Barcelona -Spain Becomes a Hub for Superyachts

BARCELONA, Spain — Launched less than a year ago, the 460-foot-long, eight-deck Solaris is one of the newest of the superyachts that are the floating palaces of the sea. It has a helipad, of course, plus a swimming pool and all the other high-tech amenities required by its Russian billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich.

But on a recent morning in Barcelona, the $600 million Solaris was out of the water, wedged into a dry dock, as workers toiled underneath its light-gray hull. They were fixing its finlike stabilizers, which help steady the massive vessel in rough seas but retract when there are no swells. At the opposite end of the boatyard, another giant, the Sea Rhapsody, was getting a final checkup before being put back into the water.

As the rich have gotten richer during the pandemic, their boats have gotten larger and more expensive — and when these over-the-top superyachts aren’t taking their owners to private holiday spots in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, they need a place to drop anchor and deal with repairs.  And it is here that Barcelona, whose days as a commercial shipyard faded years ago, sees an economic opportunity.

Barcelona has turned itself into a hub for these luxury vessels, combining a private marina that is investing 20 million euros ($22.7 million) this year to turn itself into the largest port reserved for superyachts in the Mediterranean and maintenance facilities that can hoist behemoths out of the water and then summon a small army to do repairs.

And it doesn’t hurt that Barcelona offers the ships’ crew members downtime in one of the Mediterranean’s biggest tourism destinations. Attracting billionaire yacht owners is only a small part of Barcelona’s efforts to tap into the “blue economy” of the sea, said Jaume Collboni, the deputy mayor. Barcelona’s port authority recently approved the construction of a new terminal for cruise ships, set to open in 2024. The city is also overhauling the seafront area that was developed for the Summer Olympics of 1992, which Barcelona hosted.

The pandemic was a huge blow for a city that normally welcomes millions of visitors. It showed that “diversification is becoming very important,” Mr. Collboni said. “When tourism dropped down to zero, some parts of the city were heavily affected, and we have needed to find new jobs, also for a less qualified work force.”

At the same time, the spread of the coronavirus gave the world’s billionaires a new excuse for keeping their distance from other people, a role perfectly suited for superyachts.

Worldwide about 5,700 yachts are over 30 meters long (just under 100 feet), and this fleet is set to expand 15 percent by 2025, according to industry projections. At the pinnacle of this market are about 370 megayachts of over 60 meters, whose number has risen 70 percent in the past decade and is forecast to reach 500 in about seven years. Construction yards have been struggling to keep up: The order book for superyachts is full until 2025. MB92, the company that operates Barcelona’s superyacht maintenance facility, known as a refit yard, has 180 employees, but much of the labor is carried out by about 1,000 subcontractors whose jobs cover a variety of specialties, including painting, carpentry and insulation work. About 40 workshops are scattered around the yard, and during the peak repair seasons of spring and fall the yard can work on about 25 yachts at a time.

The yacht maintenance business has been jumping. MB92, which also owns a smaller yard in La Ciotat, France, reported revenue of €191 million (about $215 million) in 2021, up from €150 million in 2019.

Even if a superyacht is a striking showcase of wealth, owners expect those working for them to keep silent about their assets and whereabouts. When asked about the Sea Rhapsody’s destination once it left the yard, Henk Dreijer, the commercial director of MB92, demurred, suggesting that it was bound for “the Caribbean, but it could also be the Seychelles or somewhere else.”

“We work for people who like to be very discreet,” he added.

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