actually kind of fine with because it became a little bit of kind of a big thing to organize as well. And this year we did. And of Last mile 2022, we didn’t do it. And then I was walking in this nuts and a lot of people asking if they putting any the body end. I said, No, no, no, no. But I said, well, we my sponsor, my sponsor. So and now I think we might do it again in November. But to go back to 2016. So, okay, this party, we had that as an event, but it was not really event. We felt it was more okay. It was a party, got out of control, got a little bit bigger. So I don’t want to go into proper events. And what is the industry always complaining about? Okay, we need to find new clients. We need to do this. So I sort of thing. Okay. If we need to find new clients, we need to go to a place where there is no jobs yet, but a lot of rich people. So you have like New York or go or London. So I think I’m going. New York is quite far, so there’s a lot of rich people. So I went to London looking at several occasions and then I’ve got this Shotzi Gallery was an amazing art gallery and one of my friends is he has almost the same name as me Marine. So instead of he works for Fat Ship in the marketing departments organizing events, and he just thought it for himself. So I called my own and said, What do you think of this? That’s okay. That’s very cool. Let’s do it. So we go back to London in November. Basically, we pitched the idea to a few shipyards and the first four to say yes pretty quickly. And then it was we thought, okay, you know, this is going to be super easy and well, obviously not. But then and then we had to sign this contract with Sadie Gallery November, which we did. And then we had hopes by end of January we had we would have sold for 500,000. And if we would not, then it would probably not a good idea to continue because the whole event would probably cost us 700,000. Well, at the end of January we had sold for 250,000. I mean, we had tried a lot of things already. And so you run out of options in the other industry quite quickly. But then I said, if we would stop now, we probably lost 50 or 60,000, which would not be good, but it just felt not right not to continue. So we went the and and I still lost. I mean, the event was amazing. You came there, right?
Georgia [00:29:34] Georgia It was my first time I ever met Superyacht times is when I went to that event, turned up at the Self gallery. It all looked incredibly fancy. Everyone looked very beautifully dressed. Everything on the surface, Marine looked beautiful, but the story was.
Merijn [00:29:48] Only the gospel. So what we did different than only event is like we sought spaces in these galleries, but each gallery had a theme and there were like eight galleries in a ladies. Galleries were, I don’t know what, 20 meters by eight meters. We had four meters high walls. And so we saw probably 30%. But every other part of the gallery, we had to create a next position. So we had to come up with pictures, story lines. I mean, I remember Richard Shaw printing 400 labels and all coating them. I mean, I was at the opera seven days a week from early in the morning to late evening. My wife even came looking in the office to see me. And I was really tired. But it was I mean, it was such a cool experience that, you know, like, okay, because we had no way back, you know, like with a lot of other stuff I did before with digital. Okay, If we don’t do it today, we do tomorrow. You know, there was no pressure. We mean this in June. It had to. B, this event was happening, you know, you had to do everything for it. And luckily we had very good people who helped us out. But so the problem was as well, the revenue was not very high and a lot of companies said, okay, Mira, we support you with this event, but then we don’t do it. Yeah, that’s crazy. And I said, No, that’s not good. You know, like because times will not run so good, then this event, I might hopefully just break even and I’ll lose money on both sides. And it but basically money we didn’t have. The 2017 was a bit of the event, but it was very cool and it was very happy that it was over. But then, yeah, it took us a year. I mean, I still remember it was in, in the summer of 2018, a year later, that an intern came to me. Yeah, I cannot pay for this. I then it was stands or something. I said, okay, that’s strange. And it’s because the bank had canceled the it’s not a loan. I recall that you you can be in the right, you know, like you can be certain amount in the minus and that cancel that. So that caused a little bit of a worry for a month. But luckily there are some nice people you meet along the way will help you out. And luckily from that time on we started to make money. So we went in the place quite quickly. But I learned there that I’m not going to do anything anymore where it’s going to cost me money. And you know, we we’re going to focus on making profit first and positive cash flow. And I don’t like losing money so much, you know, like trying a bit of an adventure. It’s fun but risking I really thing was was it really was the cool experience like that you know like I looking at in hindsight I think it was a very, very good learning experience at that time. It was less cool.
Merrill [00:32:20] But how have you seen the Superyacht industry change over time? What trends are you seeing?
Merijn [00:32:27] I mean, I think if you look at big periods from, you know, like from 2005, I started till today, I think. I mean, first of all, the number of boats, you know, I think it has tripled probably in that time. But it’s also like, you know, it’s it’s in such a long period of time, it’s it’s obvious things like explorer boats were almost non-existent when I started. And I think that has really become something. And it’s more or less it’s the looks of it, but also the usability of it. And it’s also people going further afield. And I think it’s also because of social media and stuff that, that clients, Oh wow, you know, like this is cool. I want to go to as well. And the world is it’s, you know, you get a lot more inspiration and content thrown at you. You think, okay, that’s cool. And it’s also great the design of boats that in 2005 lines maybe looked a little bit the end of magazines. But now, you know, like if you like big boats and you know, you go near the nets, you can find tons of designs and all kinds of boats. So there’s a lot more things. And I think that also helped developing a lot more cool or increase your boat. So I think we have seen some really cool and outrageous designs and that have been supplied others as well. I know I can do it and I think so, you know, and things like Beach Club and pools on boats, you know, like I think when in 2005 big boats just had Jacuzzis and maybe there were a few with pools. But these days they try to fit pools on 150 feet boats or even smaller boats, because it’s all a bit more about the enjoying factor, spending more time. And and I think because of COVID, another thing is that people spend even more time and go further afield because that really accelerated the way in. Basically you can work from anywhere. We realized with go because we had to work from home and now people say, Oh, I can work from the boat, they can work from here. So I think there’s a lot of things have changed and the China market has become a lot bigger because, you know, like there’s a huge amount of people who maybe would never buy, but more like renting of boats. Like, you know, some people don’t like having a second home, but they still are renting a home every summer. And I think the China market has grown hugely as well over the years.
Merrill [00:34:35] Can you talk about any notable interviews or profiles that the magazine has covered? Who’s been some of the wildest stories?
Merijn [00:34:43] Who do you have any favorites? You’ve done many of them.
Georgia [00:34:47] Well, I think I really enjoy speaking to a lot of yacht owners. When I was editor helping with the magazine, I used to interview a lot of Superyacht owners and some of the ways people make money, you know, really very exciting. And some of them it’s simple things like, you know, inventing really, really strong plastic trash bags, for example. And, you know, it’s not necessarily the most glamorous stuff, but it’s just kind of hearing people’s stories about how they got to where they were, how they got to where they got, and then the fun that they managed to have on these vessels with their friends and family and exploring the world. And just, you know, when you hear someone speaking so enthusiastically about their boat, they could be someone who, you know, owns tiny little 20 foot boat or 300 foot boat. You know, it doesn’t really matter that kind of passion for being on the water and enjoying that lifestyle. You know, it filtered through whatever the price point of the boat. And I always enjoyed kind of getting to know these people and finding out that. Just kind of boat nerds on humans like everyone else. Really?
Merijn [00:35:48] No, I agree. I think from the earlier days, what I remember is that what I like, I mean, one of the things I was most proud of was that in back in the days, magazines got exclusives for onboard fixes for boats. And there was Predator, the Fetch ship, 72 to 3 media formats with an inverted bow. And it’s just kind of a cool looking boat. But the magazine had the first right to publish on it. But then I said, okay, well, this magazine, the publishers, I don’t know what the date was, but then we have it on publication and it was that we were a tiny website and yeah, sure is. But what happened was that people read it first on our website because the publication date, the magazine was not the day that people get it on their door because, you know, they get they a week, sometimes two weeks before a ship. So we were quite clever, and especially because it was a big boat, a unique boat. We got a lot of good traffic from that. And I think another one was with Dubai and back then the biggest boats in the world. And we went to the Dubai boat show. We got a DVD with pictures from it and there were interior pictures on it. So I thought, wow, this is a jackpot, you know? So we wrote that. And that was also and people hadn’t really thought about using the Internet sometimes because, you know, like if you print it in some magazine, the chances that the owner season’s maybe not too big, but because of the Internet, everybody sent the link and they sent the link and then they see it and then they’ll, Oh, shit, we’re not never meant to be alone. And then, you know, they read some stories that that was kind of cool because you realized it hit the right buttons and it reached the right people. But I think what I cannot recall, like, I mean, favorite story right now, I mean, I enjoyed owner interviews because like you said, we meet interesting characters and and fun people and.
Georgia [00:37:37] Yeah, I like doing I think it with William Brett McGill, the CEO of Marie Marks. I spoke to him. I think that was quite soon before I moved on from us, which he actually but I remember just speaking to him and thinking, Wow, this is lots of different parts of the industry coming together in such a fascinating way. You know, marine market is enormous and then now doubling, you know, now doubling in the CPI. And it’s just such a.
Merijn [00:38:02] Fun one together, right?
Georgia [00:38:03] Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah.
Merijn [00:38:05] I’m pretty sure you’ve.
Georgia [00:38:06] Said.
Merijn [00:38:07] The most recently.
Merrill [00:38:08] So do you get to go out on any boats? Do you have a boat?
Merijn [00:38:12] I actually don’t have a boat. I mean, I think a lot of people in the office would like that. We have a boat, but it’s more, you know, like if we put it out on the channel, you know, in the winter, it’s probably my problem, you know, like, and I think if we want to go out and buy the numbers, then we rather run for plus, you know, like I in Amsterdam, you know, like it’s nice to go to the gallows, but you do that a few times per year. And I would have my boat also in the Netherlands. I would have buy boats because the weather is not great and the distances are not very low. And you can visit every place tender mostly as well by car. If maybe if I have more time, it would be nice to have a boat Mediterranean or explore more the Caribbean. But then now I would only do it if I have more time. I have been. I’ve stayed from big Superyachts as well. I have been in Boston actually. That was I was there on a nice yeah, I got invited and I think if I had the money I would certainly by superyacht because I think it’s an amazing way of traveling because you can just say, Oh, I mean that trip was we started in Newport and we stayed for one night, Martha’s Vineyard, then we went to Nantucket for a couple of nights, then cruised through Boston and then left the boat in Boston. And, you know, that’s just an amazing trip, I think nine days or something. And seeing all the different places from basically your own villa on the water. So, I mean, I would definitely buy a superior if I had the money because, you know, just the exploration of certain parts of the world. And I mean, it’s, you know, like sitting in Central Park with you, but it’s probably fun for a few times, but more like Asia if in the US or Caribbean Mediterranean. I think it’s a cool way of exploring.
Georgia [00:39:51] Before we brought it to a close. Maureen, I know you do work with peer mentoring as well within the industry. I know you’ve been involved with the Yachting Ventures, another initiative to help young businesses and startups within the industry. What would you say are the like top qualities that people need to have in order to succeed as a business within the Superyacht sphere?
Merijn [00:40:12] I think if you start a business in a superb industry, you what a lot of people do it. I think they overestimate the market. You know, they all think, okay, there’s 5000 superyachts, I’m going to make a product for this boat and I’m going to sell it. I’m going to get 10% of the market and then it’ll be fine. So I think it’s it’s a little bit more complex than that because if you look at the five and a half thousand boats, there are, you know, like, okay, you know, one third is too old. They would never really be interesting. The other part is boats that small boats. And so actually your market, I think understanding this market is one thing if you want to start a business. Secondly, it’s a slow business because, I mean, it sounds like for some people, big business, everything. But then you have know, if you look at the shipyards, the sea bass members around 22 or something, they probably built 70 or 80% of all the yards in the world. That’s, you know, that’s a handful, you know, that’s 20 companies to so and then, you know, the progress. Of course, there are certain companies and suppliers, but it’s not a huge market. And people do business with people and people need to know you. And that takes time. So if you want to be in this business, you need to be patient and you need to be persistent. Plus, I would definitely go and travel to purchase because if you get along with people and you know, if you have a drink together or, you know, a boat with the chances they give you some business are a lot higher up because you need to have a good product and things as well. But you know, it’s a people business.
Merrill [00:41:41] Well, I totally feel you on that. I mean, generally everyone I talk to, I tell the same story about networking, networking, networking and the marine industry and boating and yachting is one of those last few industries in which you really have to be good at communication. Well, it was absolutely fascinating to talk to you and hear about the journey and a lot of the lessons that you’ve learned away learned along the way. And yeah, it was a fascinating interview.
Georgia [00:42:12] So, Maureen, if people want to find Superyacht times and all the things that you guys are doing, what do they need to do?
Merijn [00:42:19] Go to Cypriot times. Start with.
Georgia [00:42:22] Pretty.
Merijn [00:42:23] Straightforward. You guys enjoy this very much as well.
Georgia [00:42:25] Thank you, Mary.
Merijn [00:42:26] They got.
Farah [00:42:37] Check back every Tuesday for our latest episode and be sure to like, share and subscribe to ship shaped up for.
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