When a long-lost client called me from Washington a couple of years ago, I was delighted. He had been reading Boat International magazine on a flight and realized that he had left my old brokerage to start working for Camper & Nicholsons. When the global recession began, he instructed me to sell his small fleet of 88′ to 112′ yachts as quickly as possible, recognizing that assets such as these would lose value quickly and that by liquidating them he would be in a strong position to survive and even prosper. during the turbulent times ahead. Now, he told me, he was back on the market and I would like me to help him find his next yacht.

However, there was a small problem. As a result of the massive growth of his business, he decided to hire someone to handle all of his acquisitions; properties, planes, businesses and yes, boats.

This “someone” was an accountant.

Now I have nothing against accountants. They serve a useful purpose in doing work that most of us find tedious and boring. A good accountant can save a business substantial amounts of money through wise tax planning and up-to-date advice. However, there are certain decisions that an accountant should NOT be involved in, and buying a yacht is one of them.

Honestly, I’d rather invite my accountant to a boat show than ask my mom to a strip club, or ask an accountant to help me buy a yacht than ask my mom to help me find a girlfriend. Fundamental traits like a curvaceous body, a sexy smile, and how much fun she is on a date would be totally overlooked in favor of less important attributes like reliability, longevity, and… ahem… a two-year warranty. A mother will make a decision based on thought and logic, a man, on the other hand, will base her decision on feelings and passion. A friend of mine once told me that his mother burst into tears when she introduced him to her girlfriend simply because he didn’t like her. Strange – that’s exactly the same reaction my client’s accountant had when I told him what the running costs of a 46 meter yacht are!

And this raises the rather interesting question of “why do financially successful people buy yachts?” How can a man who has spent years developing an enviable ability to make a profit and avoid losing money suddenly buy an item that will do exactly the opposite?

I discussed this topic with a yachtsman over a decade ago when he was working as a Sales Manager for the Ferretti Custom Line shipyard. The client had an insatiable appetite to negotiate the price of each change order, and he clearly felt that controlling costs was just as important as seeking profit. Over dinner one night, the client talked about how hard he had worked to achieve his wealth and said that, as a result, he did not spend money without giving due consideration to each purchase, both small and large. I ventured to ask what “due consideration” had led him to buy a superyacht, knowing that the annual running costs alone would finance a small military coup.

I’m not much of a diplomat, I know… but I had to ask.

A smile spread across the customer’s face. “David,” she said, “you just can’t imagine.” “Everything you do on a yacht is so much better. I eat on a yacht and the food tastes better, I lie on a yacht and sleep better, and David,” she said as the smile spread even further, “Sex. It’s so much better. We have a yacht.”

Barely a year after that conversation, I was able to put these comments to the test when, in a moment of extraordinary generosity, another client invited me aboard his 100-foot yacht for a week-long vacation. Just for clarity, and knowing that my wife will probably read this article, I should add “Yes. This was the week we went to Mallorca together.”

People talk about spending “quality time” with their partners, as opposed to I imagine the “poor quality time” you can spend in front of the TV too exhausted to talk after a day of fighting fires at the workplace and, if you have small children, possibly also in the living room. If the quality of time can be measured the same way we measure the quality of food and drink then “yacht time” is an acorn-fed Iberian Pata Negra, Italian white truffle shavings from Alba on a plate of the better pasta. It’s a plate of Danish oysters washed down with a cold bottle of Chablis, an experience so intensely pleasurable that for the brief moments you partake of its pleasure nothing else matters, no problems occur to you, no difficulties exist. You are there, in the moment, together and happy.

Another yachtsman put it well when he spoke of his grandfather, an extraordinary man who had started his business in a garden shed and grown it into a business empire employing more than 50,000 people. The family owned spectacular properties around the world and regularly stayed at the best hotels this planet has to offer, and yet, he said, “the only time I see my grandfather relaxing is on his yacht.”

This is a common theme when talking to families of highly motivated CEOs and business owners. They simply never fully disconnect from their business, not in their city home, not in their country residence, not in their Malibu beach house, not even in a penthouse suite in the Burj Al Arab. But they relax on their yacht. It may take a week to resist answering your cell phone and another week to stop checking your emails, but by the third week they’ve finally synced up with “yacht time.” Stress levels return to normal, priorities return to focus, food tastes better, sleep is deeper, and life’s most intense pleasures are magnified to unforgettable proportions.

And herein lies the secret that unlocks the disciplined control that many high net worth individuals maintain over their purchasing power. The commercial success and financial rewards are exhilarating, leaving a legacy that can benefit generation after generation of descendants, as well as providing work for an army of delighted accountants. However, the hectic intensity of this lifestyle requires a balance, a pressure valve that returns the PSI of life to a safe level. A yacht is not a luxury for these men and women, but a necessity, albeit an expensive one, to enrich their lives in a way that is not quantifiable on a balance sheet, to receive a return on investment that is not measured in currency or asset values. Actions. .

My advice to UHNWIs around the world who may be reading this and thinking about attending the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show this year is simple.

Leave your accountant behind.