Inflatable beach clubs super-size luxury yacht charters for the one per cent
Pump up the volume (and fun) with inflatable beach clubs that super-size luxury yacht charters.
A floating pickleball court has been baiting clicks in recent days, commissioned by the travel concierge service Via Croatia for the 44-metre charter yacht Aretha. It may be big, blue Instagram candy, but large-scale superyacht inflatables are serious business – and for good reason.
“On boats there’s a finite amount of space,” says John Courtney, managing director of FunAir, a US-based superyacht inflatables specialist. “With inflatables, for limited cost and time, you can add to that space.”
Alfresco sea-level areas are particularly precious real estate on a superyacht, usually confined to the stern where tenders and toys are launched. You might get fold-out platforms at toe-dipping level as part of the gym or spa on a 70-metre, but that’s not much splish when you’re splashing out nearly $1 million a week to be “on the water”. Adding an inflatable water park to your yacht’s arsenal can temporarily super-size its oceanside space – it’s also a steal compared with actually buying a bigger boat (for which $2 million per metre is the maxim). Added to that, in the past decade the range of inflatables available has grown significantly more sophisticated than the once ubiquitous basic slide.
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FunAir’s vast waterpark FunFlex is a case in point. The system of interlocking, interchangeable modules – which include sea pools, climbing walls, jousting setups, jet ski docks and more – offers guests a different set-up every day, and it costs from US$2500 ($3600). The vast array of the company’s inflatables on the 68-metre motor yacht Loon, meanwhile, has helped to make it a staggeringly successful charter yacht – raking in US$13 million in 18 months, according to its broker (she’s for sale at US$47.5 million with Merle Wood & Associates). This kind of kit can look surprisingly smart in custom colours and with a yacht’s name emblazoned on top.
But blow-up gear can also solve real operational problems. A few years back, FunAir was contacted by a superyacht captain whose tipsy charter guests kept jumping off the top deck – see the season two finale of The White Lotus for a vivid illustration of why this is a bad idea. Since the captain couldn’t stop them, he wanted to make it safe: cue Leap of Faith, an inflatable non-skid platform that sits over railings so guests can jump with enough clearance and grip to avoid hitting the boat on the way down. The company’s inflatable SeaStairs, meanwhile, address the problem of fluctuating swell when climbing from the sea or a jet ski on to a big boat. “They had a traditional method by which they could pull about one person out of the water in a minute,” says Courtney. “After we built this solution for them, they could pull 20 people out of the water [in the same amount of time].”
The inflatables arm of UK and Monaco-based Superyacht Tenders and Toys (SYTT) also builds high-spec custom sea pools and jet ski docks for the most illustrious yachts afloat (inflatable slides start at $8000, while a fully equipped inflatable beach club can cost up to $400,000). Among the company’s most arresting work is “probably the biggest swimming pool and inflatable raft in the world”, says Peter Emmons, SYTT technical manager. It was built for the 80-metre superyacht support vessel U-81, owned by New Zealand’s second richest man, Graeme Hart. The 168-square-metre platform is lifted out of the water in one piece by a gargantuan crane, to lay on the vast toy-storage deck.
The company is also creating inflatable games decks that sit on board. It started when they had a call from the chief officer of Savannah – the multi-award-winning 83.5-metre motor yacht that features a semi-submerged Nemo Lounge and charters from almost $2 million per week. “They had a carbon-fibre court on the bow and he had this crazy idea: ‘Would it be possible to have one that packed down?’,” Emmons recalls. The answer was yes and the custom inflatable, measuring 11 metres by 8.5 metres, sparked a trend among the very largest superyachts. Most recently it popped up on new 112-metre Renaissance (which charters for $4.3 million per week with Burgess). “It’s more economical, it’s lighter. It’s quick and simple to pack away and deckhands have thanked them for it,” Emmons says.
This point is crucial, because crews famously hate inflatables. In their shipshape world, a massive hunk of PVC is an unwelcome guest. Related bugbears include taking staff off regular duties for laborious inflating and deflating, and jamming up a yacht’s already limited storage. Both companies have therefore focused plenty of research and development on crew-friendly designs. These include simple but space-saving tweaks and lighter, more durable materials and replacing metal handholds with rope rings made of Dyneema (cuben fibre). “It weighs a fraction of stainless steel, is 10 times stronger and it’s soft, so it won’t scratch the yacht,” Courtney says. Super-efficient pumps mean a waterpark can be set up in just 10 minutes. They’ve even made their slides more slippery.
SYTT, meanwhile, has swapped out PVC for greener TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) in its rigid inflatable, teak-topped jet ski docks. “It has much better abrasion resistance and is 30 per cent lighter, which means we can make the docks 30 per cent bigger …” jokes Emmons. It’s little wonder he’s in good spirits. Demand is growing and as products continue to evolve, the market for superyacht inflatables looks increasingly, well, buoyant.
This story is from the November issue of WISH.
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