Central Yacht

07/08/2026

The French Yacht Ban Misses the Point Completely, Yachts don't hoard wealth, they distribute it.
The recent French proposal to ban recreational yachts over 50 metres, and the Venice demonstration against a single mega-yacht, reveal a persistent misunderstanding.

Yachts are too often reduced to symbols of excess. In reality, a well-designed and well-built yacht is one of the most effective vehicles for skilled employment and genuine wealth distribution that private capital can create.

Independent studies show the global superyacht ecosystem generates tens of billions in economic activity with a clear multiplier. One operational yacht typically supports around 60 jobs and produces millions in annual value that flows to shipyard trades, systems engineers, crew, local suppliers ano watertront businesses across multiple countries. This is direct commercial exchange of capital for high-skill labour - not theory.

When the yacht is engineered properly - efficient hulls, hybrid systems, lower hotel loads, responsible materials - environmental performance improves substantially. The answer is better design and operation, not prohibition that simply displaces activity and jobs elsewhere.

I saw the positive urban impact first-hand as founder of *KIMDA in Kaohsiung. This was not brokers or industry insiders. It was a genuine grassroots group of shopowners, educators and students who pressed for a city-centre marina and facilities in the old docklands. We wanted the industrial waterfront revived with beautiful, well-maintained yachts as a public amenity.

The result helped rejuvenate the architecture, drew thousands of people to the water's edge, and contributed to making the Love River the vibrant heart of the city again.

Education matters. The public conversation needs facts about employment, skill transfer and place-making alongside the optics. By, Captain Paul Brackley 2026.

*KIMDA/高雄市國際港灣遊艇發展協會 founders:
Cassy Wong & Captain Paul Brackley.

Photo: The launch event of KIMDA

#高雄市國際港灣遊艇發展協會

12/06/2026

36% annual energy saving on a yacht just by using wasted space? Possible??

Most of the gain on 30m M/Y Orchid doesn't come from technology. It comes from space planning.
One volume on the vessel — normally awkward, usually underused - was put to work.

That single decision changed the trim, shrunk the engine room, eliminated a whole category of mechanical systems, and created the thermal capacity that makes everything else possible.
The numbers:

- 53% reduction in hotel energy
— 36% reduction in total vessel primary energy
- 2-6 year payback including charter premium
Almost entirely standard equipment, integrated differently.

Concept stage. Happy to talk to anyone investing in serious charter yachts.

12/05/2026

At Central Yacht, we are proven marina consultants — not equipment sellers.
While most proposals in Asia come from dock manufacturers, selling pilings and floating finger docks (inevitably the more they sell, the bigger the invoice), we start with one question: “What actually protects the yachts in real Asian conditions?”

A good example of our work is the Love River Marina Integrated Development Plan for Kaohsiung (2020) — a complete demonstration of our marina design competency.

We created a coherent, typhoon-resilient masterplan for Shallow Water Channel Berths 11-15 and Glory Pier, including the new wave barrier. Instead of a one-size-fits-all floating layout, we divided the marina into three dedicated zones with lease restrictions (avoiding potential berth price wars) to match exact yacht sizes:

A Dock — 10 typhoon-safe berths for megayachts 50-90 m LOA Fixed mooring buoys + ground chains (Mediterranean proven). 15-20 m spacing. Full 400 A shore power + water. Giga-yacht capability alongside the wave barrier.

B Dock — 10 typhoon-safe berths for superyachts 25-50 m LOA Stern-to with ground chains. Yachts can safely pull 5-10 m clear in severe weather.

C Dock — 40-50 typhoon-safe berths for local yachts 12-25 m LOA Protected shallow-water floating sections (no fragile finger piers). 1 m off in normal weather, 4-5 m off and tied to land bollards during typhoons.

Plus dedicated refit berths up to 110 m and temporary giga positions.
Lower capex. Dramatically higher safety. Built for Asia by people who own and operate superyachts here.

Central Yacht: Expert marina consultant. Real yachting solutions.
Planning a new marina or upgrading an existing one? DM me — let’s talk.

02/05/2026

Taiwanese Full-time Crew Needed for an Italian 36 meters yacht.
All positions are Mandarin speaking and must fluent in English

Captain
Experienced in global traveling, planning and crew management skills.

Engineer

Deckhand

Chef

A female stewardess

Positions are needed immediately

24/04/2026

COVID Sales Disaster — Three Days to Delivery and the Deal Almost Died

In yacht brokerage, international deals always carry risk — but during COVID, the rulebook kept changing.
While acting as a broker at Central Yacht, I was involved in the sale of a 95-foot yacht from a Taiwanese shipyard to an Australian buyer.
Delivery was set in Kaohsiung.
The captain had completed three weeks of quarantine and was authorised to accept the yacht.
Funds were ready.
We were three days from handover.
We had a fully signed MYBA Sales Agreement between:
• The Taiwanese shipyard/owner of the yacht
• The Sydney buyer
• The Australian co-broker
• Myself
Then the unexpected surfaced.
Taiwan’s Maritime Port Bureau required all foreign signatories to have the sales agreement fully executed, witnessed, and apostilled via a Taipei Trade Mission before ownership transfer could be completed. A bit of a slip up from the shipyard legal team who had repeatedly assured me all was in place (and they should know right?)
Under normal circumstances? Inconvenient.
Under COVID travel bans and Trade Mission backlogs? Potentially deal-killing.
Australian appointments were weeks out.
Hong Kong apostilles were delayed.
No compliant paperwork = no transfer.
Three days to delivery.
Everyone committed.
Buyer at peak pre-delivery nerves — the moment deals can unravel.
It was a real pressure point.
Yacht brokers — how would you have handled it?
(Lawyers, resist the temptation to reply — let’s hear from the brokers who carry the commercial risk.)
I’ll share how we solved it tomorrow.

02/04/2026

Azipod thruster on 65m Ambrosia.

With the electric motor housed in a pod underwater there is no shaft line to transmit noise and vibration to the hull.

The unique comfort of the ride has to be felt to be believed.

Added to the incredible range and economy of the diesel-electric propulsion system and Ambrosia is still one of the best performing (and best looking) yachts available today.

Central Yacht planned and executed the 10 year Lloyds' special survey involving the removal of both azipods, stripping and rebuilding them. All done in Taiwan using ship's crew and OEM technicians. This was the first time this had been done anywhere in the world!. (N.B. The thruster is pointing backwards waiting the installation of the propeller!)

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30/03/2026

“Near Disaster in Late-Season Typhoon Utor: When Engineering Assumptions Meet the Real World…” by Captain Paul Brackley

Near Disaster in Late-Season Typhoon Utor: When Engineering Assumptions Meet the Real World In 2006, I was Build Captain, Owner’s Representative and Project Manager during the delivery of a new 65m Benetti motor yacht from Italy via Malta, Suez, the Maldives and Singapore to Hong Kong. She was one...

11/03/2026

ISO/TS 23099 and Yachts: Why Most “Efficient” Yachts Still Miss the Point

ISO/TS 23099 is quietly one of the most disruptive developments in yacht design in years — not because it introduces new technology, but because it exposes uncomfortable truths.
For the first time, the industry has a recognised framework that evaluates environmental performance across a realistic operational profile, rather than cherry-picked efficiency claims. It asks a simple but awkward question: where does energy actually go over the life of a yacht?
And the answer is not where most designers are still looking.
At Central Yacht, we recognised this early when developing Orchid 100, our 30-metre, all-alloy, ultra-low-emissions concept. From day one, the project was shaped around lifecycle efficiency, not headline propulsion numbers.
While much of the industry continues to obsess over marginal gains in propulsion efficiency, ISO/TS 23099 reflects operational reality: hotel services dominate lifetime energy consumption. Air conditioning, ventilation, lighting and galley systems quietly burn energy day and night — whether cruising, at anchor, or plugged into expensive shore power.
Designing for lifecycle efficiency means engineering must come first. On Orchid 100, systems architecture drove the design, resulting in a yacht that is more efficient, quieter, more comfortable, and easier to maintain. Simplified systems allow crew to focus on guest experience and safety.
A glaring inefficiency on many yachts is waste heat. Walk through a typical yacht and you’ll find conditioned air expelled overboard 24/7 — energy routinely thrown away.
Orchid 100 addresses this with a centrally located HVAC system using heat exchangers to reduce air-conditioning loads, combined with an absorption chiller recovering waste heat from smaller generators. These are not exotic technologies — just rarely applied coherently at this size.
Central HVAC is often dismissed on sub-50-metre yachts due to “space constraints”. In reality, the constraint is design sequence. Orchid 100 works because the yacht is designed around the system.
The same thinking applies to interiors. Central Yacht has designed and is patenting a new assembly and fastening method reducing panel thickness and weight while improving stiffness and reducing noise. Less weight means lower fuel burn, lower emissions, and lower lifecycle impact — exactly the mindset ISO/TS 23099 is intended to encourage.
Our patented propulsion energy system can deliver greater gains, but physics still matters. Battery density and hydrodynamics currently limit its application to yachts up to around 70–80 feet.
ISO/TS 23099 doesn’t reward marketing claims — it rewards honest engineering, realistic operational thinking, and lifecycle accountability. For some, that’s an opportunity. For others, it will be uncomfortable.
And that’s exactly the point.

/TS23099