Chairman's Message January 2021

Dear APSA Members and Friends

Kung Hei Fat Choy for the areas of our association that celebrate Chinese New Year.

Life continues in the digital mode, but hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccination programme coming into play. The APSA Grand Tour webinar series in January was a great success, and demonstrates that the Asia-Pacific region has a lot to offer the superyacht community. If you didn’t manage to catch our webinars live, the recordings are now available as YouTube clips (in bite-sized chucks), on our own APSA YouTube channel which can be found on the APSA website. https://www.apsuperyacht.org/asia-pacific-grand-tour.html

Whilst the travel restrictions are still with us, APSA will continue with the Grand Tour webinars, making sure that APSA members have an opportunity to come together (virtually) to share stories, maximise contacts and build business opportunities. Hopefully, later in the year, we will be able to meet up at the Monaco Yacht Show!

In April, we will start to add some new episodes to THE GRAND TOUR with the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Future webinars will also build on the concept to include episodes on Asia-Pacific superyacht brokerage, repair and refit, charter, and lots more… if you have any bright ideas for topics please let us know. In the future we will be offering members opportunities to sponsor webinars - a great way to get your message out to a global audience. As anything that a superyacht Captain needs or wants in the Asia-Pacific region can be supplied by at least one of our members.

I am pleased to welcome Sevenstar Yacht Transport back as an APSA member, and as part of APSA’s 10th Anniversary celebrations we will be featuring our Founding Members and their companies/yachts in and series of interviews. Our active Founding members include: current Chairman Nigel Beatty (Super Yacht Logistics - SYL), Committee Members: Christophe Ceard (Swiss Ocean Yacht Management), Joe Yuen (Lodestone Yachts), and Alex Teji (Hill Dickinson), Honorary Members: Colin Dawson (Expat Marine), and YP Loke (Spinnaker International), along with with the following Members and Companies: Paul Brackley (Central Yacht), Peter Churchhouse (Moonblue II), Aashim Mongia (West Coast Marine Services), Daragh O’Higgins (TechWorx), Jean-Marc Poullet (Burgess), Konstantina Rappou (Camper & Nicholsons First Eastern), Mike Simpson (Simpson Marine), and Scott Walker (Asia Pacific Superyachts). Through them we’ll be finding out more about the history of the Association and its progress over the last 10-years.

Looking forward, APSA is committed to keeping you abreast of members’ news and activities, and from March the newsletter will now be sent twice a month to keep you abreast of all the news and happenings.  Suzy Rayment, who has been working with APSA for a year, will now expand her role and has been appointed as APSA’s Executive Director, with responsibility Administration and Marketing and she will be following up with members on these new arrangements.

One of the benefits of the current travel restrictions has been the growing awareness that owners can enjoy yachting in their own back yard and all benefits that this brings. Don’t tell anyone, but Asia-Pacific has some of the best cruising opportunities on the planet, and being stuck in Asia makes us some of the luckiest people in the world. I know I am one of them here in Japan!

Best wishes for the year of the Ox.

Nigel Beatty

APSA Chairman