HEESEN YACHTS-MONACO YACHT SHOW 2018
A PROJECT OF COSMIC PROPORTIONS
HEESEN YACHTS REVEALS DETAILS OF NEW 80M BUILD AT MONACO YACHT SHOW 2018
Wednesday, 26 September 2018 – Today Heesen Yachts revealed the details of Project Cosmos; set to be a colossal 80m with a top speed of 29 knots, she will be the shipyard’s largest yacht build to date and the fastest in her class, marking a succession of new technological firsts for the iconic Dutch shipyard.
The brief was for speed and size, coupled with the aesthetic appeal of a contemporary sports car. The combination of speed, aluminium and length required Heesen to devise new methods of bringing longitudinal strength into the design without adding extra weight to the overall structure. A world leader in large aluminium yachts, Heesen developed a brand new patent: ‘The Backbone’ reminiscent of the I girder. The ‘I’ section design means it is far stronger than a flat metal bar – you can bend a flat bar but you can’t bend an I beam.
To deliver on the promise of speed (a desired 29 knots), the Fast Displacement Hull Form will be fitted with four MTU engines to drive two controllable pitch propellers, which are required to handle the enormous amount of power – a total of 19,000 horse power! A project of such proportion requires for an epic collaboration: renowned British studio Winch Design to pen her exteriors and Sinot for her interiors, the same studio chosen to design the interiors of Galactica Super Nova.
Winch Design created sleek and contemporary exterior lines, to optimise life on board, while still maintaining the style elements unique to Heesen’s DNA. Remarkable features include a breath-taking 270 square metre Sun Deck; a completely flushed foredeck that doubles as a helicopter landing area and a chic outdoor cinema; a seven-metre pool with a glass bottom and waterfall that plunges from the deck above; and a spectacular beach club with a sunken walk-around bar, that features illuminated onyx panels and opens up to the transom and portside platforms.
Award-winning Dutch studio Sinot have created an interior inspired by elements from nature, including natural mathematics, such as the Fibonacci sequence. Glass, natural light and optimised ceiling heights create a sense of balance and a clean aesthetic. These details are offset with the use of backlit onyx, crystal glass panels, straw marquetry, hard wood flooring, silk carpets, natural leather wall panelling and stainless-steel.
Key interior design features include a stunning spiral staircase with stainless-steel detailing that wraps around the full glass elevator and a spacious foyer on the main deck, that combine to form a highly desirable entrance to the boat.
The yacht will accommodate 12 guests in four guest suites on the lower deck, a VIP with an adjacent private studio on the bridge deck, and the striking master stateroom on the main deck forward. Nineteen crew in eleven cabins will be able to discretely service the guests.
MYS 2018 Arthur Brouwer speech:
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Monaco Yacht Show.
Thank you for this incredible turn out – I know how hard it can be to digest our latest
news at this earliest of hours, so we have made sure the coffee is extra strong this
morning! For those of you who do not recognize me, my name is Arthur Brouwer and I am CEO of
Heesen.
It is a privilege to stand at the helm of our company which, in 2018, celebrates its 40TH
anniversary. Just a few weeks ago we marked this milestone with a party at our shipyard in
Oss for our employees and their families. It is lucky that we are in the process of expanding
the shipyard – with 1,200 party guests we certainly needed the space!
Such a large turnout to that celebration really brought home to me just how far Heesen has
come over the past 4 decades. I think back to those first steps in 1978, and remember that
we had just 20 employees – and incredibly, 5 of those original 20 are still working with us
today. They have certainly witnessed a lot of changes.
Over the years, the company has grown just as the size of our yachts has grown. The very
first Heesen, MY Amigo, was launched in 1979 and was “just” 20 metres. That seems
small by today’s standards, but back then she was certainly considered a large yacht.
Today our largest yacht under construction, as you have just heard, is 80 metres. That’s a
growth of nearly four times the length in four decades, or 20 metres every ten years.
Of course, this growth has meant we have had to continually expand our facility, and
today we have 8 sheds and 6 dry docks, totalling 22,000 m2 at our main shipyard –
including an 85 metre dry dock we inaugurated in 2016. We also have a
6,500m2 interior workshop in Winterskwijk. The key to all our success is the same now as
it was right back in 1978 – the women and men who work passionately to craft our
yachts. That original team of 20 has also grown considerably. We now have 450 fulltime
employees and approximately 200 subcontractors. That means that on any given day there are around 650 people
working on our premises. And they are being kept very busy. Earlierthis year we sold 2 full custom yachts: the
60m Project Falcon and the 80m Project Cosmos – a combined total of 140 linear meters of yacht. Perhaps more impressively, their combined Gross Tonnage is 2,760 GT – which is 80 per cent of the entire gross
tonnage of the six yachts we sold in 2017 It means our company, once again, is expanding accordingly. We have recently
completed the acquisition of a new property in Winterswijk to increase our interior facility
there, and we are currently in an advanced phase of negotiations to acquire more land in Oss.
As we are expanding, we are also actively looking for new people to join our highly skilled workforce, and we are training the next generation of craftsmen and yacht builders.
Recruiting and training skilled workers is just one of the challenges we face and embrace. Over the past 40 years we have seen the market change considerably. We have not only changed with the market, we have also
made it our mission to influence and drive those market changes. Heesen began as a yard building full custom
yachts on demand, and we remained a custom yacht builder for the first 20 years of our history.
But at the turn of the millennium we were among the first shipyards to bring semicustom and platform superyachts to the
market, with the idea of building on speculation. It proved to be a milestone decision, and today our commercial success
continues to draw on this strategy of building both custom yachts and on-spec platform yachts.
Our current order book consists of 12 yachts under construction, with deliveries ranging from next year, all the way out to 2022. 5 of these are being built on spec. We live in a world of instant gratification, and not all clients are willing to wait 2.5 to 3 years to take possession of their yacht. Building on spec allows us to reduce the delivery time to clients.
Of course, we also have to be aware of wider market conditions and in this sense the global economic outlook remains positive. However, substantial risks do exist and could threaten growth in the short and medium terms. Escalating trade conflicts and protectionism, the tightening of monetary policy, equity market corrections and global political strains are just a few of the factors that can play their part. However, the number of the world’s wealthiest individuals continues to grow, not just in the billionaire bracket but also in the Ultra High Net Worth bracket – usually defined as those people who have a net worth of more than $30 million. Indeed, Knight Frank estimates that at the end of last year there were close to 130,000 of these UHNW individuals worldwide – a rise of 10 per cent over the course of 2017.
2017 was also a great year for Heesen with the sale of 6 yachts ranging from 47 to 55 metres, and with the 60 metre and 80 metre full custom yachts sold this year it is clear that we continue to enjoy a promising future.
Perhaps that’s a result of the 40 years of experience we have amassed in the custom and semi-custom superyacht market, having now built and delivered more than 170 superyachts.
Either way, we are moving into the next 40 years of our history with a strong order book and a solid strategy, and we look forward to working with you all as we unveil exciting new projects and continue to grow our facilities in the coming months and years.”
