Despite popularity of 'Helix' China will remain peripheral, says de Vries

The 45m Royal Van Lent superyacht – Helix – may have blazed a trail along the Pearl River in China but Henk de Vries, commercial manager at sister yard Feadship de Vries, insists the market remains peripheral to the group’s commercial strategy.

Despite having 13 projects currently underway, including its first order from a Chinese client, the shipyard will continue to direct its attentions towards ‘traditional’ markets.

“We see wealth spreading out a little bit now”, de Vries said. “Fifty or sixty per cent of our business used to come from the US but that figure has now fallen to below half, with Eastern Europe and Asia picking up that figure.”

“To cover China is impossible”, he explained. “We have had some help from LVMH, which has a strong presence there, but what we are doing is only a drop in the ocean. Although it is promising we see China as a long-term project.”

The Feadship five-year plan remains Europe and America, and while the yard “expects to do some deals [in Asia] it will remain a small percentage”.



Somewhat surprisingly, de Vries said that he felt the future for all superyacht size ranges was bright, and that the defining factor for success would increasingly be related to quality, rather than size. Although he acknowledged a market adjustment that had seen orders fall from their 2003-2008 peak, he felt the new industry model was “sustainable”.

“As far as we can determine no pleasure vessel over 30 metres has ever sailed up the Pearl River,” said Feadship’s head of marketing, Francis Vermeer. “There may have been some wealthy Dutch traders who kept a yacht in the Canton area during the 1600s – after all, the first pleasure yachts were created by the Dutch a century before that! But Helix has certainly made history for this modern era, and this state-of-the-art Feadship has been very much appreciated by the new wave of yachting enthusiasts in China.”

This point was illustrated in spectacular fashion when Helix left the Nansha International Boat Show, as her captain Phil Burgess explained. “As requested, upon our departure we paid tribute to the Temple of the Goddess of the Sea by cruising in a figure of eight as we passed this location. The authorities had even arranged for a microlight aircraft to take photographs. It was a fitting ending to an excellent experience in Nansha, which I believe will become very popular as the new marina develops.”



An in-depth Q&A with Henk de Vries appears in SuperyachtDesign Q13, out now.

Related Links

Feadship De Vries Scheepsbouw Profile | Feadship De Vries Scheepsbouw Website

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