Getting Your Boat to and from Phuket: Sevenstar

When it comes to safely transporting your boat worldwide, practically to any continent and destination, Sevenstar Yacht Transport of Holland, does the job.

Part I

Jan Maarten Boissevain, who looks after Asia and the Far East, plus Special Projects, talked to Derani Yachts coinciding with the Singpore Yacht Show.

Jan Maarten Boissevain has been with Sevenstar Yacht Transport from its inception, which started its business back in 2002. Jan have been building up the yacht transportation company along with their managing director and two other colleagues.

“We developed it from a small brand within Europe and doing a little bit of Trans-Atlantic business, to now having worldwide coverage.”

What vessels are you using for boat transportation?

“We’re part of a big shipping group so we have the option to use our own fleet, which are general cargo vessels trading worldwide. We don’t have dedicated yacht transport vessels because the market for yachts is a very flexible, variable market, meaning there are not always yachts waiting for transportation everywhere so having a dedicated vessel is difficult. We use our own ships which are already sailing worldwide and we use the decks of the vessels to load and ship yachts worldwide. So we use the ongoing system of ships to transport boats worldwide, along with other cargo.”

“Of course now and then we use ships with only yachts but that’s only on rare occasions.”

With your experience from a number of years and growing the business – how do you add value to the customers of for instance Derani Yachts?

“That’s very important; both to the yacht broker and the customer we have a lot of added value, because there are no boundaries to take any boat anywhere in the world! We offer transport, we give every seller and buyer the opportunity to buy and sell in one place, for example Florida and deliver it to for example Genoa, Italy, you can go to Brazil, South America – anywhere! So it’s important for sellers and buyers to know what options there are to transport boats anywhere in the world. You’ve always got opportunities to move your boat. So for brokers it’s a good sales tool.”

Whenever someone comes to for instance Cannes and turns out to be from Thailand, Sevenstar can deliver the boat there.

And if they want to have flexibility, for instance to move from one location to another that are far apart?

“Yes, we have special sailing schedules that are going from A to B, which are the standard routes – there you can get sharper rates cause there are more boats going on these sailings. And the more boats that are going, the more competitive the prices are! And that gives the client the opportunity to join the sailing and get a better deal, but then of course being limited to a certain amount of places you can go.”

“On the other hand – if you want something special, or difficult and want to be picked up in a certain port that we normally don’t go, we can do it, and can deliver where you want. But of course that has a price.”

Shipyards in Italy, for instance, for a door-to-door delivery, do you have certain pickup points in harbors?

“For example in Italy we load in Ancona for the Adriatic side, and in Geneoa for the Mediterranean side for the shipyards which are based there. In mutual agreement we can find a solution which is most cost-effective for us, for the shipyard, or what they wish and then we perform in the way they want to do.”

Regarding capacity on size and self-unloading vessels – what are your services?

“That’s our main working tool and power that we only use ships with their own cranes. So that means the cargo vessels has cranes on the side of the vessel with lifting capacity ranging from 80 tonnes up to 1800 tonnes, actually up to 2000 tonnes. By having access to vessels with suitable cranes and deck space it means you can move almost everything. There is hardly a limit to moving a boat; we can do up to 70 metres, and we’ve been shipping out boats and barges up to 90 metres.”

“Due to all new techniques and materials in lifting and that kind of stuff there’s hardly any limit anymore. But of course it becomes costly; if you’re shipping a boat that is 80 metres the costs are excessive. And these boats can run under own power and then it becomes much more interesting to do so because the costs are not in line with running under own power. They can easily sail around the world themselves and don’t require transport.”

In Southeast Asia can you cater for delivery to destinations such as Phuket?

“We load and discharge in Phuket regularly, so that’s a port we go to quite often. We go to Singapore, then Hong Kong and Shanghai, Busan in Korea, and Yokohama, Japan. The reason why I name these ports is because there is the infrastructure; the legal system is allowing yachts to come in and go out and it’s very important that you take people to places where they don’t get into trouble and we know there is a marina, we know there is a way to get your boat custom-cleared. Of course we can take boats to Jakarta etc. as well, which we also have been doing but then you know you could have more difficulties with the custom clearance, the birthing of the boat. But these things in all these ports are developing quickly and adjusting to the market well and the level of demand, so they’re working on the supply. Sometimes it takes a bit of time and energy but more ports are becoming suitable to bring yachts to.”

Continue to part II: Sevenstar Yacht Transport Believes in Asia