When it comes to prolific yacht owners, it’s pretty hard to top Neville Crichton. He is quick to point out that he has owned and raced numerous iconic Maxi yachts. His sailing plaudits also include first place finishes in the Fastnet, Sydney-Hobart and Transpac among other iconic offshore races. And now that he has bought and is in the process of refitting the classic J-Class yacht Rainbow to be ready to compete in 2024, it’s obvious his yacht racing interests are not confined to the newest technology. He has also been a prolific yacht builder, who has commissioned more than 50 yachts during ..read more

At Heesen, we’re dream builders. And it takes many different skills and talents to deliver what we promise. In our newest Q&A series, we’re speaking to Tom-erik Buis, our Technical Sales Engineer – a man who knows what it takes to get our projects over the finish line. He was a naval architect for nearly a decade, before stepping into a special role working with both clients and internal teams. INTERVIEW WITH TOM-ERIK BUIS TECHNICAL SALES ENGINEER, HEESEN What does a Technical Sales Engineer do at Heesen? “It varies a lot. Sales support and client meetings, but also feasibility studies fo ..read more

Heesen is delighted to announce the delivery of YN 20150 Cinderella Noel IV after intensive tests in the North Sea. The owners christened their yacht on December 23, 2023, in an unforgettable ceremony for all the shipyard’s employees and subcontractors who contributed to the construction of their yacht. Highlights 50-metre Steel – proven design platform Hybrid propulsion Exterior lines by Clifford Denn Interior design by Luca Dini Design & Architecture Additional steering position on the flybridge Glass-bottomed pool Large aft cockpit screens for the upper deck and main deck Expansive ..read more

Two special guests of honour regularly cruise on board the 50-metre steel displacement Heesen Ocean Z – Milo and Dottie, the owners’ dogs. The yacht’s captain, Billy Lockhart (BL), describes what life on board is like for these peripatetic pups.  Do these sea dogs have their sea legs?BL: I’ve worked for the owners for two-and-a-half years, and they have been bringing the dogs on board their yachts that entire time — and probably before my tenure. Of course, when we took delivery of the Heesen last May, that tradition continued. The dogs are part of the owners’ family. We’ve been all ove ..read more

SuperYacht Times has released its annual The State of Yachting report, now available for download. This SYT iQ Insight article provides a glimpse into the comprehensive market data analysis and insights provided by the Intelligence Team at SuperYacht Times. In 2023, the yacht industry witnessed a modest decline in the sales of both new and used yachts, yet figures remained higher than pre-pandemic levels. This observation raises an intriguing question: Have yacht sales reached a new, elevated baseline in the post-COVID era? Notably, throughout the year, stock markets in the United States and ..read more

Proposed new EU rules to prevent spurious or misleading environmental claims will be good for the superyacht industry, Heesen Yachts believes. Marketing director Mark van Heffen has welcomed the Commission’s so-called Green Claims Directive, saying it will weed out unscrupulous players and ensure a level playing field for all. “If you were in the middle of a project and a challenge to the validity of a green claim reached the client, it could cause problems – embarrassment at least,” says van Heffen. “The timing is absolutely right because you don’t see so many claims yet, but the technology ..read more

From watertoys to yacht parts, this high-tech manufacturing process is making a host of previously impossible things possible. In 2019, the University of Maine in the United States stunned the world when it unveiled a boat produced with its 3D printer. It wasn’t a toy boat, either. Measuring 7.6 meters/25 feet, it weighed 2,268 kilograms/5,000 pounds. The boat, named 3Dirigo, took about 72 hours to produce, far less time than the many months traditional boatbuilding methods require. The printer itself is notable, the world’s largest 3D printer, capable of making objects whose dimensions are a ..read more

Anyone who’s seen my social media feed or read one of my Forbes stories knows I’m as “American” as you can be. I just can’t help it. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m extremely aware of just how crazy US politics is. And I’m sincerely embarrassed by all the stereotypical “ugly Americanness” that happens all over the world every day. But that doesn’t change the fact that even though I travel all over the world to write about superyachts, I’m still the same “kid from Boston” who first sailed away from the USA aboard a 65-foot-long Swan in the mid-1990s and never really looked back. I’d set my sights ..read more

Ultra G is a yacht that breaks a lot of new ground, even by the standards of Heesen yachts. Toting 22,000hp and a 37-knot top speed, Heesen’s most recent launch is also its most powerful yacht. And she is the first we’ve ever built with the innovative U Safe rescue system concealed aboard. U Safe is a totally unique rescue buoy which is self-powered. Unlike traditional life rings, which the casualty must swim towards or reach for in potentially difficult conditions, U Safe can be actively steered by remote control. A member of the crew can therefore direct the buoy quickly and safely to the p ..read more

Marshalling half of the world’s superyacht builders into a single room at the same time is quite a feat. Doing it repeatedly over five years and emerging triumphant with an environmental yardstick to measure new yachts is a formidable feat. And yet this is exactly what the Water Revolution Foundation (WRF) has achieved with its Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI) group. Rewind to the Christmas of 2018, when Bram Jongepier of De Voogt Naval Architects was reflecting on a rising tide of greenwashing in the marine sector. He wanted clients to consider more efficient hull shapes and sma ..read more