Aspiring superyacht owners are not immune to the financial and economic crises that have buffeted the west for the past three years, but they are still buying big boats, according to designers, manufacturers and brokers. They have just become smarter in the way they go about it.

?The clients are changing a bit,? says I?igo Toledo, naval architect and founder of Barracuda Yacht Design. ?There are fewer of them, and they have less money. In general everything is tighter. But at the same time, they are more sophisticated, demanding and meticulous.?

Even with dark clouds hanging over European economies where many of the largest motor yachts and sailing vessels are manufactured and sold, luxury goods companies?including some superyacht makers – are thriving again on a combination of exports to emerging markets and sales to wealthy western customers.

A few of the leading brands are even benefiting from a ?What the hell!? rebound in sales. After three years of belt-tightening?or at least a greater degree of discretion in the way they spend their money?the world?s wealthy have grown tired of waiting for the gratification of owning a bigger yacht.

In Spain, where Toledo is based, ?some people can?t get a new boat or a new car because it?s politically incorrect,? he says. ?But after two or three years of recession, people are saying, ?I?m getting old, let?s do it?.?

Barry Gilmour, executive chairman of Royale Oceanic, the yacht services company that supervises construction and management for owners, has noticed the same phenomenon among those known in the banking world as ?ultra-high net worth individuals?.

?The psychology is: ?I?ve got a couple of billion, I?ve got three houses and a helicopter, and I still want to enjoy myself. What the hell! Let?s go for it?. They have decided it?s the bottom now and it?s time to buy.?

Waiting lists have dwindled and the crisis-stricken yacht sector remains a buyer?s market, prompting a revival in demand for the largest leisure vessels.

Yco, the broker and services group traded on London?s Aim stock market, says that the very wealthiest buyers from Russia and the Middle East have begun ordering big vessels of about 150 metres in length. ?The big north European yards have had the best six months they can remember,? says Gary Wright, Yco managing partner. ?Suddenly, the shipyards can deliver quickly and the guys that can afford big yachts are taking the plunge again.?

Wally, which makes high-tech sailing yachts and motor vessels from lightweight carbon composite, is one of the low-volume European manufacturers that have noticed an upturn. ?Funnily enough, we?ve had our best year ever,? says John Hunt, the company?s chairman and chief executive. ?With the sailing boats, we?ve signed some really big orders.? The crisis-induced slowdown, he says, was driven more by the need to be discreet than a lack of money. ?I think our customers?to the extent that they stopped in 2009 and 2010?stopped out of a sense of propriety.?

The good news for the industry, however, is concentrated at the larger end of the new yacht market, and does not extend to the majority of second-hand yachts or to smaller vessels that were often bought with the help of bank finance.

?It?s a very difficult moment for the whole industry, especially the small companies,? says Anton Francesco Albertoni, chairman of the Italian nautical industry federation Ucina. ?In the Mediterranean markets, there are still lots of problems.? Ucina says its member companies? turnover shrank by about 45 per cent between 2008 and 2010, although it is encouraged by a slight rise in turnover and orders in the first quarter of this year.

A look at the broader superyacht market?a ?superyacht? is usually defined as a vessel more than 30m in length?shows a continuing decline in orders and launches since the peak about three years ago.

The pipeline, in terms of the number of yachts ordered but not yet delivered, reached 587 in 2009 and has since declined to 402, according to Superyacht Intelligence, part of The Superyacht Group. Even so, the increasing size of the big yachts on order?45.6m on average, compared to 40.3m for those already delivered – shows the resilience of the very top end of the market.

The market for marina berths and associated properties has been affected like the rest of the property sector by the crisis in the eurozone, but again there are signs of hope for the most exclusive developments as the superyacht fleet continues its inexorable expansion and tourism grows.

?It?s very difficult at the moment, because the markets are generally so slow,? says Charles Weston Baker, who is in charge of international marina and golf resorts for Savills. ?However, the demand, especially in the Mediterranean, for marina berths and for sailing continues to rise.?

Among the projects being marketed by Savills is a planned ?408m hotel and villa resort on the Adriatic island of Sveti Marko opposite the new superyacht marina in Porto Monte?negro, with wealthy Russ-ians as targeted clients.

New markets have been relatively slow to emerge in the yacht business, but Brazil, China and other fast-growing economies were a boon for the struggling sector in the dark days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Last month, First Eastern, the investment group of Hong Kong-based businessman Victor Chu, established a joint venture with Aim-traded Camper & Nicholsons Marina Investments (CNMI) to develop luxury marina and property projects in Asia, especially China.

These new types of customers, and the economic constraints affecting the traditional yacht buyers, inevitably have an impact on the way yachts are now being designed and built. Superyachts are hardly ?green? products, but the ecological concerns of owners and the availability of lightweight materials and new technology has steadily made them more energy-efficient for a given speed.

There is a constant cross-fertilisation of ideas involving the aircraft and motor industries, with fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries the latest focus of research and development.

?We?ve seen in the new models that the trend, already defined last year, is towards designs and products that are for environmentally friendly yachting rather than extreme engine performance,? says Albertoni. ?And there?s a lot of rationalisation of the power installed on the boat, not only for environmental but also for economic reasons?the cost of sailing.?

For Toledo at Barracuda, customers? needs range widely, from household comfort to sheer speed. Among other projects, he is working on a series of modern production motorboats; a very fast (55-knot) motor yacht; and a big sailing yacht with auxiliary hybrid electric propulsion where the aim is silence even when under power and a limited angle of heel.

?Clients don?t want to suffer on their boats any more. And actually, after paying ?10m, they are right,? says Toledo.

Gilmour at Royale Oceanic agrees, noting that the wealthy are usually eager to buy new technology and try avant-garde designs, but still value their comforts. ?It doesn?t need to be cutting-edge technical innovation,? he says. ?It just needs to be moving things forward to the next stage of luxury.?

In spite of the cancelled orders, bankruptcies and financial restructurings of the past few years, the best yacht designers and producers are still attracting clients from new markets – and managing to persuade their traditional customers to upgrade to newer and better types of boat.

?The Financial Times Limited 2011