Moscow's wealthy elite push the boat out

MOSCOW, Oct 23: The scenery is grey, the sun pokes through the clouds for a few weeks a year and the rivers freeze over in winter, but Moscow is emerging as one of the world's most unlikely yachting capitals.

For the city's wealthy elite, a Bentley, a top-of-the-range BMW or a Hummer is yesterday's fashion toy, and a boat is now the latest must-have accessory.

Guillaume Vorstelman, who runs a company selling luxury American yachts, said the Russian market was growing so fast he had sold five times as many boats this year as last.

''Boats at the moment are in fashion,'' he said in an interview.

''A lot of the people buying a boat never use it, but they can say 'I have a boat'.'' At the Crocus Yacht Club, on the Moskva River behind a row of tower blocks on the outskirts of Moscow, Misha, a 62-year-old businessman in a pale blue golfing jumper, was eyeing up a pricy vessel.

''I actually have a yacht already but I want a bigger, more modern one,'' he said.

Although many of Russia's 142 million people live just above the poverty line, high world oil and metal prices have brought huge wealth to an elite tier of ''New Russians''. They have few inhibitions about flashing their cash.

IMPULSE BUYERS

As Vorstelman chatted, a Russian man wearing wrap-around sunglasses helped three women in high heels and clutching designer bags step into a speedboat.

The women made themselves comfortable in the easy chairs at the front of the boat, the man stood behind the wheel and fiddled with the controls.

''They want to have the best and the fastest boats you can imagine. Boats we have not sold anywhere else are selling here in Moscow,'' Vorstelman said.

And Russian customers are impulse buyers, he said.

''When you talk about a power boat, let's say for half a million dollars, you can sell it in a split second,'' he added.

Other retailers have similar stories.

Andrei Boyko has been selling yachts for five years and he said sales had doubled each year. In the past 12 months he has sold 178 vessels.

''That is a lot, even by European standards,'' said Boyko.

Behind him a towering launch cruised past, its wake rocking a man fishing nearby in a rubber dinghy.

The Moskva, the city's main river route, weaves through Moscow but the Russian capital is hundreds of miles from the sea and most of the yachting takes place in the wooded waterways outside the city. Boyko also owns an exclusive yacht club an hour's drive from the Russian capital. He says club members normally use their yachts to cruise to a riverside restaurant or club at the weekend.

DEMANDING

They want to arrive in the latest Western model, although Russian brands have started to emerge.

A group of Russian businessmen decided that bigger was better for Russia's rich, and set up a company in 2003 to build large motorboats.

Using the name of the Dutchman who taught Russian Tsar Peter the Great about shipbuilding in the Netherlands 300 years ago, Timmerman is the first Russian company to build luxury yachts.

''We understood that we can make very good and exclusive super yachts of the highest quality for a price that is 20 to 30 per cent lower than in the West,'' said Vladimir Shchelin, sales director of Timmerman Yachts.

''We want to attract all the clients that are currently buying from Western companies.'' Timmerman has so far completed five yachts and has eight more under construction -- the biggest measures 45 metres, is opulently fitted out and costs 19 million dollars.

For his first yacht, Sergei Komarov has set his hopes on a smaller model costing about 100,000 dollars.

''We don't have good weather all year round, we only have two or three months of the year when we can use it,'' the 29-year-old said.

''It's a toy of course, but I like it,'' he said gesturing at the yacht behind him.

REUTERS