East Asia, especially Taiwan and China, is preparing to take a prominent position in superyacht construction. But so far, few people know about the impact this region has had on sailing in the past, its immense production power now and the wonderful opportunities that the future holds for it.
Taiwanese company Horizon Yachts is one of the world's top ten major yacht builders. The largest yacht at last year's Monaco Yacht Show, the majestic 90-metre Nero, was built near Beijing. The yachts of famous western brands like Hargrave, Marlow, Fleming, Nordhavn, Hampton, Alaska and Offshore are all shipped from Taiwan or China. Truly innovative boats are being built in Zhuhai, a new yacht-building enclave in southern China. But few in the West still know about this thriving industry. Why this is happening is a big mystery.
When Marco Polo, the most famous of the first western explorers of China, went home to Venice in 1292, his and the Mongolian princess, who was to marry the Great Khan of Persia, were carried to the Middle East by Chinese sailors on their junks. It is believed that Arab dhows - single-mast boats, partly junk-like - had been sailing east since the first century AD. Their captains were looking for gold on 14,000 islands in the archipelago, now known as Indonesia.
After a three-year voyage by Marco Polo through Malacca and Halle, China's greatest navigator, Admiral Zheng He, sailed from 1405 to 1433 from Nanjing on seven remarkable expeditions to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. His ships sailed to Calicut, Hormuz, Muscat, Aden, Jeddah, Mecca and Medina. In Africa, he reached Mogadishu and the Kenyan port of Malindi.
In 1498, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama, the first European navigator to travel east to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, also came to Malindi and Calicut. It would be interesting to imagine how history would have changed, if it had happened 65 years earlier and to meet the mighty flotilla Zheng He, whose flagship ships were over 125 meters long.
Anyway, Admiral Zheng died returning from Hormuz in 1433, and China closed its doors to foreigners. Except for several colonial outposts like Hong Kong and the Japanese occupation of 1937-1945, China «cooked in its own juice» until Mao Zedong died in 1976. And then began a period of mad economic expansion the world had never seen before.
Yacht building has become part of this incredible story. It all started in Taiwan, where the supporters of the Gomindang left in 1949 after their defeat on mainland China.
In the 80's there was a period when over 200 shipyards were registered in Taiwan.
They all built boats made of fiberglass, which quickly replaced wood as the main hull material. The quality of production was initially not high and as waves of economic crises hit western markets, less fortunate players were pushed out of the arena and closed. But now, at the end of the process, Taiwan has a backbone of high-quality, cutting-edge shipyards whose products are no worse (and sometimes better) than those produced in Europe and America.
The only problem was that production costs were gradually increasing. The price of Taiwanese boats was still very attractive compared to competitors from other regions, but now an additional advantage was required. As a result, over the last ten years, production has started to move to mainland Chinese shipyards. Although many of them are owned by firms from other countries, overall Taiwan and China's pleasureboat production is now second only to Italy, the USA and the Netherlands. After the recent financial crisis has brought many manufacturers in Europe and America to the bottom, Asian shipyards are preparing to play an even more important role in the future.
According to the Global Build Report published by the Yachts Magazine Publishing Group, the top ten countries in terms of length of yachts built are Italy, USA, Holland, Germany, Taiwan, Turkey, China, France and the UAE. If we add up the figures for China and Taiwan, then the two countries have bypassed Germany in terms of total lengths. Now that some markets are recovering from the turbulent years of 2009 and 2010, it seems that China and Taiwan will soon be able to claim an even larger share of the pie.
One lesson from the global crisis was «not to put all the eggs in one basket».
Half of all Chinese and Taiwanese yachts have been exported to America and another quarter to Europe. When both of these markets were seriously horrified, East Asian yacht production had to be drastically reduced. Although a flexible manufacturing policy allowed virtually all Chinese and Taiwanese shipyards to stay afloat, their sales managers began to look more towards the growing economies of Asia Pacific, India, the Middle East, Russia and South America. In fact, Taiwan and China have a good chance of becoming important yachting markets themselves in the future. Less stringent laws passed in Taiwan in late 2010 have made it easier for yachts to go out to sea for day trips and hikes to the islands than in the past when authorities were concerned about friction with mainland China. Boat sales are now expected to skyrocket and plans are underway to build yacht marinas.
By 2013 China is expected to have more dollar millionaires than anywhere else in the world. Yachting is not, in principle, a traditional way of relaxing for the Chinese, so getting used to it in the country will be a long time. In fact, there may be more boats in the six marinas of the former British colony of Hong Kong than there are now in all of China, but this situation is changing before our eyes. New marinas are opening up and builders are beginning to realise that owners of boats in mainland China, like their Hong Kong counterparts, mainly use their boats for leisure and fairly short exits.
Mahjong and, understandably, karaoke remain popular entertainments on board.
In one (perhaps overly optimistic) American study, the Chinese yacht market for the next decade was estimated at $10 billion in imported boats alone, not counting their own production. Chinese superyacht buyers, like the Japanese in the fat 1980s, still prefer to keep their boats abroad - in the Pacific, Australia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Cruising opportunities in these waters are much richer, and they are available all year round and do not draw too much attention to the wealth, which is inevitable if you keep a large boat close to home.
Below we present brief essays about the largest shipyards and their models. Most of these boats can be personalized to a very large extent to the owner's taste - this is a trademark of the Taiwan-China yacht building industry. These shipyards do their best to create strong sales networks abroad. They in turn invite all yacht builders to their «home» yacht shows - the April Shanghai Expo and the «Boat Asia» Singapore Festival in May.
HORIZON YACHTS
HORIZON YACHTS CEO John Lou recently missed the first two days of the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show to attend a small boat show in Xiaomyn, China. This proves quite convincingly that he is not joking when he says that the nascent Chinese yacht market is very important to him. Since Lu is also president of the Taiwan Yachting Industry Association (TIYA) and has a reputation for almost being a visionary, other major shipyards are very attentive to what he does.
«To date, Horizon has delivered more than 700 luxury yachts, 100 of them ranging in size from 80 to 135 feet, to customers around the world," said Lu. - We are confident we can continue to be one of the world's leading yacht builders, but we must admit that with the number of yachts we are building, the recognition of our brand could have been much higher. Today many people in the yachting market do not know about Horizon at all, although we have been one of the top ten superyacht builders in the world for several years. I have found that we have probably confused the market ourselves with the huge number of brands and names under which we have advertised and sold our yachts over the past 20 years. In different markets they have been branded under Elegance, Bandido, Dynasty and Calixas. In addition, we have occasionally been too keen on promoting certain lines like Vision and Premier, forgetting the main brand, Horizon».
«For the future, we decided to simplify the situation and strengthen our brand with the same name for all our yachts - Horizon»," explains Lou. Like all Taiwanese shipyards, Horizon's efforts in the past years have been focused on export development, infrastructure and production capacity expansion, as well as research and development of new products and techniques. «We have been very successful in these areas, but the recent global crisis has shown us how important it is to focus on marketing so that both our customers and industry»peers know about our strengths.
The already very diverse Horizon range has recently been expanded with catamarans and solar powered boats. Last August, the shipyard»held «an open day to present its various models to the press, dealers and wealthy Taiwanese who are beginning to take an interest in the yacht lifestyle.
JADE YACHTS
The steel hull and aluminium superstructure yacht was first built in Taiwan in 2003 after Vice-President Memphis Khan and his father Han Phi Xiang, Chairman of the Board, visited the Viareggio shipyards. In the capital of Italian yacht building, they were invited to launch the latest 65-meter yacht Benetti, built for Taiwan's billionaire Ambrus Young. Later in 2009, aboard this yacht, they attended the first yacht show in Abu Dhabi.
«Chairman Han», as Pi-Hiang's name is, had previously owned various shipyards in Kaohsiung, a city in southern Taiwan where commercial vessels, warships and floating fish factories were built. Adding a shipyard with «white» boats was hardly a big problem.
The shipyard's first project - a true «baptism of fire» - was to convert a 71-meter ice class vessel built in Germany in 1968. The ship was being converted into a luxury yacht for Bernard Arnault, chairman of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) group, for which the yacht had to be dismantled to its core and practically rebuilt. The shipyard did a great job, but the project consultants insisted that the final interior decoration should be done in Croatia. Today the boat is sailing under the name Amadeus. This was followed by a series of 30 metre expedition boats designed by Miami-based designer Juan-Carlos Espinoza, as well as other joint projects with European designers, including the German shipyard Messerschmitt Yachts. The largest yacht currently under construction is 52m long. Another «expedition» vessel (27.5m) was handed over to the client in December, and the shipyard now has a previously launched yacht, Jade 95, which the owner is selling at an attractive price of $10 million.
Memphis Khan is a fruit in itself. On the dark industrial Kaohsiung, he races a bright «yellow Hummer», whose salon is decorated with artificial leopard fur. The Chinese choose their English names, so Memphis is named after his hometown of Elvis Presley. However, all of his shipyards, assembled together under the wing of his parent company Jong Shyn, are distinguished by their advanced design, the skills of their engineers and specialists have been honed by decades of work, and Memphis considers it his mission to build ultra-quality yachts of individual customization, but with a reasonable price tag.
KHA SHING
This large family concern, located just across the street from the first Horizon shipyard, is best known for its signature Monte Fino range, but is also building the famous American custom-made «pocketed» Hargrave superhats.
Since its foundation in 1977, the shipyard has launched over a thousand motor yachts. These include the 80-90 series of Monte Fino boats and various American and European series up to 45m in length, according to John Coon, the yard's marketing manager. Today's Monte Fino range consists of 73w, 76, 77, 80w, 80w, 84w, 92, 100 and 122. The letter 'w' in the index means 'wide body'. These yachts have no side aisles on deck and are very popular in America and Australia, where customers prefer to have more interior space. The range is constantly updated and supplemented.
Following the launch of the new Monte Fino 76, Kha Shing Shipyard has this year begun delivery of the latest Monte Fino 100 RPH, whose European-Italian look was also designed by British firm Humphreys Yacht Design. The interior can be fully customised for each yacht.
The shipyard is also launching the Monte Fino 65, a short cruising yacht designed by American Ward Setzer, and a completely new concept called the Monte Fino ecHo. Layout trials are already underway in Southampton, UK.
The flagship Monte Fino 122 called Masteka 2 has recently been handed over to a customer from Australia. With its strong mineral exports to China, Australia has not been affected by the crisis and has become an important market for yachts from China and Taiwan. This is particularly noticeable now that the Australian dollar has soared in price by a third compared to the American dollar. The Masteka 2 is officially called «an environmentally friendly research vessel». Two Caterpillar C32 diesel engines with 1675 hp each give her a range of 3700 nautical miles at 8.5 knots. Her customer had been cruising the Pacific Ocean for seven years on the Monte Fino 96, and his decision to stay with the same manufacturer speaks for the reliability of the brand. The shipyard has also recently invested heavily in state-of-the-art slipways for boat assembly.
Ocean Alexander
Executive Director of the shipyard, Johnny Chu, is doing a great job. He has a professional education in the U.S. and is the second generation of another Taiwanese family who has owned their business for over 30 years. He works closely with Ed Monk Design from Washington and has a lot of energy to promote his own brand, focusing mainly on the US market. Recently, however, due to the downturn in the American economy, he has been rapidly expanding his sales geography. At last year's Cannes Boat Show, he presented a new motor yacht under the 83rd and a 60-foot cruiser with a three cabin layout. «The 83»," he says, "is «painted in a laconic, modern style that is loved in the European market but built with the care and attention to quality that Ocean Alexander»'s shipyard has traditionally shown.
In addition to Europe, Chu is also closely following the Chinese market, where Ocean Alexander has a second shipyard, an hour southwest of Shanghai. There are 52-74 feet of models being built there, and boats between 80 and 145 feet long are being born on a relatively new site in Kaohsiung. «I foresee the Chinese market»growing fast," Chu said. «We are developing a project specifically for China. No one else is doing that. We have a good team of people, and we are constantly conducting market research. I can't tell you much about them now, but they're unique things - my view of the Chinese approach to boating and yachting».
However, Chu has not put an end to the American market and believes it will rebound. At the last boat show in Miami, the new Ocean Alexander 88 was unveiled and the shipyard is also working on a new series of 120-135-155 feet with the American yard Christensen, whose own lineup just begins at 165 feet. The designer of the series is Evan Marshall and the first delivery is scheduled for late 2011. These will be production boats, not custom boats, more like what Westport does. In addition to this range and the line of expensive yachts, Ocean Alexander is also building the «Pilothouse» and «Trawler»series.
JOHNSON MOTOR YACHTS
This shipyard is run by two friendly people, Frank Chiang and Andy Wang. The shipyard has been operating for 20 years and, like everybody else, had a rough year last year, but already now the management continues to expand its market penetration, manage research and prepare for the upcoming industry growth. Together with Bill Dixon Yacht Design, Johnson Shipyard is building motor yachts of 58, 77, 89 and 105 feet. The shipyard began work on the flagship Johnson 125, but the crisis has forced the project to halt until a specific buyer can be found to build a boat specifically for him.
SEAFA YACHTS
This experienced shipyard presented its Explorer» and «Expedition» models «76 and 85 feet at the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Show late last year. Both boats are equipped with 560 hp Caterpillar C18 Acert diesel engines, which with a fuel reserve of about 19000 liters give them autonomy from 3000 to 3800 nautical miles. The layouts include 4 and 5 cabins, respectively, plus crew quarters. Standard equipment includes two generators, air conditioning, rocking stabilizers, hydraulic bow and stern thrusters, teak decks, a sturdy fiberglass hull with a bulbous bow, and many other deck features. Prices for these boats look very attractive.
The shipyard itself is a division of the Shing Sheng Fa group, which has been building commercial boats up to 120 m long since the 1970s. The shipyard was founded 5 years ago with the aim of building high-quality pleasure motor yachts with composite hulls. The 55 Express and 56 Sportbridge models were the first to use the advanced injection hull casting method and Volvo Penta IPS propulsion systems. This was followed by the 58 and 62 Pilothouse models with wide hulls, available with both steering columns and traditional propeller shafts. Seafa yachts sell well in the Asia Pacific region, but are entering the Americas, Europe and the Middle East for the first time.
THE YACHTS
The president of this shipyard, Eddie Yee, is a true patriarch of the Taiwanese yachting industry. His career began in 1968. Since then he has spoken to many Presidents, including George W. Bush, and has become a close friend of legendary yacht builder and rigger Ted Hood. A few years ago, he built a giant dock on the coast in Tainan, two hours from Kaohsiung, and can now build yachts from 30 to 150 feet, although the largest yachts he has built so far have been President 107 boats. Ye prefers to build a personal relationship with clients. One of them, a relative of the former Italian president, is now sailing a boat around the world and the other, a Frenchman from New Caledonia, is planning a cruise on the Pacific Ocean. President Yachts is particularly proud to be the first shipyard in China to master computer modeling and ISO 9001 quality certification.
DYNA CRAFT
This shipyard is located in Tainan and has a 25-year history. She used to build very high quality and popular boats for the Marlow Explorer brand, but now« Marlow» has taken all his production facilities to Xiaomyn. Therefore, Dyna Craft Shipyard now focuses on promoting its own brand in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, America and the Middle East. It now has 51-55-65-70-77 ft models in its range, and it has 95 and 105 ft boats in development. The «Dyna 77», which was featured on a recent boat show in Australia, was offered at $3.6 million.
TRANS WORLD YACHTS
Trans World Shipyard, located on the north coast of Taiwan, near the capital city of Taipei, has been building a standard range of «Flushdeck» and «Pilothouse» yachts from 65 to 80 feet. Recently the shipyard has switched to custom production of boats from 97 to 120 feet. Production is controlled by Jerry Chu, General Manager, and Calvin Chu, who is educated in Australia and works at the shipyard as an engineer. The Trans World range has recently been expanded with a 72-foot sports model.
HER SHINE MARINE
Originally founded by TJ Liu in the mid-1970s to build fishing trawlers, the shipyard eventually began building Convertible, Sundeck, Pilothouse, Imperial and a range of «semicustom» motor yachts up to 100 feet long under the Benship brand name. They also built yachts for the American brand Jefferson. Over the past ten years, most of Her Shine's production capacity has been concentrated in the new dock area in Zhuhai in southern China, so the activity at the old shipyard in Kaohsiung has almost stopped. TJJ's sister Liu speaks excellent English and frequently appears on various yacht shows.
Yantai Raffles
Production of pleasure yachts has been going on here since the 1970s, but it has only started to grow rapidly since 2000. The largest and most luxurious boats are produced at Yantai Raffles, a shipyard near Beijing, where the Strait of Bohai faces the Yellow Sea. In the early 1980s, Chan brothers Brian and Julian bought the first superyacht in Asia, called «Asean Lady», and sailed it around the region, setting an example for other Chinese yacht owners. This was followed by the 197-foot« La Baronessa» by Palmer Johnson, the 201-foot«White Rabbit» built in Australia and the 170-foot «Sea Show»built on Yantai Raffles and rigged at Cheoy Lee shipyard near Hong Kong.
Brian Chang, who had an impressive career in corporate and yacht building, started commercial shipbuilding activities in Yantai in the mid-1990s. Five years later, the Yantai Raffles Open Yacht Shipyard was a division of the group producing oceangoing ships and oil platforms. The shipyard undertook many projects, but the most notable was the construction of a vessel that replaced «Asean Lady» and inherited her name. It was a giant 290ft yacht, modelled on the Malay boats of the «Proa». Since her launch in 2004, she has won many international awards, particularly for her pioneering concept that allowed her to achieve great stability. The vessel is now based at Raffles Marina in Singapore.
This was followed by the magnificent 295-foot classic yacht Nero, built for Corsair Yachts charter company for use in the Caribbean region. At last year's Monaco Yacht Show it was the largest yacht on display. During the show, we had lunch with Julian Chan. He told us that Yantai Raffles is starting work on a new 88-meter yacht, but the details of the project are still a secret. He is also planning to build a yard near Shanghai specifically for pleasure yacht production to separate this area from commercial yacht building and create a place that customers would be happy to visit during the three to five years of construction. As for commercial yachts, Yantai Raffles has recently built the largest yacht carrier, Dockwise Yacht Transport, which is capable of carrying small superyachts around the world.
CHEOY LEE
Cheoy Lee Shipyard is undoubtedly the oldest and most respected recreational boat builder in China. Its history dates back to 1870, when it repaired and repaired vessels near Shanghai. In the late 1930s, with the outbreak of the Japanese-Chinese War, the owner's family moved to the then British colony of Hong Kong, and by the 1960s virtually led the transition of the entire industry from building wooden hulls to composites.
Since then, Cheoy Lee has remained at the forefront of high technology such as GRP (Reinforced Glass Reinforced Plastic) and multi-layer structures with filler. I remember long ago, in 1977, inspecting the remarkable 130-foot motor yacht Cheoy Lee Shango 11 in Jonok Bay. At the time it was the largest composite yacht in the world. Later on the company built a special project shipyard on Lanthau Island, but after a while the site was bought out for the construction of Hong Kong Disneyland and Cheoy Lee moved back to China. The company's current shipyard is located on the banks of the Pearl River an hour's drive from Macau, near the new shipbuilding area in Zhuhai.
Since the move, the introduction of innovations and technological improvements has continued and has recently been carried out in cooperation with the New Zealand-based firm High Modulus. Today the shipyard offers a wide range of Bravo, Global, Serenity and Affinity motor yachts, mainly in lengths from 50 to 120 feet. Sailboat production, which flourished in the 1960s and 80s, has now virtually stopped, but since then commercial activity has grown dramatically, including a number of major projects in the Middle East.
According to John Cannon, sales manager for pleasure boats, the shipyard focuses on the U.S. and Australia, but is now looking more and more closely at other regions. Two MCC-Marco Polo boats have already been built as part of a very interesting project that the shipyard is currently working on. The first, a 145-footer, Marco Polo has only one engine as commercial vessels and boasts excellent autonomy at 6000 nautical miles at 10 knots. This boat regularly appears on yacht shows around the world and her 148-foot «almost twin», a yacht named Mazu, has recently departed from the slipway and is now ready for finishing work.
Kingship
This shipyard with seven docks and a special ship lift-synchrolift was built on a special project in Shenzhen city in the Pearl River Delta. The head of Kingship Roger Lian built a yacht called Pearl of the Orient«»about ten years ago. The yacht was built first in Singapore, then in Hong Kong. She was presented at a boat show in Fort Lauderdale and now regularly charts in the south of France. At the same time Lian decided that it was time to build full-size yachts in China with steel hull and aluminium superstructures certified by Lloyd and MCA and established contacts with the renowned Dutch design and production company Vripack.
The first Kingship Expedition 110, quite appropriately named China, was built for a European client familiar with doing business on the«Chinese»coast. The next Kingship, a Magellan 110 yacht called Jeremy, left for Australia, followed by a Columbus 90 series boat which is now sailing in the Mediterranean under the name Belle Isle. Another Magellan 110, Christina G, has been built for a Swedish client and this year the first Gentleman 131, with the working name Cold, is scheduled for delivery. Also in progress are Kingship 138, Green Voyager 144, and the new 156-foot Kingship designed by Dubai-based designer Donald Starki together with Azure Naval Architects. The latest project is described as retro with 21st century elements.
Liang is a great supporter of «green» technology in superyachts. During the 2009 Monaco Yacht Show, he gave a passionate speech on the subject. After completing a mock trial of the unique Green Voyager 144 designed by the Axis Group's Viareggio office, Liang said that with her hull alone she would be 16 percent more economical than other boats. The hybrid propulsion system for the yacht is supplied by Siemens. In addition to Green Voyager, the shipyard plans to be the first to start producing fully electric yachts up to 24 meters long. Kingship's goal is to build yachts that will reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions from yachting and allow the yard to enjoy sailing without harming the environment.
Tricon Marine
One of a number of new shipyards that appeared in Zhuhai, Tricon has a name, an education from the words «three continents». The name reflects the international scope of the enterprise. It is a European-American business owned and operated by Chinese citizens. The shipyard has already launched two very different boats: the long-range Argos 92 Gulfstream and the unique NISI 2400, which debuted at the Hong Kong Boat Show in December and is now due to be on display at the Miami Yacht Show in February.
Shipyard Executive Director Christos Livadas: «Argos Gulfstream 92 is free from the compromises and standard designs that characterize many of today's yachts. It combines the beauty, style and spaciousness of the interior with speed, excellent economy and ample range». The design assignment for this yacht was very detailed and included complex requirements: low centre of gravity, side wave stability, smooth sailing in passing and oncoming waves, no cheekbones at anchor or in low waves, top speed of 25 knots and above, transoceanic power reserve, three dining areas for eight persons each, a large garage and a boat deck capable of accommodating a large tender or helicopter landing, and most importantly the owner's superstructure. This apartment later became known as SkySuite.
The newest yacht of the NISI 2400 shipyard (nisi in Greek means «island») was for the most part invented by Livadas himself. The magnificent exterior style and naval architecture of the boat was developed in collaboration with the American designer Ward Setzer. No one has ever built a yacht this length in accordance with the RINA commercial code and MCA certificate, so NISI 2400 is a kind of breakthrough. The yacht has cabins for eight guests and two crew members, and the propulsion options include two Caterpillar 18 diesel engines with ZF-POD or Volvo IPS propellers or three 600 hp Cummins diesel engines with Zeus speakers. Depending on the engines chosen, the maximum speed reaches 28-33 knots, while the cruising speed is about 25 knots. The range is 1500 nautical miles at nine knots. Other key features include, according to Livadas, a «steep bow, a deck with a panoramic view over the covered wheelhouse full of 21st century technology, a piercing wave hull, propeller loudspeakers, stabilizers and the latest SkyHook»system.
The Tricon shipyard now has six slipways and, in addition to the Argos and NISI series yachts in various lengths, is able to build other yachts on special orders.
IAG Yachts
Literally next door to Tricon, IAG Yachts, owned by brothers Michael and Bernard Chan, is located in Zhuhai's yacht-building area. In their time, they successfully managed the business of producing concert lighting and sound equipment under the same name. The slipways of the new shipyard were built large specifically to accommodate the hulls of three IAG 127 and one IAG 100 yachts. The first yacht, the IAG 127, named Primadonna, went down at the end of the past and looks simply impeccable. As the yacht was built without an order, for sale, the interior has been specifically designed to be minimalist, so that the future owner can easily change it to his liking. Now it is dominated by the contrast of dark wenge wood and light oak panels. Primadonna is RINA certified and meets MCA LY2 standards, which gives it an unlimited sailing and charter area. With two CAT 32 diesel engines, it has a power reserve of 3500 miles at 10 knots and a maximum half load speed of 20 knots. Designed specifically for charter, the three-deck vessel accommodates up to 12 guests and 9 crew members. At the debut party, we were impressed by the high quality of the finish throughout the yacht and the overall concept that resulted in a giant interior volume for such a long hull. The equipment and furnishings for the yacht were supplied by the world's leading manufacturers. Brothers Tim and Andrew Chan have been personally involved in the international marketing of IAG Yachts since recently. The shipyard has an American office in Fort Lauderdale.
Jet Tern
Jet Tern is another company that grew up in Taiwan from a completely different production. This family initially made a fortune on... exporting expensive dinner sets! First the shipyard was located in Shenzhen, but then Director Howard Chen moved the yacht production to Zhuhai and now, like Tricon and IAG, the shipyard is part of this growing industrial area. The shipyard's most famous brand, Selene Trawler, gradually grew into a separate company, Selene Motor Yachts. Their largest boat to date is 92 feet long. Chen himself often appears on yacht shows around the world. Last year he attended the Hainan Rendezvous Festival on Hainan Island, another popular yachting destination in southern China.
