Maybach Ocean Club, the most exclusive club at sea, is being built by Maybach with Mercedes-Benz Design. Access starts in seven digits, with annual membership of six figures.
Dölker + Voges Design
In a previous life, Matthias Bosse captained a superyacht for a Saudi billionaire. The vessel called a port in Monaco home. Its owners lived a life of quiet routine, the antithesis of a round-the-clock party. By watching it firsthand every day, Bosse and his 60 or 70 crew members became experts in how to live like a billionaire at sea.
For his latest act, Bosse will translate this experience into a gated luxury cruise community for the ultra-wealthy. As the Maybach Ocean Club cofounder describes it, this is not an exercise in flashy excess — beyond the opulence of the yacht, of course — but a revolutionary vision for the luxury cruise industry.
The Maybach Ocean Club plans to set sail in 2029 aboard a yet-to-be-constructed 508-foot superyacht. The boat itself will belong to an exclusive group of fractional yacht owners paying seven figures just to get in, who come and go, almost like a timeshare at sea. The concept takes the focus off the destination and the means of transportation. It suggests the price of admission buys something even more valuable than a luxury cruise.
Maybach Ocean Club Offers Social Ownership Benefits Of An Exclusive Private Members Club
Beyond Horizon is the centerpiece of Maybach Ocean Club’s ambitious vision: transforming a superyacht into a curated network for entrepreneurs, investors, and global business leaders.
Studio Heller Design
The choppiest waters Bosse faced when he was captain of the gigayacht Lady Moura were not an ocean, but the COVID-19 pandemic. The commercial cruise industry had shut down. The family that owned the vessel had put it up for sale, but potential buyers could not travel. (It eventually sold to Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.)
Bosse suggested turning the Lady Moura into a shared-ownership model. First, he took the idea for a test cruise.
“We invited 14 couples from the UK, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Holland — real accomplished people, entrepreneurs, lawyers, business people,” Bosse said. “They did not know each other. We cruised from Monaco to Sardinia for 10 days. After 10 days, they all left as friends.
“Those were the liveliest days the yacht had seen in 30 years,” he continued. “There was laughter, interaction, and intensity. Two companies were founded among people on board. The group still meets in Zurich every year. They all said it was one of the best things they had ever done.”
If there’s anything the 1 Percent likes more than big boats, it’s making friends who can help each other create wealth. The Maybach Ocean Club combines both passions.
Maybach Ocean Club’s Hub-based Cruising With Private Members Club Access
The 508-foot Beyond Horizon, inspired by Maybach and designed in partnership with Mercedes-Benz Design, reimagines luxury cruising as an exclusive floating members club
Dölker + Voges Design
Traditionally, luxury cruises are marketed as a means for collecting life experiences and punching stamps around the globe. Certainly, those things have their place — and their price.
The vision behind the Maybach Ocean Club suggests the true value in a voyage to the 1 Percent lies not in an exotic destination or a new cabin amenity, but in something even more difficult for rival cruise lines to replicate: other voyagers.
To that end, flexibility is key. Bosse said he imagines an itinerary designed around “hub-based cruising.” If Monaco is the hub, for example, the vessel might spend a week in the region flitting between Monte Carlo and Saint-Tropez. These are well-trodden destinations for luxury travelers, but the port cities have what they need.
More than that, they have who they need. The allure of the cruise might not be the titillating sense of discovering a new locale, but discovering new people and new ideas along the way.
“If you decide not to come back one night because you’re visiting a friend,” Bosse said, “the yacht is not gone.”
The Maybach Ocean Club is positioning itself less as a means of luxury transportation, and more as a stationary luxury ecosystem. This is fundamentally different from traditional cruising.
Maybach Ocean Club: A Floating Private Members Club
Beyond Horizon, the flagship vessel of Maybach Ocean Club, is designed to function as a floating social ecosystem where access to fellow ultra-high-net-worth travelers is as valuable as the journey itself.
Dölker + Voges Design
The annual membership fee alone is expected to run into the six-figure range. The fee buys owner-members four weeks at sea per year, excluding food, beverages, and optional activities. For such an expensive stationary floating ecosystem to appeal to the 1 Percent, the club must have the requisite amenities.
Designed in partnership with Mercedes-Benz Design, the Beyond Horizons yacht will feature 30 elegant member suites and a variety of bespoke experiences both onboard (dining, gym, spa facilities, a personal trainer) and at port. Think access to pristine, private beaches and secluded islands; waterfront dining at Michelin-starred restaurants; golfing on oceanfront courses; and private tours of high-society attractions.
The club experience will extend beyond each member’s four weeks aboard the yacht, Bosse said.
“We will curate activities and experiences throughout the year,” he said. “For example, next year we are working on a Maybach Ocean Club-branded private jet experience for members. We might charter a large yacht, create Mercedes driving experiences, organize wellness collaborations, art previews, networking dinners, Monaco’s Rose Ball, or other experiences money cannot easily buy.”
The rising tide of luxury is lifting the standard for billionaires’ boats. Bosse aspires to lift one boat so that many can live the billionaire’s lifestyle at sea, if only for a few weeks at a time.