Heesen YachtTalk Specials, Season 3, Episode 2

Broadcast from Oss in the Netherlands, the second episode of Heesen’s YachtTalk Specials took place in the builder’s largest dry dock, which had been cleared out to make room for its latest 55-metre steel series, Project Serena. To learn more about Heesen’s bold speculative build programme, presenter Charlotte Kan sat down with Robert Drontmann, Heesen’s sales manager, and Perry van Hirtum, Heesen’s head of interior design.

Project Serena The 83m dry dock where this episode’s filming took place is Heesen’s largest state-of-the-art shed to date. Commissioned in 2016, it enables the shipyard to realise its largest builds, such as the recently delivered 80m superyacht Galactica. It’s now primed to hold Project Serena, which forms part of Heesen’s successful speculative build programme, and is due to deliver in 2024.

“When we started the programme in the 90s, Heesen was one of the first shipyards to build speculative projects,” says Drontmann. “The true benefit of speculative builds is to give clients a shorter delivery time so that they can enjoy the boat sooner. Of course, only shipyards that are in a strong financial position can offer on spec builds, and for Heesen, it helped to streamline out efficiencies and put us in an even more stable position.”Despite yachts around the world continuing to grow each year, Heesen’s sweet spot has stayed around the 50-55-metre size range. Drontmann also pointed out that Heesen is the only northern European shipyard building series boats of that size. “We should not forget that a lot of clients want to be able to enter small harbours, which you can’t do in the larger boats,” he says. “Also, our facilities are really geared up to build 50-55m boats in a cost effective and efficient way.”

This Superyacht Guide item is an original editorial summary based on the official Heesen Yachts news release.

Image source: Heesen Yachts official news release.