Special Feature: The 2010 HISWA Yacht Valley Tour!

Twizzle’s tenders are hidden behind massive port/starboard deck hatches with an embedded crane at centerline, keeping roll momentum minimized and equidistant to each side. Notice the pair of Rondal winches located under the centerline crane door. See the next photo for a close-up.

Rondals proprietary, lightweight, reduced signature carbon winches are hidden under deck hatches, away from view. The engineering behind this build far exceeds most motoryachts, but it’s the stuff you can’t see that leaves you baffled. The hydraulic system alone must take miles of pipe!

Among many engineering challenges, Twizzle will feature a fold-out stern platform, again void of anything that reflects the mechanics behind the contraption. It’s almost indicative of the way most mortals look at a mechanism. They don’t want to know how it works; they just want to see it in action. Too bad, because they’re missing the beauty behind it. And the brains.

Wednesday, June 16th

Hakvoort Shipyards

As one of many Dutch Treats, we visited Hakvoort Shipyards in the town of Monnickendam, which should be renamed Hakvoortville, because the village sprawled as a result of Hakvoort. 95 years young, this yard has been the foundation the local economy for decades and Hakvoort owns a fair amount of land around town, giving them investment income that will withstand economic downturns. While the yard is conservative in size compared to some of the yards on the tour, it was rich in experience and may be one of the most fiscally sound. They don’t have a lot of overhead and their infrastructure has long been amortized. They maintain a small, full time crew and sub-contract as needed. It’s a mindset that has kept them in business for nearly a century.

Although Havvoort has a highly automated woodworking shop located off-site, they still do a few things the old-fashioned way using a few tools from yesteryear. The tool shop, located near the main shed is a throw-back in time. While it’s not state-of-the-art, the machinery used is still just as viable today, especially for one-off pieces. In fact, some of these tools are actually better for short run production, requiring less programming, but decidedly more skill.

Albert Hakvoort, Sr. took us through their latest launch, the 39-meter “Pretty Woman”, a round-bilge displacement motoryacht that captures a certain Hakvoort element; modern, yet conservative – which best describes their approach to building yachts, as well as their business model. Pretty Woman was designed by Cor de Rover, based on a steel hull and aluminium superstructure with a modern, yet nautical interior by Michela Reverberi. A pair of C-18 Cats give her a cruise of 10 knots and sprint of 13.5 knots.

Onboard Pretty Woman, Albert Hakvoort showed this articulated, double-hinged door that is both seamless and lays flat against the inside bulwarks. As Albert walked us through the boat, you could see the pride he took in their work. He is still very much in touch with the builds, pointing out unique attributes as we made our way around.

Pretty Woman was still slightly skeletal, but by the time the HISWA feature is published on YF, she'll pack on a few pounds and strut her stuff.

Bloemsma Van Bremen Shipyard

With any yard I visit, I naturally gravitate toward engineers. We may not speak with the same native tongue, but we speak the same language. Over the course of the 5-day tour, I met with engineers at each yard and was impressed by their fortitude and methodology, but none more-so than Nico VanBreemen. This is one of those guys you could talk to for hours… and learn something new every minute.

In years past, Nico built superstructures for Feadship, before breaking out on his own to build entire yachts. And wow, can he build a boat! Nico is an incredibly knowledgeable engineer with an attention to detail that can only be described as Mil Spec. And his yard reflects the same. Clean, well laid-out and modern, it takes up most of a peninsula in Makkum.

By a stroke of luck, two of his builds were at the yard on the day we arrived; “Griffeon” and “Valquest”. Although we didn’t have time to board Griffeon, it’s an all-time personal favorite. Nico is helping the owner sell the boat because he’s getting up there in years and no longer uses it to cruise. If anyone reading this is looking for a canoe stern, true, rough-water trawler with redundant engineering and high-style, take a look at Griffeon! You won’t be disappointed.

Saving the best for last on this day, BvB’s performance sailing yacht “Valquest” was at the yard. Although it was originally launched last year, the owner asked Nico to keep the boat at the yard, because he needed to focus on his business for a few months.

While many of us who follow yachting have seen Valquest in press releases, or on BvB’s website, the pictures don’t come remotely close to showing the level of quality to be found in this build. The interior joinery, fit & finish is world class. You will find none finer and certainly not for the price.

Setting aside design, lay-out, fit, finish, materials, etc., there is one place onboard that epitomizes Nico’s work; the engine room. Sailboats aren’t known for engine room space, so space utilization and access becomes an art form and Valquest’s engine room was a Picasso.

The organization and access, given the allotted space, was a maze of simplicity. And as we all know, there is an artform and science to keeping highly complex systems… simple. I have a ton of pics that will be used for an upcoming feature, but here’s an overview…

Thursday, June 17th

Amels Vlissingen Shipyard

I’ve long heard Amels was one of the most capable yards in the world. After seeing Vlissingen operation, I now understand why. This is essentially a commercial/military yard with a yachting division. The procedure, organization and execution at this yard is much like a naval shipyard. I was right at home!

Pictures were not allowed, but Amels MD Victor Caminada gave a presentation of Amels corporate, along with current builds and future projects, before taking us on a tour of their facility and a couple of Limited Editions that were in various stages of build. The facility is massive and so are the bays. The finishing departments had professional level environmental control and were run like scientific clean rooms.