Since its founding in 1978, Heesen Yachts has established quite a track record. It was the first Netherlands-based megayacht builder to construct hulls from aluminum, for example, and built successively larger, lighter weight, and swifter yachts over the passing years. From the record-breaking 143-foot (44-meter) Octopussy to the 213-foot (65-meter) Galactica Star, the latter faster and reportedly more fuel efficient than similar-size superyachts, Heesen has attracted the attention of buyers from the United States to Russia, and many places in between.
Heesen was established by the entrepreneurial-minded Frans Heesen, who has since retired from daily operations. However, of similar business spirit is Mark Cavendish, Heesen’s sales and marketing director, who joined the yard in 2008 and has more than 30 years of experience in the marine industry. From co-founding the brokerage firm Cavendish White in 1989 (now part of Ocean Independence) to working directly for the shipyard, Cavendish is well tapped in to what buyers want. In this Leadership Series interview, he discusses the new wave of yacht buyers, what attracts buyers specifically to Heesen, and whether Heesen will head into the super-size superyacht range.
Q: How did you become personally interested in yachts, and what convinced you to pursue them from a business standpoint?
A: It goes right back to my childhood; my parents had yachts. We used to sail around the south coast of England on a 36-foot wooden boat. When I was at school, I decided I wanted to be a professional sailor, so I gave up woodworking classes to take up navigation classes. Then I left school and went into the British merchant navy and became a navigating officer on cargo ships. I was there for about five years, and I became a captain of a yacht, at the ripe old age of 22. It was a 110-foot motoryacht built around 1931, which we took from the South of France to the Caribbean, via west Africa. It was quite the voyage for a 22-year-old; we made it, but that’s another story (laughs). Being the captain of a yacht at age 22, there’s not much higher that you can go, so I came ashore and became a yacht broker in London for a long time, and ended up with my own company. The business was successful and fun, but as a yacht broker, you’re always selling lots of different yachts to different people, so you have to have a shallow knowledge of a wide range of boats, and I was always more interested in focusing on one thing. I became more interested in working for a shipyard, where I could become much more detailed, and I much preferred the creative side of building yachts. There’s no greater pleasure than meeting with an owner and poring over a general arrangement, working out how they’re going to live their lives onboard, how it’s going to look, how it’s going to be decorated. It’s a fantastically creative experience.
Q: Heesen’s client base has been strong in the United States and is growing in Russia and other regions. Among all these buyers, there seems to be a younger demographic compared to the broad picture of a yacht owner. Do you see them using their yachts differently and being more in tune with things that the typical buyer is not?
A: I think it comes from the DNA of the shipyard. We are best known as a modern, high-tech shipyard, and it requires different, higher skills to build lightweight, fast yachts. You get a younger audience who are interested in this technology—the light weight and the speed—and as a result of this, our boats are designed a bit sleeker, more sporty. I would say that, to use a car analogy, we’re probably more like a Ferrari or an Aston Martin than a Range Rover or a Rolls Royce.
Q: What are some of the differences you see in buyers overall today than compared to about 10 years ago?
A: Before the financial crisis, our clientele was very much European and North American based. Now the clientele is more eastern-based—predominantly Russian at the moment. I think we’re going to see increasing interest from the Far East; China is the most obvious example, but also Southeast Asia. We’re beginning to see America return to the market. I think it will be a very long time before we see Europe return in strength to the market.
Q: In reference to the Chinese market, some people in the industry think that buyers are overwhelmed with choices, and it might be better for the industry to present them with very specific ideas. Are you finding that with any of the people who have approached you?
A: People who’ve come to us from China have come with pretty good ideas of what they want. They have a specific idea of the size; budget hasn’t really been spoken about so much, but they generally have a pretty good idea of what size they want. I think they’ve made the effort to study the market. It’s very difficult to pigeonhole anyone in China because you’re starting with a very low base of interest; there’s really so much to grow and develop there. Predominantly right now they’re looking at smaller powerboats, production boats. As the market matures, they’re coming to our size of boats. We did see interest earlier this year in our 40-meter and 50-meter yachts. But because the market is thin at the moment, it’s very hard to spot a trend.
Q: Among some of the other Dutch shipyards and even European shipyards in general, there’s a keen interest in the 60- to 70-meter-plus market. Even with your 65-meter projects, Heesen is still doing 40- and 50-meter yachts. Is there a temptation to jump into that higher range, too?
A: We’ve just sold a 40-meter yacht, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t know likely it is that we’ll be doing another one in that size. Although, having said that, we are building a 42-meter—a big 42-meter, steel displacement boat. But, in our core market of aluminum, fast, modern yachts, we are going to move up in that sector for sure. It’s predominantly because the production shipyards are building bigger boats, and of course we can’t compete on price with mass-produced, fiberglass yachts. There will always be somebody who will want to have a custom-made, high-quality boat in that size. We witnessed that earlier this year—we delivered a 34-meter yacht to a client of ours who previously had a boat of the same size and wanted a newer one. This will happen, but it’s not going to be the core business. The interest level is moving up. We built a 65-meter, we’re building a 55-meter displacement yacht, we have firm interest in a 70-meter at the moment, and we have inquiries for 75-meter yachts. So I think our base size will creep up.
Q: The Fast Displacement Hull Form is quite interesting. Do you think this will take some market share away from the traditional semi-displacement designs that so many yacht builders have been using for so long? Do you think it’s going to be a significant part of the market?
A: Quite simply, yes. The Fast Displacement Hull concept is not just about high speed. Yes, you can get the boat to go faster than full-displacement boats, and in many cases faster than an equivalent semi-displacement yacht. The other side of the coin is, it’s a very efficient hull. The reduced drag means much lower fuel consumption. You see it if you operate a boat at more conventional speeds. For example, the 65-meter, if you run that at 14 knots—which is a pretty good speed for a 65-meter—the fuel consumption is somewhere around 300 liters an hour (editor’s note: 79 gallons per hour). For a 65-meter with very big engines, that’s extremely low fuel consumption. So yes, I think it will affect the semi-displacement speeds, but also the full-displacement speeds. It’s already reflecting in our order book. The 42-meter is a fast displacement, the 55-meter is a fast displacement, the 65-meter is a fast displacement; the 70-meter we’re talking to a customer about is a fast displacement.
Q: It’s always hard to predict trends, but do you think there will be other markets that will emerge in the coming years for superyacht buyers?
A: India is very much on people’s radar at the moment. Also South America, of course, we’ve talked about Brazil, and Mexico is a mature market for yachts. We’ve seen a little bit of an increase in the Middle East; that should also be a good market for us.
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