Paul Tomes and wife Mary-Clare are pioneering the concept of the pocket catamaran – an all-electric catamaran small enough to fit into a single berth, and a single shipping container. The design is aimed at couples or families with small children in need of simplicity and convenience.
Now they’ve launched a ‘Cruise’ edition of their flagship HopYacht 30, a move aimed at the charter market.
Never shy of new frontiers, HopYacht is also exploring another initiative involving the hospitality sector. It hopes hotel groups may offer the HopYacht experience as part of their service offering – an on-water experience, complete with all the hotel extras.
SABBEX spoke to Paul about his latest ventures:
SABBEX: Why the new HopYacht Cruise model?
PAUL: Globally we are experiencing an exponential growth in adventure tourism. At one end of the scale, there is a queue of people waiting to climb Mount Everest, however at the other end there’s a huge market for more relaxed adventure. For city dwellers getting closer to nature is an absolute must!
Walking, hiking and easy-going cycling trips will tick a lot of boxes for many people, however waterborne sightseeing takes the adventure further by creating the fun of being on board a boat combined with seeing the landscape from a very different perspective.
However, many waterways around the world with high volumes of tourist trips are under scrutiny from an environmental perspective … many being closed to vessels with diesel and petrol propulsion.
Being an all-electric boat, HopYacht Cruise not only responds to preventing the pollution of sensitive waterways, the design and size creates a unique sales proposition for tour operators.
HopYacht Cruise has the luxurious feel of a much larger boat, but without the crowd. 14-16 people able to soak up the surrounding scenery with no noise and no fumes from petrol or diesel engines.
No one has to feel guilty about being in protected waters and no one feels like they are on the water equivalent of a bus!
With 3600 W of solar power HopYacht Cruise will quietly generate more tourism income with less maintenance and upkeep than the noisy predecessors.
SABBEX: You’re also reportedly talking to the hospitality sector regarding HopYachts as an ‘on water’ option. Is this correct?
PAUL: We’ve also begun talking to Hotel groups about harnessing the growth in adventure tourism. HopYacht Cruise is a superb addition to a waterfront hotel to offer their guests waterborne sightseeing, however there’s an even bigger opportunity.
Many of our clients refer to the design and layout of our original HopYacht 30 as an apartment on water! Moored in a tranquil bay close by to the mothership hotel, HopYachts become a hotel room on water, offering guests the unique lifestyle only a yacht can offer.
Hotels can add this adventure equivalent of a hotel suite with no disruption to their hotel. No traditional construction of bricks and mortar rooms. Hopyachts become plug ‘n play luxury suites, plus a unique point of difference for the hotel.
With the demand for adventure, guests will go looking for unique activities. HopYachts as an alternative to traditional accommodation, coupled with the adventure of sailing, with or without a captain from bay to bay, hotels now don’t lose the revenue opportunity to external tour operators.
SABBEX: CT is going mad for digital nomads, and there is even a digital nomad conference taking place in CT soon. Does this dovetail nicely with your marketing mission?
PAUL: With holiday and longer stay accommodation in many cities becoming scarce with the popularity of Air BnB letting, we’re going to have to get more and more creative to attract digital nomads and get them to stay longer. HopYachts could become a compelling proposition.
Why stay in a typical home or standard apartment if there’s an option to live on board a compact easy to manage apartment on water?
SABBEX: On a personal note, how has the transition been from cruiser to boat builder? Has it changed your relationship to with the water /ocean?
PAUL: We’ve been so busy building boats for other people we haven’t had time to think about our next sailing holiday … and having designed the HopYacht to pretty much meet our own needs when chartering yachts in places like Greece and Turkey it’s going to feel a little strange embarking on a sailing holiday if it’s not on a HopYacht!
I had hoped that setting up HopYacht would be a fun glide path into retirement, however what I have now realised is just how passionate people become about owning their own yacht and that passion translates into wanting to engage with the design and build process and that means being there for our clients.
So right now sailing holidays are on hold whilst we get to grips with making our HopYacht production more streamlined and efficient.