The luxury business may be booming in India, but one item of ostentatious consumption is witnessing a slump. Luxury yachts, the ultimate show-off toy of the uber rich, have seen sales drop to just one or two units a year.

“At present, yacht sales are almost half of what they should be if the required infrastructure were available. There are many buyers who can afford these boats, but are waiting for the required infrastructure,” said Alpa Antani, general manager (business development) at Mumbai Boat Show.

Lalit Choudary, promoter of Infinity Group that sells Aston Martin super luxury cars in India, has stopped selling two luxury yacht brands.

“Sales have fallen in what was a very limited market in any case, as the ownership experience is not good. As the word gets around, the buyer subset who meet each other in social events say why don’t you take my yacht if you need it rather than buy one for occasional use,” he said.

The absence of a proper marina where these boats can be berthed has often left these yachts exposed to the elements in the four-month-long mo­nsoon season. Also, there is no separate enclosure for yacht owners to depart from. They end up using the normal piers, where they often have to jostle for space with myriad passengers of sightseeing boats.

“Yacht owners also need smaller boats to embark and disembark, as larger yachts cannot come to the shore in the absence of a marina,” said Antani.

Families of yacht owners often find it extremely uncomfortable boarding and de-boarding them due to rolling of boats in the sea. “You need to be a good ballet dancer to get on and off these boats,” Choudary said.

The fall in demand has led the $14.4 billion Mahindra group to rework its business strategy at its 51:49 joint venture, Mahindra Ocean Blue. “We have minimised investment in the business and are looking for global partners. The leisure business looks challenging at the moment and, hence, we are looking at defence and commercial applications,” said Zhooben Bhiwandiwala, a member of the group executive board and director of the JV firm.

To cope with the downturn, Mahindra Ocean Blue has decided not to outsource boat-building capacity. “We have a capacity to build 50-60 boats a year, and have the potential to double this quickly based on demand,” said Bhiwandiwala.

The company is now developing and marketing the applications in powerboats for defence, police and coast guard use. “We feel our fibre-glass boats carrying 12-14 passengers could get good response for patrolling applications,” he said.