November 1, 2009
To hear H. Wayne Huizenga Jr. tell it, you want to believe it.
This slowdown in the yachting market is a good thing. It creates opportunities and gives us all a chance to provide the service yachting is really all about.
In an easy, sympathetic voice, he had the members of the U.S. Superyacht Association wanting to believe it, too.
“There are great opportunities around us, though it seems dim right now,” he said at the USSA’s general membership meeting yesterday morning. Huizenga is chairman of the board of Rybovich.
People ask him when the industry will turn around. Even the experts he listens to don’t know. Knowing he was asked to address the USSA about the state of the industry, he turned to his most trusted adviser, his father. While Huizenga Sr. agreed the markets and our industry appeared to be near the bottom, he also said the recovery would not be quick.
“For some businesses, that’s bad,” Huizenga Jr. said. “For our business, I’m not sure that’s so terrible.”
He described the spending habits of the wealthy in his world. Though they are cutting costs and trips, it’s not necessarily about the money, but about perception. It doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.
The answer, he said, is to do a better job of making yachting an invaluable experience.
“I tell my team, we’re in the entertainment business,” he said. “No one needs a megayacht. So we have to be on our game and do a better job. Yacht owners are entrepreneurs and businessmen. They can see their yacht and think, if I sell it, I can invest, triple my money and get back in.
“No. Sell the house in Aspen. Keep the yacht. Where else can you get away and be treated like you do you a megayacht? You can’t go anywhere else and get the kind of service you do on your own yacht.
“We’ve all got to go the extra mile. I don’t know if it’s possible with the level of service yacht crews provide on these vessels, but we have got to try. In refit, we have got to be on budget and on time.”
In the past few months, Huizenga said he has talked with three people who are new to yachting. With prices so low, they look at yachting and decide to try it. That’s where every sector of the industry can play a part, he said.
“We all need to take a long-term industry view,” he said. “Together we can make this work.”
One of his colleagues always asks, what are you doing to make the pie bigger?
“Who are you talking to about yachting? About chartering? How do we talk about our competitors? Are we excited about the job we’re doing?”
Being less busy also makes it a good time to mentor someone.
“When I first got into this business, Billy Smith [vice president of Trinity Yachts] put his arm around me and advised me. And he encouraged us.”
That mentoring is important among crew, too, he said. When a large yacht with a relatively young, new captain pulled into Rybovich recently, Capt. George Whitehouse, director of marina operations at Rybovich, has been helping him work on a crossing plan planned for December.
“We’re not slammed right now, so invest. Invest in the young people coming in. If this captain succeeds, this new owner will have a wonderful time, and that’s good for all of us.
“We want the owners to say, everything else can go but the yacht is my refuge,” Huizenga said. “Together we can make that happen.”
Judging by the applause, the message was warmly received. The members of the USSA want to believe it. Maybe it’s time we start believing it.
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