A three-year wait is not what most consumers bargain for when they plan to spend $30 million for a megayacht. Moreover, the megayachts that do get built are sometimes marked up with yacht flipping premiums, described last week in The Wall Street Journal.

Last week in his Wealth Report blog, Robert Frank described the yacht flippers as “people who commission yachts and then sell the half-finished or almost-finished boats to other buyers for multi-million-dollar premiums. It’s like real-estate flipping, but with $35 million boats.” So the long wait for yacht-building has been coupled with a flipping premium. On any rubric this can be troublesome for consumers.

Some companies offer a fractional yacht program in which you have immediate access to a fleet of yachts or megayachts. Fractional yacht companies are gaining their sea-legs and Voyage Yacht Share, for example, expanded their fleet last month. Additionally, a club called PrivatSea gives consumers access to 30% of the 2100 worldwide megayachts on a non-ownership model.

Regardless of yacht availability, 11% of affluent consumers planned an average $384,000 on yacht rentals last summer; a twenty-percent increase from 2005, according to a survey by Prince & Associates for Elite Traveler Magazine.

Yacht clubs and outright ownership both have their appeals, but neither come cheaply. A three-year wait is, however, a navigable stumbling block for those willing to look at yacht ownership alternatives. Helium Report has the resources for you to start researching options.

Image from monocleyacht.com