A Personal Statement by Indey S. Cruz
Some people dream about houses. Some dream about cars, jewellery, art or travelling the world. I have always dreamed about yachts.
My fascination with them did not begin because they were fashionable or because I suddenly discovered the world of superyachts. It goes much further back. From a young age, I was different in the way I looked at the future. I was fascinated by things that seemed distant, difficult or, at times, completely beyond my reach.
Life did not always make those ambitions easy. There were periods when the distance between where I stood and where I wanted to be appeared enormous. But the dream remained.
I wanted to experience this world for myself.
For years, yachts represented something greater to me than luxury. They represented freedom, movement, engineering, design, achievement and possibility. A superyacht brings together extraordinary craftsmanship, technology, architecture, fashion, hospitality and human imagination. The more I researched them, the more I realised that my fascination could become something much more substantial.
I could study the world I had spent years dreaming about.
That is why my research has expanded into yacht culture, ownership, engineering, interiors, shipbuilding, technology, speedboats and the human relationships surrounding life on the water. My books allowed me to approach that world intellectually. LA CRUZ is allowing me to take the next step and experience it physically.
There comes a point when looking at photographs, collecting books, studying vessels and imagining yourself somewhere is no longer enough. If you continually picture yourself standing in a particular place, eventually you have to ask yourself a simple question:
When are you actually going to go there?
I have always believed strongly in action. Anybody can talk about what they would like to do. Anybody can make plans, admire somebody else's achievements or say, one day. But eventually there has to be a moment when one day becomes a date in the diary.
I have tried to apply that philosophy throughout my life. I have pursued experiences that once seemed improbable, including taking to the controls of a helicopter. Not because everything has always been easy or because everybody believed I would do it, but because I believed that a dream becomes very different once you begin taking practical steps towards it.
The same philosophy now brings me to yachting.
I said that I would enter this world rather than simply observe it from a distance. Now I am doing exactly that.
Cannes represents an important beginning. It is an opportunity to walk among the vessels I have researched, speak with people within the industry, examine the engineering and technology, experience the interiors and craftsmanship, and begin creating my own photographic and research record of contemporary yachting.
And the journey does not exist in isolation.
My interest in fashion, identity and human presentation will also take me to Paris Fashion Week. Fashion and yachting might appear to occupy different worlds, but to me they intersect through design, aspiration, craftsmanship, identity, culture and the ways people communicate who they are. These are subjects that have fascinated me throughout my work.
There is also something deeply personal about reaching these places.
Sometimes achieving a dream does not mean that you have reached the end. It means you have finally arrived at the beginning.
That is how I see this moment.
I have spent years writing, researching, creating and imagining what might be possible. Now those different strands are beginning to come together — the author, the independent researcher, the interest in fashion and culture, the fascination with yachts, and the determination to experience rather than merely observe.
I have sometimes used the expression:
“If you can't beat them, join them.”
For me, however, joining the world of yachting does not mean pretending to be something I am not. It means entering that world on my own terms — as Indey S. Cruz: an author, researcher, observer and somebody who has carried this fascination for years.
I do not know where every conversation, photograph, yacht show or encounter will eventually lead. That is part of what makes the journey exciting. You cannot know what opportunities may emerge from a place you have never entered or from a conversation you have never had.
But first, you have to turn up.
My ambition is therefore larger than attending a yacht show or standing aboard a yacht. This is about building something from a lifelong fascination — a body of research, books, photography, experiences and eventually a much wider Indey S. Cruz creative and research platform.
The dream was never supposed to remain a picture of the future.
It was somewhere I intended to go.
And now, I am going there.
— Indey S. Cruz
