Representatives from China’s leading boat magazines visited Maine recently to tour boatyards along the coast and promote the industry back home.
China is a fast-growing market for yachts, according to Tony Kieffer, a managing partner with Portland-based MaineAsia, a year-old firm that provides strategic advice and engages in trading and investment ventures with businesses in Maine and Asia.
MaineAsia teamed with South Casco-based Sabre Yachts Corporation to host representatives from the Hurun Report, China Yachting and Boat Exclusive. The tour, held from Aug. 14 to 20, was designed to promote Maine boatbuilding and marine businesses, tourism, and food and lodging.
According to MaineAsia, the Hurun Report is one of China’s leading publishing and events groups, best known for its four luxury magazines and annual “Hurun Rich List,” which ranks China’s wealthiest individuals. China Yachting is one of China’s oldest boating magazines. Boat Exclusive is the first European yacht magazine to be published in China.
In China, yachting is an evolving concept, said Kieffer, who has spent many years living in China and developed various business ventures there. The yachting industry consists of a few American and European shops, mostly in south China. The folks who buy boats in China are generally wealthy CEOs who want to impress others with their success.
“Yachts are used in a business context probably more than a family context,” Kieffer said.
Now, that’s changing a bit.
“The Chinese government has made development of the yachting industry, of marinas and of the boatbuilding industry a priority in the last several years,” he said. “Billions of dollars are being poured into marina development and marina upgrade, as marinas unto themselves, but also as part of waterfront real estate development.”
As a result, Kieffer said, the Chinese have focused on European “super-yacht” brands, even though the country has a way to go in developing yachting infrastructure and permitting mechanisms to allow for interprovincial cruising.
“It’s something that will change over time,” he said.
Maine is well positioned to provide expertise in marina development, according to Kieffer.
“The Chinese are looking for [the] best practices and management principles to help them to do that and get it right,” he said. “Part of the trip we put together was to introduce [the Chinese] to our style of cruising, yachting, marina management, sustainable fisheries and responsible environmental ecotourism as a model that’s predicated and built on a good balance between public and private access.”
Going hand-in-hand with that idea was an introduction to Maine’s top-of-the-line yachting products. The contingent viewed production at Sabre, Back Cove, Hodgdon, Hinckley and Morris. Larger yards were selected because of their ability to handle a scale of production that would be meaningful for the Chinese market, Kieffer said.
Another goal was to foster awareness of Maine as a tourist and student destination.
The group viewed the Maine Island Trail in Casco Bay, spent a day on two Sabre motor yachts, watched the MS Harborfest Regatta and the Searsport lobster-boat race, rode on a couple of lobster boats, learned about the lobster industry and conservation, and sailed a Morris M52.
“That was wonderful for them, to get a chance to really see how those boats have been designed for simplicity and sailability and elegance,” Keiffer said. “The take-away for a lot of the press was that the boat could do very well in China, because of its ease of operation.”
According to MaineAsia, “The rapid rise of China’s middle class has given birth to an additional 300 million people with disposable incomes and per capita retail sales that have increased five-fold in little more than a decade”¦Asia has also become a major international investor.”
“The Chinese market is very interesting,” said Bentley Collins, Sabre’s vice president of marketing and sales. “The ultra-wealthy buy boats first to entertain customers onboard, so there’s not a dedicated boating lifestyle yet. But it will happen. The middle class is starting to grow astronomically, and the government is starting to build marinas and infrastructure. There’s a long way to go, but I’d like to think the Maine industry will have a better understanding of the market there.”
Hinckley’s vice president of sales, Phil Bennett, agreed that the tour helped put Maine on the Chinese radar.
“We’re finding that the Chinese market in general is one that is indulging itself now in something that they never really had knowledge of before, or the wherewithal,” Bennett said. “They’re buying luxury goods across the board.”
Maine can’t expect a “flood” of orders quite yet, Bennett said. “But one of the things I think is important, for our industry, is to be forward-looking. If we look at our own existing world and ignore where our business can come from in the years to come, then we’re not out there keeping the business alive.”
Hinckley has already made an appearance on the Chinese market. Last year, the company delivered a Talaria 29 runabout and a Picnic Boat to two Chinese nationals.
Sabre plans to attend the 18th annual China (Shanghai) International Boat Show in April 2013 to continue conversations with potential importers, Collins said. The 2012 show drew more than 450 exhibitors from more than 23 countries, with over 500 boats on site.
MaineAsia tentatively plans to host a second, smaller delegation from China in October. Plans are in the works to host an industry and government delegation, for a dialogue on education and training investment, tentatively set for June 2013.
Laurie Schreiber is a freelance contributor living in Bass Harbor.