Superyacht lawyer reveals who's really onboard the most stunning vessels on the ocean

Owning a superyacht may look like a luxurious lifestyle, but there’s a lot that goes into it behind the scenes – that’s where a superyacht lawyer comes in handy.

Benjamin Maltby has more than 20 years of experience in superyacht law, specializing in construction and purchase.

Currently the General Secretary at The Owners Club, he’s been on a lot of incredible yachts.

He spoke to Supercar Blondie about why he became a superyacht lawyer and whether he had a personal favorite among celebrity superyachts.

What is the role of a superyacht lawyer?

My role as a superyacht lawyer is to guide owners through the process of owning a vessel. I help owners buy, build, own, and sell yachts.

In particular, I help them with the ownership aspects, employment, and insurance, and anything else that they want help with.

What’s the biggest myth about superyachts and who owns them?

I spend quite a lot of my time in the Mediterranean, on yachts and around yachts. And if ever I’m on board or just in a cafe on the harbor side, you’re guaranteed to hear some English voices.

And one of them will inevitably pipe up and point to the largest yacht in the harbor and say:

“See that yacht? It belongs to a Russian oligarch.”

They always assume that it’s owned by a Russian.

Although Russian sanctions [enforced by Western nations in 2022 to seize, detain, and freeze Russian assets, following the invasion of Ukraine] made almost no difference to the market, they account for less than 10 percent of superyacht owners.

That applies whether you measure it in terms of length overall, gross tonnage, or units.

They also assume that they’re owned by celebrities.

But if you make your money through celebrity, you can only be in one place at one time.

The average celebrity’s celebrity status is very dependent on their filming a movie or being at a football game.

A lot of people who are rich and famous are rich, but not quite superyacht rich.

As a superyacht lawyer, what’s the most outrageous vessel you’ve ever stepped aboard?

I’ve been on board hundreds of all ages, sizes, types – in build, and launched – and I’ve never been on a superyacht that I’ve been on board that’s not wowed me with their scale, their majesty.

You might, for example, have a dance floor that lowers and then becomes a swimming pool or a helicopter hangar on the rear deck, which opens up and means that you don’t have your helicopter on display and exposed to the elements when it’s on board.

Some even have a submarine.

To most people, that’s absolutely outrageous.

Nine times out of 10, owners have come from very humble backgrounds, and they are now in the position of employing thousands, tens of thousands of people, and driving the economy forward.

And their reward is a superyacht – it’s a statement without saying a word.

What’s the most expensive yacht you’ve been involved with?

I was involved in what was then the largest in the world.

The media have speculated on what it costs.

They normally underestimate, but it was a very expensive build.

What’s the most expensive part of operating a superyacht?

I’ve been involved with a costly refund case.

There was a contract in place, and it was very badly written.

That’s why I like to be involved at the outset. So I can put a contract in place that protects the owner.

The yard, in trying to do a refit, did some work that was so appallingly bad that the yacht itself was an economic write-off.

They had depleted the yacht of all value, rendering it worthless.

Their work wasn’t being supervised because the contract didn’t state that they should be supervised by an owner’s representative.

It was a complete disaster, and frankly, I could have saved that client millions.

Most of these yachtbuilders are very talented, very hardworking, very imaginative – but they still need to be guided.

It all boils down to relationships, and that boils down to the contract you have in place.

What’s the most a superyacht has ever annoyed locals while docked?

I happen to know that the good people of Venice were getting incredibly upset about superyachts in Venice some years ago.

It’s a stunning place, and they thought that it was spoiling the view.

But I was also in Newcastle Upon Tyne about 10 years ago when a superyacht came down the River Tyne and moored in front of the Tyne Bridge, and the locals were absolutely delighted [by] the superyacht; they were overjoyed.

They were absolutely fascinated by it, and they were taking selfies, eating their fish and chips next to it.

So that’s the other side of the scale.

What is your favorite superyacht owned by an A-list celeb?

Of the celebrities linked to superyachts, Eric Clapton stands out.

He had a superyacht called Vabenay, refitted in a fantastic yard in Cornwall, UK, called Pendennis.

He signed one of his prized guitars and gifted it to the team as an extra thank you for refitting his yacht.

He did it just because he’s a nice guy, and they are to this day very proud of having Eric Clapton’s signed guitar in a case in their office.

Are you aware of the story of the Alaska couple who converted an abandoned yacht into their permanent home?

I love it. And you know why? Because I’ve lived that lifestyle.

When I graduated from university, in order to qualify as a barrister, I had to go to bar school. And that meant living in London, having paid bar school fees, having just completed my degree, and already up to my eyeballs in debt.

I grew up with yachts; my dad built a couple of yachts when I was little. I grew up next to the sea, so it was an obvious line of work for me to do.

It was also unusual – it’s trendy now, but back in the early 2000s, it wasn’t.

So I bought a boat and lived on it in Canary Wharf in London.

The lifestyle, everything about it, was just amazing. It was such a joyous community, and such an awesome way to live.

In the middle of all this steel and glass, we would have random barbecues on a summer Tuesday afternoon just because we had our own separate party pontoon, which we used for social gatherings.

I can’t recommend the lifestyle highly enough.

If there’s a time and a place in your life to do it, then, yeah, absolutely do it.

When did you realize you wanted to become a superyacht lawyer?

My first job was working for a ship insurance company – and that was interesting.

That gave me experience with small boats, because I lived on a boat myself, and then I had the experience in shipping law.

This was the early 2000s, and there were fewer than 2,000 superyachts in the world.

There are now over 6,000 – although it depends on how you define superyacht.

It’s a media term, not a legal term.

It occurred to me that the superyacht industry was effectively a multimillion-pound small-scale business, in terms of professionalism.

And a lot of this just came down to the fact that the people weren’t putting the right contracts in place at the outset.

The relationships weren’t being managed properly, and I thought: “Hang on, this is a sector I have a passion for and can add value to as a superyacht lawyer.”

We’d like to thank Benjamin Maltby for speaking to us about his work as a superyacht lawyer. You can find out more about The Owners Club over at its website.