Making waves: The first African Boating Conference gathers global players from superyacht world

PL

Paula Luckhoff

21 October 2025 | 18:27

The inaugural event is underway in Cape Town, with the aim of growing recreational boating on the African continent.

Making waves: The first African Boating Conference gathers global players from superyacht world

The superyacht Aquijo docked in Cape Town ahead of the inaugural African Boating Conference. Image: Facebook

The inaugural African Boating Conference launched in Cape Town on Tuesday (21 October), with the aim of growing recreational boating (read yachting/superyachting) on the continent.

More than 200 delegates are gathering at the V&A Waterfront over the course of two days to explore Africa's emerging blue economy and its potential as an economic catalyst.

'The conference will spotlight the African boating market’s vast potential and explore how stakeholders can collaborate to unlock growth across recreational boating, superyachts, marine tourism, infrastructure, and sustainability', as SuperYacht Timesreports.

Cape Town already has a part in the industry - for example one of the speakers at the Conference is Theo Loock from local specialised boat builder Robertson and Caine.

Stephen Grootes interviews keynote speaker Anders Kurtén, CEO of yacht brokerage Fraser Yachts in Monaco.

Kurtén explains that their work entails everything in the superyacht services industry from helping to buy and sell these assets, to chartering and yacht management.

He describes the charter part of the business as 'selling the dream in bite-sized pieces if you will', whether a week of island-hopping or much longer hires.

The past two years have been good to the industry, he says, and they expect this to continue.

There are apparently around 7,000 yachts of over 30 metres in the international fleet currently, with 200 or so being added every year.

When asked about the future for Africa, and Cape Town specifically in this niche market, Kurtén lists the four things needed for success: history, culture, infrastructure and destinations.

Where Cape Town, and the continent, have an advantage is with what he describes as 'really epic destinations'.

"History and culture will come, infrastructure can be built if you have the necessary resources and know what you're doing, but if you don't have destinations it's really hard to create a thriving superyacht ecosystem."

Once you start focusing more cohesively on these epic destinations that are available, history and culture will follow as a function of time, he says.

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