Turkish shipyard enters leisure market with supersail brand

Yonca Shipyard, a builder of composite vessels based in Tuzla, near Istanbul, is entering the leisure market with the new Mishi Yachts brand.

The Turkish boatbuilder, founded in 1986, has built over 180 ships to date, most of them in the defence and law enforcement sector. Its debut Mishi Yachts designs are for an 88ft and a 102ft luxury sailing yacht.

The Yonca shipyard covers 44,000 square metres, with around half of that under cover. Yonca says its purpose-built construction facilities can produce vessels up to 160ft from stem to stern and displace 400 tonnes or more deadweight. As many as 20 naval and 20 leisure yachts can be built in a year.

Yonca can build in steel, aluminium, and wood but specialises in high-speed composite vessels, such as fast intervention craft, special operations, and patrol boats. Its team of 180 craftsmen and boatbuilders is experienced in carbon and glass-fibre composite work.

“Yonca is exceedingly well-known in defence and as the skilled builder behind other yachting brands,” says chairman and founder Şakir Yılmaztürk. “But we are branching out in the leisure sector. We are taking the skills and capabilities honed over 36 years and bringing them to superyachting in a new venture we have named Mishi Yachts. Our debut designs are for an 88ft and a 102ft luxury sailing yacht.”

Using in-house and third-party expertise, Yonca says it can tackle exotic marbles, valuable leathers, and the rare materials used to sculpt a superyacht. Thanks to the booming superyacht industry around Tuzla, a host of more specialist trades are available locally.

“We are as excited by every new project today as we were when we first launched in 1986,” says Yılmaztürk. “Our reputation rests on our skill with composite work, as well as our ability to design and engineer complex, demanding projects and deliver them on time and on budget. I believe that it is time to bring those skills to a wider market and capture the growth that is our due.”