this story originally appeared in on jun 8 2013mumbai money cant buy you happiness but as they say it can help you buy a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it or ask these nouveau riche from new boomtowns who are ordering fivestar floating vessels and rowing against the tide of the economic downturn indias market for luxury boats and yachts has grown by around 10 in the last three years incidentally a period signified by the slowest economic growth in decades as cashrich real estate developers from hyderabad jewellery chain owners from kerala businessmen from chennai and miners from bengaluru look for a slice of good life that was previously a reserve of the moneybags of mumbai phiroze contractor managing director of ava marines a yacht dealer and an operations and maintenance provider to boats and yachts says chennai alone accounted for five enquiries in the past four months there were none last year incidentally one of those enquiries was from gurunath meiyappan sonin law of former bcci chief n srinivasan and now under scanner for alleged match fixing joy alukkas owner of indias largest jewellery chain was in the market until recently to buy a 36feet cruiser that would have come for around 16 crore but postponed the plans as he shifted base to dubai he is now buying a sevenseater plane for 10 million his competitor josco jewellers and keralabased tea plantations company avt group purchased 36feet yachts in the past 18 months we are planning to purchase one yacht of anywhere between 80 ft to 100 ft for 30 crore from uks sunseeker ajit kelachandra owner of real estatetohotel chains kelachandra group told et this is more as a luxury for our family and to entertain our guest from europe and the us he said ajit kelachandra who owns a 36feet yacht already says the vessels are primarily used in the backwaters of kerala anju dutta md of marine solutions a boat and yacht seller says she in the final stages of the sale of a 55feet yacht to two real estate developers from hyderabad the two realty players are jointly purchasing the yacht to sail in goa where they had purchased new homes businessmen from younger generation purchase boats or yachts on an impulse says george pottakulam executive director indmerc marine pvt ltd a boat dealer for last five years indmercs sales have more than tripled in the past three years to 10 crore last year from 3 crore we have sold two boats to two miners in karnataka to use in tungabhadra waters we are also getting enquiries from states like odisha and gujarat says george players like ava and marine solutions mostly procure yachts from the us italy and france in a typical deal clients will have to pay 30 of the value of the yacht upfront and have to give the requirements they need in the machine demands often include spa and jacuzzi facilities bar state