Full speed ahead again

The COVID pandemic has put a severe dent in the cruise market. The global annual passenger volume of cruise passengers slumped by 81% from 2019 to 2020 and fell by a further 17.6% to 4.7 million passengers in 2021 (Cruise Lines International Organization (CLIA) 2021, Global Market Report).

The outlook for the post-COVID sector has brightened again. Cruise tourists are loyal customers. 91% of all international passengers who have already taken a cruise say they want to set sail again.

72 percent of all travelers who have never boarded a cruise ship are open to it, according to a recent survey in the nine most important cruise countries (CLIA, 2022).

One travel segment is just starting to take off on the world’s oceans: the luxury segment.

Even the pirate thinks twice

The luxury yacht Silenseas, one of the many new ships currently being built or planned for the luxury segment, looks like a cross between a modern sailing yacht and a warship.

Rendering: Orient Express Silenseas © Martin Darzacq

The 220-meter yacht (the term cruise ship is taboo in this segment) accommodates 54 suites with an average size of 70 square meters.

In terms of service, culinary delights and entertainment on board, hardly any wish remains unfulfilled. Vocally ambitious guests can use a professional recording studio and launch their next career on the world’s stages.

Hybrid is also the motto here: the three rigid sails, each with 1500 square meters of sail area, attached to 100-meter-high masts, can give the ship speed in suitable wind conditions.

Otherwise, the ship’s engines are powered by liquefied natural gas, the abbreviation of which we are all familiar with by now.

Built by the French shipyard Charters de l’Atlantique in Brittany, the luxury yacht is an Accor Group project and part of the Oriental Express luxury segment, making it a logical addition to the hotel and luxury train offering.

The floating luxury resort, untroubled by all earthly and troublesome issues on land, will set sail for the first time in 2026.

New wind from Monaco

While the marina in Monaco is home to a proud selection of impressive private motor yachts, Pierre Casiraghi, eighth in line of succession to the Prince of Monaco, considers the development of such superyachts to be a mistake.

From his point of view, these ships are almost exclusively about the interior and not about innovation. The experience at sea is like an apartment with a sea view, but has nothing to do with the experience of wind and waves that attracts most sailors like him.

Pierre Casiraghi’s love is for classic wooden sailing boats and sailing races such as the Vendée Globe or the Ocean Race, where high-tech is the trump card, but where the skipper’s assessment of the respective weather conditions ultimately determines a successful finish.

The son of Caroline of Monaco uses his network contacts to support Team Malizia, whose name derives from Francesco Malizia, Francesco Grimaldi, known as a rogue or rascal, who in 1297, disguised as a Franciscan, requested entry to the fortress of Monaco and conquered the fortress for himself and his Grimaldi family with the sword he concealed under his cowl.

The skipper of the Malizia is Boris Herrmann. Born in Oldenburg and living in Hamburg, he has managed to get many non-sailors to start following his sailing races on YouTube or other social media channels or to read about his experiences in the book “Alone between heaven and earth”. We couldn’t put the book down and even read the acknowledgements at the end very carefully.

The opposite of luxury

Chasing across the seas on racing yachts like the Malizia with its sails and foils is the opposite of the luxury of a superyacht like the Silenseas. The food on board the Malizia does not consist of menus from Michelin-starred chefs, but essentially of dry food.

As every superfluous kilo of weight should be avoided, the skipper only has a command chair and a kind of hammock at his disposal. Sleep on board is only possible in 45-minute units at most and, despite the best material, something has to be repaired and mended almost constantly, even in heavy seas.

A race we must win

This is the motto of the Malizia, which promotes measurements and environmental protection projects on its voyages. Pierre Casiraghi and Boris Hermann also took Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic on the Malizia to the UN General Assembly in New York.

We are all aware that increasing environmental pollution and threatening quantities of plastic are increasingly endangering marine life. Recycling plastic that has been fished out of the oceans is good, keeping it out would be much better.

There’s a little bit of seafaring in all of us

If you watch people by the sea, you will notice their relaxed gaze as they watch the waves and keep scanning the horizon. Whether the Adriatic, Baltic, Atlantic, Indian or Pacific – the sea symbolizes adventure. It promises freedom and a different life.

You don’t need a boat – you can experience the feeling of freedom when swimming in the sea just a few meters from the shore.

“A society without ships is a society without dreams”

said the French philosopher Michel Foucault.

The possibility of dreaming makes the sea irresistible. The wind and the salt water on your skin and in your hair are enough to make you feel elated, especially as many supposed paradises along the oceans are far from paradisiacal.

Port cities are strategically important and often contested, all the more so if they are located on important trade routes, as the city of Odessa is currently experiencing.

Pages of adventure

Many adventure novels, from Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, are set on or near the sea.

Anyone who has already read all the classics can pick up Marietta Navarro’s “Across the Sea”. A thrilling novel about a captain of a container ship, which Denis Scheck highly recommends in this video, among others.

The novel “Zur See” by Dörte Hansen can be found higher up on the literature lists in German-speaking countries. The book about a family of sailors on a North Sea island is on everyone’s lips as a follow-up novel to Mittagsstunde, and you’re guaranteed to bump into someone reading the book on the ICE train.

Dörte Hansen’s brittle, subtle narrative style is a pleasure to read and depicts the changes that tourism brings to a North Sea island.

Both books are perfect for enjoying the gray, cold winter months, because who wants to go to the North Pole when it’s freezing cold? Even Prince Harry didn’t get that.

Dream of your next adventure at or on the sea, because onboarding has already reached us in everyday life. No job is complete without onboarding and, according to McKinsey, we all need onboarding post-COVID, whether we are new or long-serving employees.

A beacon in the magazine market

There are a large number of new magazine publications that are discontinued after just a few issues. The magazine mare, founded by Swiss marine biologist Nikolaus Gelpke, has been successful on the market since 1997.

He was encouraged to found a magazine on marine issues by Elisabeth Mann Borgese, daughter of Thomas Mann, a committed marine rights activist.

The sea, sea creatures and the people who live with and from the sea are the focus of the reports: the spectrum of reports ranges from fishmongers in Tokyo and submarine builders in the Ukraine to icebergs and tax havens.

Incidentally, the associated television format mareTV celebrated its 22nd anniversary yesterday, February 1. The sea and its themes remain fascinating.

#Advertising #ProductPlacement #IndependentRecommendation #BecauseWeLoveIt

Photographs © GloriousMe