The booming market for luxury experiential travel is opening an ocean of possibilities to adventurers wanting to experience life-changing sea voyages in the lap of luxury.

Picture the solitude of Paradise Bay, Antarctica, where the silence is broken only by pack ice groaning; or the eerie environs of Scott’s Hut on Cape Evans, where the expedition’s boots, food and experiments are all preserved as they were when the ill-fated expedition set off for its final trek across the ice; or exploring the indigenous and untouched villages of the Amazon from Manaus to Iquitos.

What may once have been an impossible dream is about to turn into a reality. And what is more, the opportunities for travel are being combined with the possibility of enjoying these life-changing experiences as part of a profitable business investment.

The superyacht market is at a tipping point, known for building overpriced yachts with limited capability and high maintenance costs. This may explain why only 2% of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals own a yacht, and why the Mediterranean Sea with only 4% of the world’s coastlines, enjoys 70% of its yacht traffic. A new breed of luxury expedition yachts is challenging the status quo in the market and addressing its inherent seasonal limitations, limited capabilities and sky-high maintenance costs to give ocean lovers the freedom to explore the seas in style all year.

Captain Matthias Bosse needed little more motivation to launch Hawk Yachts, with a game-changing innovative luxury yacht concept. “Having travelled over 1,000,000 sea miles during the last three decades – including numerous cruises to the Arctic Ocean, the Northwest Passage and the Amazon River – the idea to create the ultimate expedition superyacht came from my frustration at seeing so many beautiful vessels confined to Mediterranean marinas,” said Capt Bosse.

 

Hawk Yachts is transforming the sector through designs that drastically reduces the cost to owners and open the possibility of year-round charters in some of the world’s most spectacular and remote locations. Its business model – where they have cut costs by up to 50% by using commercial ship yards where possible and extended the charter season from 3 months to up to 52 weeks by building ocean-going vessels that can travel anywhere – greatly increases potential revenue from charter.

Hawk Yachts makes superyachts a viable investment opportunity, rather than a colossal waste of money, encouraging more buyers and increasing market penetration. Hawk vessels can be run as a business, owned by an individual or shareholders, used privately by the owners when appropriate and then gain revenue through aggressive charter sales. This eliminates waste for increasingly environmentally conscious owners and widens the benefit of yacht ownership to the enjoyment of a wider group. The owners of most superyachts typically use their boats for five to six weeks of the year and many cannot be insured far from land as they are not ocean-going vessels.

Hawk Yachts has just announced a game-changing superyacht concept: Hawk Ranger, a go-anywhere vessel able to take up to 12 passengers on ocean adventures in unrivalled luxury. The 68m Hawk Ranger Motor Yacht has a top speed of 17 knots and a range, at 12 knots, of 6,500 nautical miles.

Is this the change ocean lovers have been waiting for? Capt Bosse thinks so: “The superyachts we are building open up the oceans to lovers of luxury travel and the wide seas, in what we hope are unbeatable experiences that will create memories forever.”