SINGAPORE YACHTING FESTIVAL
Late April · Sentosa Cove · Four Days · Since 2023
The Singapore Yachting Festival is four days in late April at ONE°15 Marina on Sentosa, the yacht show of Southeast Asia: boats on the water, a pavilion on the shore, and the marina given over to parties after dark.
It is young, and so is the market it serves.
The Island
Singapore was founded as a port. Stamford Raffles landed in 1819 and made it a free harbour on the Strait of Malacca, and within a generation it was one of the great crossroads of the world’s trade. Ships have always been its business. Boats for pleasure came very late.
Sentosa, the island off its southern shore, was once Pulau Blakang Mati, a garrison of the British army. Singapore renamed it in 1972, choosing a Malay word for peace, and made it a resort. Sentosa Cove, at its eastern end, is the one waterfront in the country where a house can have its own berth.
The marina takes its name from its latitude: one degree and fifteen minutes north of the equator.
The Show
The festival began in 2023, organised by the marina itself. For most buyers in Asia the great shows of Cannes and Monaco are a long way off, and Singapore became the place to step aboard a new yacht without flying to Europe.
The boats range from day boats to superyachts, moored along the marina’s berths with the builders and brokers aboard. Much of the business is done in the lounges, and much of the pleasure after sunset, when the marina becomes a party along the pontoons.
A conference for the region’s marinas, builders and charter companies is held in the two days before.
What to Know
It opens in the afternoon, when the heat eases, and runs into the night. Nobody on the equator shows a boat at noon.
The boats are bought for the waters around it: the islands of Indonesia and the coasts of Malaysia and Thailand.
Soft soles on every deck, and shoes off at the passerelle of the larger yachts.
The Court
The Singapore Yachting Festival is not the Court’s own. Appointments aboard the yachts a member wants to see, and places in the lounges and at the evening parties, are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of the visit: getting there, where to stay, and the table afterward.
How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.
Set down September MMXXVI