Superyachts setting sail for Cape Breton as ‘marine tourism’ aspirations grow

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SYDNEY, N.S. — Is it Sidney Crosby? Sylvester Stallone? Beyonce and Jay-Z? Paul McCartney? One of the Kardashians?

When a superyacht docks or drops anchor in Cape Breton, people ask one question: Who’s onboard?

Well, it turns out that shoreside scuttlebutt translates into economic activity as people flock to the waterfront for a closer look and a bit of gossip. That’s why Destination Cape Breton is partnering with Superyacht East Coast to attract more of the luxury vessels (which are classified as at least 80 feet or 24 metres long) to the island.

“One of the things we really see when a superyacht comes to the destination is they’re a magnet,” said Terry Smith, executive director of Destination Cape Breton.

“Whether they’re parked in Louisbourg harbour, in Sydney harbour, wherever it may be, it draws people to those waterfronts to take a look at the ship and maybe they’re thinking they’re going to find a celebrity, but overall, for us, it gives a sense of vibrancy in our destination. These yachts have decided with everywhere there is to go in the world that they think Cape Breton Island is a place to come and spend some time.”

Or, as Superyacht East Coast founder Adam Langley likes to say “superyachts sell ice cream.” It’s one of the many phrases he’s coined since starting the business, which markets all of Atlantic Canada as a premier yachting destination and play a larger role in an estimated $35-billion industry.

“The tentacles of this thing are so far stretching and what people need to understand is it’s a pretty boat and it’s neat, it’s fun to talk about who might be on it, but the economic impact is what we really need to be focused on and building the infrastructure that supports their visit so that it supports all visitors,” said Langley, who previously worked for Waterfront Development and Develop Nova Scotia. “And they actually add to the animation of the waterfront, big boats and little boats. Then people come by land and they buy ice cream and they have dinner and they stay in town — a waterfront full of boats ends up being a waterfront full of people.”

Then there’s the money spent by superyacht’s owners, guests and crew.

The U.S. Superyacht Association estimates a 180-foot vessel generates $4.75 million per year, a figure that includes crew salaries, maintenance and repairs, fuel and dockage.

So far the partnership between Destination Cape Breton and Superyacht East Coast is literally paying dividends.

When a superyacht docks in an area, there’s usually a huge economic windfall for a wide range of businesses and service providers. Using Baddeck as an example, Langley said there were 10 superyacht visits this summer compared to three last year and just one in 2019 before the pandemic. He credits attending international boat shows, a network of captains and owners and a strong social media presence with the increased interest in Cape Breton.

“In the absence of marketing, you’re not going to have those type of growth numbers,” said Langley.

Spent $10,000 on flowers

While they’re still in the early stages of compiling the data, Smith said there’s ample anecdotal evidence.

“I heard one story where one yacht docked and needed to refresh their cut flowers and ordered $10,000 worth of cut flowers,” said Smith. “So there are things like that on top of the activities that the owners or guests take in and the spending they do — just the provisions for the yacht can be very impactful.”

Last year, Langley worked with a vessel called Archimedes. By enriching their itinerary and suggesting various locations and arranging activities, the ship extended its stay and ended up eight weeks in Atlantic Canada, including one week in the Bras d’Or Lake. The Archimedes captain later calculated that they had spent US$400,000 during that time.

This summer, he took the crew of Blue Moon to the co-op in Baddeck just to reprovision just their own food and it took an hour and a half to go through the checkout.

“We’re not playing around here. This is big business. And it does so much for our rural ports because a lot of these boats want to explore and they’re designed to go great distances. I call them floating debit cards and whatever port provides them access to the land, they basically plug in and start spending money,” said Langley, who noted that the superyacht visits pay for infrastructure at local docks and marinas that benefits all boaters.

“We’re developing marine tourism for all boats —superyachts are just an identifiable market and a market of opportunities. If you build to the standard a superyacht would expect you’re satisfying all users.”

Smith agreed:

“When we look at superyachts, we look at them as just one piece of a larger marine tourism opportunity. There are things that we specifically do to attract superyachts but in improving the experience for them, we’re really making the experience better for all boaters and what’s appealing to them is appealing to all boaters as well.”

– Chris Connors is a multimedia journalist with the Cape Breton Post.