Erwin Bamps recently did something boatbuilders rarely do: he hired two former real estate agents to sell yachts.
As CEO of Gulf Craft, the Middle East's largest yacht manufacturer, Bamps didn't mince words in a recent video interview: the clients showing up these days aren't looking for a boat at all. "They don't want to smell exhaust fumes, they don't want to hear the generator or the engine, they don't want to feel the hull moving; they want big windows, they want air conditioning, they want Wi-Fi, they want to be able to stream Netflix," he said. "They're not really trying to buy a boat—they're trying to buy real estate on the water."
Bamps traces the shift back to the pandemic. "A lot of people bought boats during or after the pandemic purely to stay sane," he said. Wherever masks came off and life started feeling normal again, that place was the deck. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service gave owners constant connectivity at sea, and shifting work norms made "working from anywhere" a real possibility. One Majesty 112 owner said he'd been running his business remotely for years already, noting, "Everything can be handled online, without needing to be physically present in an office—that flexibility is what makes this lifestyle possible." He and his family now spend most of their time living aboard, rotating between different marinas.
At one end of the spectrum sits the fully custom megayacht. Oceanco's 364-foot "Leviathan," built last year for billionaire game developer Gabe Newell, is a prime example—Newell told a group of reporters at the 2025 Monaco Yacht Show that, aside from a brief break in 2021, he'd been living aboard since the pandemic began. The vessel, complete with a basketball court and a dedicated dive center, also took the top honor in Robb Report's annual awards.
At the other end of the spectrum are semi-custom superyachts like Gulf Craft's, which are being purpose-redesigned in terms of layout and capacity for this new generation of live-aboard owners. One Majesty 100 Terrace owner, who mostly cruises Turkish waters, said the design goal was simple: to make it "feel as much like home as possible." One change involved converting a guest cabin into an infrared sauna: "It makes the yacht especially comfortable when the weather cools down, and it's become an important part of life on board."
The problems Bamps ends up solving are often unexpected domestic dilemmas. He's had to enlarge closets so guests could bring their entire wardrobe aboard, figure out how to display a client's beloved painting or vase, and once even had to redesign an oven after a female client complained her cake never came out right. Adding one more blender or microwave might seem trivial, but it drives up power demand—"the generators keep getting bigger, but the boat doesn't," he said—leaving engineers to squeeze all this equipment into a space that hasn't changed, all while planning ahead for something as mundane as where a family's trash accumulates over a four-week stretch.
For those actually living aboard, the challenges look a bit different. One owner currently sailing a custom Oyster 595 on a 16-month round-the-world voyage as part of the Oyster World Rally put it this way: "Living on a yacht is very different from living in a traditional house. When you're at anchor, you constantly have to think about swing room, nearby vessels, and changing weather, on top of managing energy, water, and daily maintenance—there's simply more to think about." He also mentioned that sometimes craving a dish you can't quite make forces some real creativity in the galley. But he doesn't see any of it as a downside: "It's a great adventure, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. Waking up to the sound of water every morning, having coffee on deck watching the sunrise, then filling the day—sailing, exploring, repairs, or whatever comes up."
All three owners interviewed agreed the perks of life at sea far outweigh the hassle of daily upkeep. And Bamps, who's spent more than two decades in the industry, is clearly betting big on this trend—those two former real estate agents he brought on board are now selling yachts the same way they used to sell houses. "I think yachts are going to take up a bigger and bigger place in people's lives," he said. "And that's a great thing for the whole industry."
