B-in that size range, "boating" as almost all of us know and love is not a part of the equation. The equation is: "I am worth X and every other person I know worth X has one of those, therefore I must also have one. If I really have an ego, I must have two of them." Same goes for the three houses, nine cars, two aircraft, and the third wife, generally under age 30 (but with a strong pre-nup in place!).
It can be but often it's about the use of it. There are people who actually put such boats to use. I have an acquaintance who has a 164' boat and is currently on a circumnavigation. He flew home briefly and was extremely anxious to get back to his boat. Now, this is a real boater. Founded one major boat company, owned another couple later in life and he was never just an owner, always a boater. In his 80's no.
We don't have anything 332' but we are all about using boats. Now, there were those trying hard to convince us of what we needed much larger and we had to just ignore them. There are those who think nothing is any good if it's not Dutch. Others who think it must be steel, you can't cross oceans in anything else.
We've never been aboard a 164' boat. Oh he tried to get us on one and we were scared, knowing what a salesman he could be. However, we've found that where it stops feeling like a boat varies widely between boats. To us one of the keys is speed. A 100' boat at 10-12 knots just doesn't do it. On the other hand a 112' boat that will plane and cruise at 20 knots feels much different. It responds to you.
Still for just fun 30-50' sport boats cruising at 35 knots or center consoles have the feel best. We've done very well resisting a really fast boat.
He claims his 164' feels like a boat and it cruises at 20 knots. It may. i have no idea.
Even saying "feels like a boat", that means something different to all of us.
Most of the very large boats do some chartering. Often they travel with the owner's family but not the owner. That's where all the retired boat owners here have a huge advantage over the megayacht owner who owns a huge business and runs it. We have the time to use our boats. He doesn't.
Have a just retired acquaintance who traded down from a 199' Yacht he used a couple of times a year and never left New England to a 130' boat which he uses regularly and the newfound excitement of him, his wife, his kids and his grandkids is amazing. They can also not get to a lot of places they couldn't before and 80% of the time they're on the bridge.
He did take advantage of the type buyer you mentioned. There was someone at the marina who had always coveted his boat, bought it instantly, and has never stopped talking about now having the bigger boat. He seldom uses it. Mainly at it's home marina for entertaining.
