An cruiseship formerly owned by German tour operator FTI Cruises is about to begin a new life as a superyacht.
The company has confirmed that its 9,600-gt cruiseship Berlin (built 1980) has been sold to Dreamliner Cruises, a subsidiary of holding company Royalton Investments that has a large investment portfolio of luxury yachts and shipyards specialising in the yachting industry.
Dreamliner confirmed the purchase and said the Berlin fitted into its vision of luxury yacht cruises due to its size.
The company said it would send the ship for an extensive renovation into a luxury yacht named Dream Goddess and make it available for charter to high net-worth individuals and groups.
Both sides agreed not to disclose the sale price.
FTI sold the Berlin after discontinuing its cruise operations due to the pandemic.
While the cruise industry has been all but shut down due to the coronavirus, the superyacht sector has been booming as wealthy individuals and families take to the high seas on yachts to seek shelter from infection.
Strong superyacht demand
A European-based yacht broker told TradeWinds there is an especially strong chartering demand for large, long-distance yachts that can travel to remote places.
While cruiseship prices have plummeted this year, prices for yacht have strengthened.
SuperYacht Times data indicates that about 32 yachts longer than 30 metres have been sold since the beginning of August. VesselsValue, which started covering yachts earlier this year, has picked up on 37 transactions during the same period.
In many cases the owners are selling as they want to upgrade to a larger vessel.
British real-estate mogul Nick Candy, for example, recently put his 63-metre, Benetti-constructed yacht II.II (built 2015) on the market. The 12-passenger vessel has an asking price of $71m.
Candy told Bloomberg he was selling because the yacht was too small and he intended to build a bigger one.
With the waiting lists at specialist yacht builders stretching upwards of five years, small cruiseships have become popular as quick and convenient conversion candidates.
About 20 cruiseships of up to 10,000 gt have been converted into yachts since the late Greek shipowner John Latsis pioneered the trend when he converted the German cruiseship Regina Maris (built 1966) into the 5,900-gt yacht Alexander in 1983.
Owners range from wealthy Greek shipowners to Middle Eastern royalty.
"The Russian oligarchs prefer newbuildings," the yacht broker said.
The largest conversion sale to date is the former Saga Cruises ship Saga Pearl II (built 1981). The 18,600-gt cruiseship was sold in April 2019 and is in Greece waiting for its conversion to begin.
Its size is matched by several other recent yacht newbuilding projects.
