Zhou Ting, head of the Fortune Character Institute, an organization that studies luxury purchases in China, said that high-net-worth Chinese make up 1 percent of the total population and they will be unlikely to be affected by the policy because "they have a rigid demand for luxury products".
The yachting market in China is booming. It is expected by China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association that there will be more than 100,000 yachts owned by Chinese people within the next 10 years.
At the moment, the pictures seen in promotions in which people take to boats for recreation is still a dream scenario mostly taking place in the West. The yachting industry is not yet regarded as leisure or practiced in a way Jebsen would like to see, Petersen discovered.
"The luxury boats are bought by companies. They buy these boats to show a certain status or wealth, or to use them to entertain customers or clients. Therefore, they prefer bigger boats in general," he said.
Over time, Petersen has learned that most customers would like to have a karaoke room, something rare in the West. He also has a customer who has bought one of the iconic Fairline Squadron 78 Custom boats priced at 41.98 million yuan who asked for a big room in which to hold dinners. It meant the company had to take out a lot of the nice leather chairs that came with it and put in a big table and 12 other chairs so that he can dine and conduct conferences at the same time.
"You can have big parties on the boat, close the doors and do everything you can do at home. But, in addition, you can take your boat out and enjoy some water sports. That's what we are trying to do," he added.
Yang Xinfa, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, echoed Petersen by saying there is no effective activity in China to teach customers how to make the best use of a luxury boat.
"If customers don't know how to make the best of the boat, of course they won't be willing to buy one," said Yang.
Petersen regards himself as a family person. The night before the first day of the Shanghai boat show, he went to dinner with his daughter, who is studying Chinese in Shanghai, in order to "check out which friends she is going out with".
However, he still prefers to use his yellow Porsche sports car as his iPhone's wallpaper rather than a family photo because he is a German "with fuel in his blood".
Growing up with cars and possessing much enthusiasm for them, it was in many ways like an adventure or going "back to basics" to be appointed the new general manager of Jebsen's marine division. However, Petersen manages to find many similarities between selling cars and boats.
"If you have that kind of gene, it doesn't matter whether it is a car or a boat," he said.
A university graduate's shepherd career
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