Think of the possibilities: actress Lindsey Lohan meeting with the management team of Royal Huisman at the Manolo Blahnik showroom in New York City during Fashion Week to discuss the custom shoe closet she wants to have aboard her new megayacht.
That was among the concepts that garnered quite a good laugh from me as well as the rest of the attendees this past Saturday night at the “Holland on the Hudson” reception at the New York Yacht Club (above), presented by the HISWA Holland Yachting Group. Bruce Johnson, head of Sparkman & Stephens, raised the suggestion as a tongue-in-cheek solution to the problem that the event was going on at the same time as the famous fashion shows.
It didn’t matter that the TV camera crews were paying more attention to the fashionistas across town, as the turnout at the New York Yacht Club certainly represented the who’s-who of Dutch superyacht construction. Staff from Royal Huisman, Feadship, Vitters Shipyard, Vripack, and other notable companies were there to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River with Sparkman & Stephens, ShowBoats, and more American companies.
If you recall your history lessons, in the fall of 1609—September 12, to be exact, which was this past Saturday’s date—Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name aboard the ship Half Moon, having been hired by the Dutch East India Company to find a new route to Asia. To commemorate the anniversary, there have been celebrations up and down the Hudson River all year long, with some of the biggest festivities occurring last week, including a visit from Dutch Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Maxima, and a flotilla of ships, including a Half Moon replica, cruising through New York City.
During Saturday evening’s Holland on the Hudson, members of the megayacht community mixed and mingled with each other as well as representatives of the Netherlands embassy in Washington, D.C. It was a night of celebrating, sharing, and learning, with a toast to another 400 years of collaboration by evening’s end.
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