Baltic Yachts enters the power market
Renowned for its fast, composite sailing yachts, the Finnish brand launches its own motoryacht range…
Baltic Yachts, one of the world’s leading custom builders of high-performance composite sailing boats up to 60m, announced a new branded range of powerboats during the Dusseldorf Boat Show.
Baltic Yachts enjoys a global reputation for the high levels of engineering and build technology that go into its light displacement and extremely seaworthy sailing yachts such as Visione, Black Pearl, Nikata and My Song under the slogan “lighter, stiffer, faster”.
The intention is to extend the same attributes into two lines of individually tailored powerboats to be built in E-glass and carbon composite: the 27m Baltic MY88, 34m Baltic MY112 and 41m Baltic MY135 in the Motor Yacht range; and the 15m Baltic MY49 and 17m Baltic MY56 in the Day Boat range. The larger models have been designed in collaboration with Design Unlimited, and with Judel/Vrolijk for the day boat range.
The diversification confirms the direction laid down by Professor Hans Georg Näder, a serial Baltic yacht owner, who acquired 80 per cent of the Finnish brand in 2013. Since then and after installing his captain, Henry Hawkins, as CEO of the company, he has restored 25m Sunny Day, his own classic motor cruiser, partnered with Mercedes to build the Arrow 460 sport boat, and started construction of a 78-foot semi-planing composite motoryacht designed by German Mani Frers.
The new power range was driven by requests from current owners seeking diversity and the same high-end finish and craftsmanship that Baltic has built its reputation on. It marks a significant new capital investment and strategic development as the company starts 2017 with a full order book: Näder’s own 56m Pink Gin VI – the biggest carbon composite sloop in the world – is due to launch shortly and there are three other carbon composite sailing yachts measuring between 85ft and 142ft in build.
“We are leaders, not followers,” says Näder. “The Baltic Yachts name conveys quality, prestige and performance, and Baltic Motor Yachts extends this experience and reputation into a new area of yachting.”
Näder has set about growing the company since becoming a majority stakeholder (turnover is projected to almost double to €60 million by 2020 and there is tantalising talk of further acquisitions), but not beyond its means. For this reason, the power models will be built only to order at Baltic's high-tech facility in Ostrobothnia, Finland.
“We have to earn the money to reinvest, but there is no burden for growth and I don’t want a shipyard with 500 employees,” says Näder. “We want interesting, profitable projects where we can use our capacity and know-how to best effect.”
A frank interview with owner and entrepreneur Professor Hans Georg Näder appears in issue #176 of The Superyacht Report.
Portrait photo by Justin Ratcliffe
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