Heesen announces the delivery of 98th superyacht

Dutch superyacht builder Heesen Yachts has announced the delivery of 50m motoryacht VanTom, bringing the shipyard’s fleet ever closer to its 100th delivery. The new superyacht is the sixth yacht in Heesen’s popular 50m semi-displacement range designed by Frank Laupman of Omega Architects. Now, with 10 yachts under construction, what do the next few years have in store for Heesen?

According to The Superyacht Intelligence Annual Report 2018: New Build, Heesen has delivered a total of 18 yachts in the last five years, with a cumulative LOA of 913.4m. As a result, based on the criteria specified in the report, Heesen is considered to be the eighth most active superyacht builder in the market. For at least the last five years, Heesen has demonstrated its strong position through its consistency of having delivered three or more superyachts per annum. This looks as if it is set to continue with deliveries scheduled up until 2020.

In 2018, Heesen will reach a very important milestone with the delivery of its 100th superyacht. Now with 98 vessels on the water, Heesen certainly has one of the larger order books in the market since it began building superyachts in 1883.

In issue 183 of The Superyacht Report, the activity of Omega Architects was analysed, showing the flourishing design relationship with Heesen Yachts since 2001. The Dutch design studio is now responsible for the design of more than 45% of the delivered Heesen fleet. The analysis also shows that Omega tops the rankings in the 45-65m motoryacht sector (2012-2017 deliveries) with an 18.4% share of all projects delivered.

The delivery of VanTom took place in international waters on February 14th, following an extensive period of sea trials. Captain David Burge comments, “During sea trials the yacht handled extremely well and gave a very smooth ride, even while proceeding at speeds of over 23 knots.” These trials took place in the North Sea in January of this year, with waves up to one metre.

“It was a real pleasure to work with Heesen throughout this new build for the past two years,” says Arne Ploch of Camper & Nicholsons, who represented the client’s commercial interests during construction. “It has been a smooth relationship based on mutual trust and respect, the way it should be when building a new yacht. It has been a great experience for the owner and his team.”

Heesen has clearly started the year off positively, having just announced the sale of 60m fully custom motoryacht Project Falcon, which is scheduled for delivery in 2021. The shipyard also has a further four superyachts scheduled for delivery in 2018, with a cumulative LOA of 206m.

Story by Georgia Boscawen of Superyacht Times

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