Industry Briefing

HFW’s yacht team is, as ever, busy dealing with a range of transactions, commercial disputes, regulatory matters and marine insurance claims, with our work reflecting the spread of issues and opportunities faced by the yachting industry at this time. Drawing from across our global network, our latest industry briefing is one of our widest ranging yet and includes contributions from members of the team in Monaco, Houston, Geneva, Paris and London.

Our yacht team remains busy on all fronts; however, the impact of Russian sanctions has been felt everywhere. Supported by our global regulatory team, we have been actively advising, often on an extremely time pressured and sensitive basis, a wide cross-section of stakeholders in the yachting industry on the application of the complex international framework of sanctions related rules and regulations and the mitigation of their impact on their businesses and operations. It is therefore natural that we begin this briefing with an overview of the international Russian sanctions framework and its impact on the yachting industry.

The yachting industry continues to boom on all fronts and the volume of new building contracts, design contracts and sale and purchase transactions handled by the HFW yacht team shows no sign of abatement. We have been involved in a significant proportion of the largest new building and sale and purchase projects to come to market in 2021 and, though there are concerns in some quarters as to the sustainability of the current market, for now at least it remains all hands on deck to service demand.

Though the 2021 Mediterranean yacht season may have been a little late in its start, it appears that yacht ownership is as popular, if not even more popular, than ever. Whether you are new to the industry or an old hand, there will be something of interest to you in the following compilation of topical and legal developments affecting the yachting industry.

In our latest industry briefing the HFW yacht team consider some of the key issues being encountered by clients coping with the repercussions of the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak.

At the end of a landmark year for our yacht team and another busy year for the yachting industry as a whole, we are pleased to publish our latest yachting industry. In this issue we provide an overview on yachting in Australia and the UAE, as well as analysis on the Poseidon Principles, lithium-ion batteries and Mortgagees Interest Insurance.

With the Mediterranean yachting season beginning, the HFW yacht team analyse some of the latest developments to affect the yachting industry. Topics covered include environmental regulations, new leasing arrangements in Malta and Brexit.

With the 2018 Mediterranean yacht season fast closing and attention turning to the yacht shows and winter cruising grounds, we publish our latest market briefing covering a range of topical subjects from the transport of yachts, developments in Panama and US flagging, the threat of super storms, clarification of French social security law, our regular casualty focus and the implications of recent high profile casualties for the insurance market.