TECHNICAL THE FUTURE OF CRUISING YACHTS

Predicting the future is never easy, but Patrick Dixon's job is to do just that. As a liveaboard sailor, he shares his ideas about what lies in store for yacht design

- Patrick Dixon

Millions of people across the UK are now spending some of the £190 billion saved during the Covid lockdowns on a wide range of new adventures and projects – including boat ownership. Up to 13 million people plan to change jobs in the next year or two, while 10% of 50-66-year-olds want to retire early – up from 4% before Covid. At the same time, we’ve all experienced the freedom of virtual working – which of course is easy afloat. So what of the future?

My wife Sheila and I have become hybrid sailors, as a pair of empty nesters with a global business, a large family and lots of commitments back home. After sailing across the Atlantic on our Beneteau Oceanis 473, Moxie, we spent three months at anchor in the Caribbean. While afloat I gave many virtual keynotes all over the world on trends, while Sheila chaired court sessions virtually as a magistrate in Poole and Bournemouth. We had faster mobile bandwidth in many anchorages than we usually get from BT in Weymouth, at a cost of 75 gigabytes for £40.

We bought Moxie as an 11-year-old boat, for the price of a large motorhome. We have continued our journey via the Galapagos, Tahiti and Fiji, to Australia and next Indonesia. We are delighted to find that she is now worth 20% more than we paid for her nine years ago. That’s because so many people realise that they too can easily work part of the year afloat, without giving up the rest of their lives.