Boating World South Africa is reporting a sector milestone with the arrival of the country’s first Azimut Fly 60.

The company has already sold three out of the four available shares in the luxury motoryacht as the company continues to see good traction for fractional ownership in the local top-end market.

The arrival of the Azimut Fly 60 marks Boating World’s third luxury yacht fractional ownership deal. The company helped pioneer fractional ownership in South Africa, with previous successes in the sale of a Fairline Yachts Targa 48 and a Squadron 53 Flybridge in a similar structure.

“This is our third fractional ownership import – all brand new yachts, custom built to the owners’ requirements,” said Boating World’s MD Derrick Levy.

Levy said buyers were responding well to the company’s strategy of selling only a handful of shares in each yacht, thereby ensuring more exclusivity and more availability. “We said we don’t want 10 owners. Structuring the deals this way means each owner gets their yacht exactly when they want it, effectively about 95% of the time.”

He said the partnership structure had allowed the company to prioritise attention to detail. “In effect, we are running a 60ft yacht but treating it as a megayacht, which is not that difficult to achieve given the exceptional craftmanship of the hardware, with a multitude of design touch points you would typically expect on a megayacht.”

Levy’s clients range from high-net-worth individuals to international statesmen. He believes the benefit of dealing in new boats outweighs the higher price. “Many of our clients look at and do buy pre-owned boats first, but there are people who like new boats. They get the warranty, and they can select what custom options they want included in the build, from design finishes to the latest performance and navigational tech. In my books, you don’t benefit as much from the purchase price of buying pre-owned as you do from the benefits of buying new.”

Levy said the recent arrival of the Azimut Fly 60 represents a big step-up for South African leisure boating, more specifically Cape Town. “It’s not often that a yacht of this calibre graces our coastline; being a 2023 model means it’s kitted with the latest performance advancements.”

Boating World had sold all three available shares in the yacht by mid-2022, he said.

Having established its fractional ownership market in the local market, the company now intends to expand its footprint to offer more opportunities offshore.

In 2021 Boating World brokered the sale of South Africa’s first Azimut Verve 47.