Turkish shores

For obvious reasons, potential clients of Western shipyards from Russia are now looking more closely at the products offered by Turkish and Middle Eastern yacht producers. Turkey in particular benefits from a wealth of experience, with a portfolio of yachts built in tandem with the world’s leading yacht designers. Top Flight takes a peek at the most recent projects to come out of Turkey’s four biggest shipyards.

TURQUOISE YACHTS

This shipyard was founded in 1997 following the merger of Proteksan Yachts and Turquoise Yacht Construction, two of the oldest and largest shipyards in the country. Turquoise Yachts has two production facilities near Istanbul, in Pendik, and in Kocaeli, on the other side of the bay. Turquoise Yachts has produced numerous fi ne boats in collaboration with illustrious European yacht designers, the best of which is the yard’s current fl agship – the 77m Go with a fabulous azure hull. Designed by the British fi rm H2 Yacht Design, it was the star of the 2018 Monaco Yacht Show. Incidentally, Go was inspired by the yard’s most famous yacht at the time, the 72m Vicky, designed by the same fi rm in 2012, which won the designers and yard several prestigious awards.

Today six yachts are under construction at Turquoise Yachts docks, including designed by the Italian fi rm A. Vallicelli & Co and French studio Vitruvius Yacht,s headed by the legendary Philippe Briand. One of the yachts under construction will be the new fl agship of the shipyard, with an 81m hull. The most recent design completed by Turquoise Yachts is Rainbow II, an elegant 51m yacht which clearly demonstrates that the company is capable of taking on any challenge. Rainbow II recently joined the hull to the superstructure connection, and now Turquoise Yachts is building and fi tting the Scandinavian-inspired interior.

SIRENA MARINE

Sirena Marine was established in 2006 as part of a car and yacht building holding company. For a shipyard of such a young age, Sirena Marine has enjoyed many successes. The fact that the management immediately decided to work only with proven, even celebrity yacht designers has played its part. The young shipyard’s portfolio includes projects by the legendary Herman Frers, Cor D. Rover, Tommaso Spadolini and other renowned masters of their craft. Another secret of Sirena Marine’s success lies in its production management. All Sirena Marine product lines are manufactured in the company’s own 155,000 sqm facility. By keeping key-manufacturing activities, such as stainless steel, furniture, teak and upholstery as well as all composite parts in-house, the company is building on its own experience and skills and maximizing product quality.

In 2021 Sirena Marine’s order book was full up to 2023 and orders had already been placed for launches in 2024. The Sirena 68 has been particularly successful, making its debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival in the post-Pandemic year 2021, and by early 2022, 26 yachts of this model have been ordered!

The flagship of the yard is the Sirena 88, designed by the famous Brazilian yacht designer Herman Frers. Nine have already been delivered to owners around the world, from the USA to Russia, and five more are under construction. For the Cannes Yachting Festival this autumn, the yard is preparing to unveil a new model, about which very little is known as yet.

ALIA YACHTS

Alia Yachts was established in 2008 and is based in Antalya. The production facility is more modest than that of Sirena Marine and Turquoise and spans just 25,000 m2, including a separate workshop for interior fi t-outs. Alia Yachts is capable of building yachts up to 80 metres in length. To date, one of the yard’s most memorable projects has been the 36m shadow boat for Phi, the superyacht built by the legendary Royal Huisman shipyard in the Netherlands. The challenge was to build an escort worthy of the Phi launched in 2021. Phi Phantom, which is similar to her smaller sister Phi, was designed according to the principles of the golden ratio and, together they look very harmonious.

However, Alia Yachts has a chance to go down in the history of yacht building. For example, recently the yardlaunched Al Waab, which is the longest steel and aluminium yacht in the world with a hull that weighs less than 500Gt. The yacht was built by the renowned Dutch design firm Vripack.

In March 2022, Alia Yachts announced the details of another client’s yacht project: the 45m SAN, an all-aluminium yacht designed by Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design, a fi rm renowned for its collaboration with industry leaders such as Oceanco, Feadship, Heesen and others.

NUMARINE

The Numarine shipyard has been operating since 2001 and is located in Gebze, in the province of Kocaeli, the center of Turkish shipbuilding. Its founder, Omer Malaz, was forced to sell 70% of the business to Abraaj Capital in 2008, but four years later he managed to buy out the share and again became the sole owner of the shipyard. Nuamarine is a 35,000 m² state-of-the-art facility that builds composite hulls using vacuum infusion techniques and makes yacht furniture. Numarine cares about the environment, the shipyard tries to use all materials without residue and recycle everything that can be recycled.

In May 2021, nine yachts were being built at the Numarine docks, and by the time of the September yacht show in Cannes, two new items arrived - 22XP and 37XP. Now the shipyard is building another hull model 37XP, which seems to have every chance of becoming the shipyard’s bestseller. The yacht is being built under the supervision of one of the old US yacht companies Denison Yachting, acting in the interests of its client. The Numarine 37XP is a classic explorer with a solid 6,000 nautical mile range, fuel economy and capacity for 12 guests and seven crew members. Its exterior, by the way, was designed by Turkish designer Can Yalman, with the help of experienced Italian architect and engineer Umberto Tagliavini. The author of the interiors, which are unique for each Numarine yacht and are made for the owner, has not yet been disclosed. The new Numarine 37XP will be handed over to the customer in the spring of 2024.