Home › About
The people behind the fleet
Thirty yachts, one office in Dubai Marina, and a rule we have never broken: the boat you see is the boat you board.
It started with one badly booked birthday
In 2016 our founder booked a yacht in Dubai for his sister’s birthday. The photos showed a gleaming 60 footer. What turned up was a tired 45 with a broken sound system and a captain who spoke to nobody.
He spent the next two years doing the opposite. One boat, bought outright. One captain, hired properly. One number, answered personally. Guests started asking for the same yacht again, then for a bigger one, then for a fleet of them for a wedding.
Ten years on, Secret Waves runs more than thirty yachts out of Dubai Marina, Dubai Harbour, Palm Jumeirah and Port Rashid. The scale changed. The rule did not: we only sell what we own, and we only promise what we can put in writing.
Make the best day of someone's year easy to book
A yacht is only half of it. The other half is the hundred small decisions between deciding to do something on a boat and everyone laughing on the sun deck at sunset. We took those decisions in house so you do not have to make them at midnight on WhatsApp.
Four things most Dubai yacht companies will not do
Not because they are bad at it, but because doing it means owning the boats, employing the crew and turning down the bookings you cannot serve properly.
Show you the real boat
Every photo on this site is a yacht we operate. Ask for a walkthrough video before you pay and you will have one the same day, filmed that week rather than last season.
Run the extras ourselves
Catering, decoration, DJs, photographers and jet skis are our own teams and long term partners. Briefed together, arriving together, answerable to one coordinator.
Say no when it will not work
Sixty guests on a 65 footer is legal and miserable. We will tell you, offer the right yacht, and lose the booking rather than sell you a bad afternoon.
Answer at 11pm
Most yacht enquiries in Dubai happen after dinner, two days before the occasion. Someone from our team is on WhatsApp until midnight, every day.
The boring things that matter
- Licensed commercial operator. Registered for commercial passenger charter, with every vessel individually certified and re-inspected annually.
- Full passenger liability insurance. Cover for every guest on every trip. Certificates are on file and we send them to your legal or procurement team on request.
- Licensed captains, employed by us. Not freelancers hired for the day. Our captains hold current UAE commercial certificates and average six years with the company.
- Free cancellation up to 48 hours. Cancel more than two days ahead for a full refund, no conversation required. Inside 48 hours we move your date instead.
- Corporate invoicing and VAT. Proper tax invoices, purchase orders, bank transfer or card. Finance teams get what they need without three follow up emails.
- Families genuinely welcome. Child life jackets, shaded seating, a swim ladder that works and crew who have done a hundred family charters before yours.
How we got from one to thirty
One 48 footer
Bought outright, berthed in Dubai Marina, booked out by word of mouth within four months.
The first party fleet
Three yachts running simultaneous charters for a single 200 guest birthday taught us how to run events, not just trips.
Everything in house
Catering, decoration, DJs and photography moved from outside suppliers to our own teams and fixed partners.
Dubai Harbour and the Palm
New berths put Atlantis, the Palm and Ain Dubai within a twenty minute cruise of the gangway.
Secret Waves One
Our 155 ft flagship joins the fleet, with a pool deck, cinema lounge and a crew of fourteen.
Ask us anything. We answer honestly.
Including whether a yacht is the right idea for your occasion at all.