2011 Miami Yacht and Brokerage Show

Miami show and Yacht & Brokerage show run for five days

The Miami International Boat Show & Strictly Sail Miami and The Yacht & Brokerage Show are both Thursday through Monday.

The 70th boat show, which has more than 2,000 exhibitors, 2,500 boats and hundreds of boat shipping companies is at the Miami Beach Convention Center, Sea Isle Marina & Yachting Center and Miamarina at Bayside (Strictly Sail Miami).

Admission is $30 Thursday and $16 a day thereafter for adults and free for ages 15 and under. Tickets are available at the show or at miamiboatshow.com or strictlysail.com.

The yacht show has more than 500 new and used boats in the water along Collins Avenue from 41st to 51st Streets in Miami Beach. Admission is free.

For more information on the event, you can visit ShowManagement.com.

Source: [Sun-sentinel.com]

Despite an international effort to ensure safe passage through the world’s most treacherous waters, pirate attacks in 2010 reached an all-time high, striking more ships and taking more hostages last year than in any year on record, according to an annual report on piracy.

The report, by the Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau, found that pirates had taken 1,181 people hostage and killed 8 in attacks on 445 ships over the course of 2010. At least 53 ships were hijacked last year, the bureau said.

Attacks on ships were up 10 percent over 2009, as were the number of hostages. Pirates captured 1,050 people in 2009, with 4 killed.

“At the moment, it looks like it’s getting out of control,” said Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, director of the maritime bureau, which has tracked incidences of piracy at sea since 1991.

While the report catalogs violent attacks on ships around the world including those off the coast of Nigeria, Indonesia and Bangladesh, the most dangerous waters remain those off the coast of Somalia. Ninety percent of ship seizures occurred there last year, and at year’s end at least 28 vessels bearing 638 hostages were still being held for ransom.

Moreover, the bureau’s figures, taken from incident reports or provided by shipping companies, certainly represent an undercount, Captain Mukundan and other experts said. Ecoterra International, an organization with offices in East Africa that keeps track of Somali piracy, put the number of vessels of all sizes still being held by pirates at 46, with 800 hostages currently being held.

An international naval presence in the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden, between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, provided a lone bright spot for those seeking to stem rising piracy. The number of attacks there were cut in half, to 53 last year from 117 in 2009. The number of successful hijackings also dropped, to 15 from 20 in 2009.

But with dozens of naval ships, including those from the United States, patrolling the gulf, many pirates appear to have simply gone elsewhere, extending their reach hundreds of miles from shore into the Indian Ocean and as far south as the Mozambique Channel, and menacing ships across an unprecedented expanse of water, according to the maritime bureau.

In many cases, shipping companies have made the cold calculation that hijackings — even those that result in millions of dollars paid in ransom — are rare enough to be considered a cost of doing business. Higher ransoms, in turn, allow pirates to purchase better equipment and pay more effective recruits. “Success begets success,” said Nikolas K. Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the United States Naval War College.

As recently as 2006, hijackings and attacks had been in decline. Only 188 hostages were taken in 2006.

But attacks began mounting again in direct correlation to the enduring lawlessness on shore in Somalia, Captain Mukundan said. The country has had no functioning central government for nearly 20 years, and many young Somalis find themselves drawn into the piracy business.

Captain Mukundan praised the efforts of the navy patrols but said governments need to refocus on getting some administrative structure in Somalia. “Unless that improves,” he said, “no matter what we do at sea to contain the problem, nothing will happen.”

Source: [Nytimes.com]

As violence has broken out in Egypt, concern has turned to the risk of the blocking of the Suez Canal or nearby pipelines, which could pose a threat to world energy supplies. This canal is a passageway for many ships and carriers to transport essentials, such as, oil.

Rising tensions in the port of Suez have led several shipping companies to order their ships not to change crews in Egypt.

“Potentially, we see attacks on employees of shipping companies and attempted attacks on vessels docked in ports if you see more violent demonstrations around the ports,” said Helima L. Croft, a director and geopolitical strategist at Barclays Capital. “It could be very problematic.”

Gen. James Mattis, head of the United States Central Command responsible for military operations in the region, said on Tuesday that it was inconceivable that anyone would want to disrupt the canal.

“Were it to happen, obviously, we would have to deal with it diplomatically, economically, militarily, whatever, but that to me is a hypothetical,” Reuters quoted him as saying to a policy group in London.

Over the last half-century, shippers have built a large fleet of supertankers that can haul oil in case of an interruption of Egyptian operations. Taking cargo around Africa would add about 16 days’ time to delivering oil and gas to global markets, and it would add insurance and other costs. But it would probably not cause a dire shortage or bottleneck, energy experts said.

James Burkhard, an oil analyst at IHS Cera, an energy consulting company, noted that OPEC had five million barrels of spare production capacity to bolster world supplies if needed. “That’s a substantial volume, more than we see transiting Egypt,” he added.

Nevertheless, the turmoil in Egypt and concerns that political contagion could spread to larger oil producers around the Middle East has caused a price spike of nearly 10 percent in some oil benchmarks over the last week. Brent crude oil has broken the $100-a-barrel mark for the first time since 2008. Since natural gas prices in most world markets are tied to oil, they are expected to increase as well.

The unrest in Egypt comes at a time when global oil supplies are tightening mainly because of Chinese demand increasing by 10 percent last year, or by 810,000 barrels a day. Energy analysts expect Chinese demand to increase by an additional 400,000 barrels a day this year. But the United States appears less vulnerable than it did only three years ago to a Middle East crisis.

Demand for oil in the United States remains about 5 percent lower than it was before the recession, and increased domestic production and imports from Canada have moderated the rise in oil and gasoline prices in some regions in recent days.

Spain would be most vulnerable to an interruption of Egyptian transit operations because an estimated 10 to 15 percent of its liquefied natural gas imports come from Egypt. Egypt also exports gas through pipelines to Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Many companies, including the Italian company Eni and two based in Houston, Schlumberger and Diamond Offshore Drilling, have moved workers and family members out of Egypt, although oil production in fields far from population centers has continued.

Source: [Nytimes.com]

During booming times, yacht enthusiasts would order a new dream boat and keep their old one for the two or three years the builder needed to complete the new boat. Then, they would quickly sell the older yacht to impatient new millionaires and billionaires eager for their requisite status symbols.

But that equation changed with the financial crisis two years ago and took the super yacht market down with it.

The industry has picked up a bit in recent months, although most buyers remain on the sidelines. “The inquiry level is picking up,” said William S. Smith III, vice president of Trinity, the largest custom yacht builder in the United States. “And there is more activity in the used-boat market. But there is still a lot of inventory, and as long as that is the case, people are keeping their hands in their pockets.”

Fear is part of the problem. The wealthy are holding on to their money, and even speculators who built yachts, confident that they could find willing buyers among the new rich, are largely on the sidelines.

The Chinese have not come into the market, although brokers are hoping that the ultimate status symbol will catch their attention. “It is a big question mark whether the Chinese will embrace yachting,” said Bob McKeage, a yacht broker in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “So far it is mostly Hong Kong Chinese, not mainland people.” It remains a question mark because forecasting cultural appetites for yachts is not simple. He noted, for example, that there was vast wealth in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, but only the Venezuelans were avid yacht buyers.

While rank speculation may be gone from the yacht market, there are still billionaires who like to sail the seven seas and are willing to pay for that pleasure.

Some yacht brokers say that Americans are holding back now largely because they fear being viewed as profligate when many people have lost jobs, and that they will soon return.

For the moment, it is just as easy to charter as to buy. Chartering has come back faster than the business of buying boats, or, as Mr. Maclean put it, “Would you buy a house right now?” alluding to the uncertainties in that market. Shannon Webster, a yacht broker based in Fort Lauderdale, said her business this winter had been good. “It is not tremendous, but it is up quite a bit from last year,” she said. “My price points are about $200,000 a week. That is for a boat that sleeps 12 people and has 11 in crew. It is 164 feet.” But she added that yacht owners were more willing to negotiate.

Certainly $200,000 a week is only for the very rich. But in comparison to a $20 million yacht, it is, some might say, a bargain. After choosing which boat to charter, your local boat shipping company will transport it to you at a decently low price. Saving money is now everybody’s current goal.

Source: [Nytimes.com]

The incidences of pirates attacking ships out at sea increased dramatically during the year of 2010 by striking more ships and taking more hostages than in any year on record, according to an annual report on piracy.

Attacks on ships were up 10 percent over 2009, as were the number of hostages. Pirates captured 1,050 people in 2009, with 4 killed.

“At the moment, it looks like it’s getting out of control,” said Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, director of the maritime bureau, which has tracked incidences of piracy at sea since 1991.

While the report catalogs violent attacks on ships around the world including those off the coast of Nigeria, Indonesia and Bangladesh, the most dangerous waters remain those off the coast of Somalia. Ninety percent of ship seizures occurred there last year, and at year’s end at least 28 vessels bearing 638 hostages were still being held for ransom.

Moreover, the bureau’s figures, taken from incident reports or provided by shipping companies, certainly represent an undercount, Captain Mukundan and other experts said. Ecoterra International, an organization with offices in East Africa that keeps track of Somali piracy, put the number of vessels of all sizes still being held by pirates at 46, with 800 hostages currently being held.

Boat shipping companies, as well as, shipping companies of any sort are fully aware of the statistics.

In many cases, shipping companies have made the cold calculation that are rare enough to be considered a cost of doing business. Higher ransoms, in turn, allow pirates to purchase better equipment and pay more effective recruits. “Success begets success,” said Nikolas K. Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the United States Naval War College.

As recently as 2006, hijackings and attacks had been in decline. Only 188 hostages were taken in 2006.

But attacks began mounting again in direct correlation to the enduring lawlessness on shore in Somalia, Captain Mukundan said. The country has had no functioning central government for nearly 20 years, and many young Somalis find themselves drawn into the piracy business.

Captain Mukundan praised the efforts of the navy patrols but said governments need to refocus on getting some administrative structure in Somalia. “Unless that improves,” he said, “no matter what we do at sea to contain the problem, nothing will happen.”

Source: [Nytimes.com]

The use of marine highways across the United States is rapidly replacing the trucking industry. This is due to many reasons such as it is more economically friendly, less money spent in the long run, and larger amounts of cargo can be transported at one time for shorter time periods.

Port officials in Savannah, Georgia are racing to dig six feet of mud from the bottom of the Savannah River by 2014 for water way expansion.

Without the $625 million deepening project, a breed of huge ships loaded with foreign-made iPods, furniture and other goods that will soon be able to traverse a newly widened Panama Canal will head elsewhere. And with them would go potentially billions of dollars in business.

The Panama Canal, 48 miles of water connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is undergoing a $5.25 billion expansion that is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 15, 2014, 100 years to the day after it opened.

In what has long been considered a speed bump for major shipping companies, the canal is too small to accommodate a class of superships that came on the scene in the 1980s and went into heavy use a decade later when China became a powerful exporter.

A result could be a shift in business worth billions of dollars to ports, and big savings for companies like Ikea and Home Depot, which are always on the hunt for more efficient ways to serve shoppers in the Eastern third of the United States, where a majority of the population lives.

“If you can imagine the crowded three- or four-lane highway you’re driving on suddenly getting expanded to 12 lanes, you can picture what’s about to happen,” Mr. Pertierra said. “It’s a global shift.”

Some ports that are too small to handle the giant ships are improving railroads and truck routes, making them more efficient in anticipation of an overall increase in the number of containers coming to the East.

Others want to dig deeper channels and become the leading port in their regions for companies operating the big vessels, including Savannah; Charleston, S. C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Miami. Containers have become the name of the game in shipping.

Although cruise ships and imports and exports of cars, oil and bulk agricultural loads like cotton and fertilizer still make up a good portion of port traffic, most of the growth is in containers filled with products that Americans like to buy.

Some shipping companies and manufacturers have already shifted their supply routes from the West Coast to the East after labor problems and an influx of freight in 2004 that caused gridlock among ships in Los Angeles.

Officials in Panama are also expected to charge higher tolls for the canal to pay off the national loan that is financing the expansion. Those costs to shippers could offset potential savings in improved logistics.

For companies looking to get their products from one place to another, it is simply a matter of speed and price, said Eric Joiner, vice chairman of AJC international, one of the world’s largest marketers of frozen and refrigerated food.

“What’s about to happen is what happened when airlines started flying the big Airbuses or the big, new Boeing jets,” he said. “You have to have the runways to take care of it. This is like anything else. Either you can play in the game or you can’t.”

Source: [Nytimes.com]

This year’s Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show, which takes place Jan. 7 to 16 at the ExCeL exhibition center (Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway), will display about 1,000 boats, ranging from kayaks and dinghies to sailboats and luxurious motor yachts, all available for close perusal. Boat transportation companies were used to transport boats from all around the world to location.

For those who don’t mind getting splashed or even wet, there is now a dedicated water sports area with a pool measuring 70 meters by 24 meters. It’s set up for demonstrations of stand-up paddle boarding, wakeboarding, windsurfing, dinghy sailing, canoeing and kayaking, as well as model yacht racing. Spectators are invited to try them all, as well as participate in a canoe polo championship.

The classic boat collection features craftspeople at work; visitors can learn how to restore and maintain traditional boats. Due to the season, most of the event will be indoors, but about 20 percent of the boats will be on the marina for those brave enough to venture out. Every type of boat equipment and marine services will be available in a retail village.

“One of the show’s great advantages,” said Amit Chakravarty, a representative from the International Boat Show Press Office, “is being able to get expert advice from leaders in the field, like Mike Golding, Britain’s most successful solo offshore sailor; the power boat racer Shelley Jory-Leigh; the Olympic sailor Mark Covell; the extreme powerboat adventurer Alan Priddy; and the sailing guru John Goode.

“And if you’re interested in water sports,” he continued, “you can talk to wakeboarding champion Matt Crowhurst and paddle boarding champion John Hibbard. It will also be a thrill to see the launch of the Princess 32M, the biggest ever boat to be lifted out of the Thames and moved into the ExCeL Center.”

Tickets booked in advance are priced at £13 (about $20), while tickets brought on the door will be £18. Each ticket admits one adult and two children under the age of 15.

Source: [Nytimes.com]