mega yacht

More recently, over the last decade or two, there has been an increase in the number and popularity of large private luxury yachts, over 24 metres. Luxury yachts typically have no real home port as such although a yacht must be registered in a port of the country of which it fly the flag. (Many times the yacht will have never been to the port.) They are particularly bountiful in the Mediterranean in summer and the Caribbean Sea in winter. (Yachts that go back and forth between the Caribbean and Mediterranean in the winter and summer are said to be doing the Milk Run.) Yachts will dock in a port of choosing while the crew does maintenance work and waits for owners or guests to arrive. The vessels then will do short cruises with the owners and/or guests aboard. Typical destinations in Spain and the French and Italian Rivieras include Cannes, Antibes, St. Tropez, Monte Carlo, Portofino, Porto Cervo, Puerto Banus, Puerto Portals and Palma, Majorca, although increasingly luxury yachts are cruising in more remote areas of the world. Antigua is one of the main ports in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean and hosts a Charter Show at the beginning of the winter season.

With the rising demand for luxury yachts there has been a concomitant increase in the numbers of custom boat building companies andyacht charter brokers. Luxury boat building and yacht charter companies are predominantly based in the United States and Western Europebut are also increasingly found in New Zealand, Asia and Eastern Europe. European manufacturers such as Ferretti, Azimut, Azimut-Benetti,Feadship,Shonelle, Sunseeker and Lürssen dominate the very top end of the yacht building market.