Dutch yard has 18 custom yachts under construction, 10 of which are over 80m in length

Feadship, the premier Dutch superyacht builder, has 18 custom yachts under construction that show how the yard is meeting demand for ever larger yachts. Of the 18 Feadships it is currently building at three sites across the Netherlands, 10 are longer than 80m.

“The boats we build are getting longer. There is an evident shift to bigger,” Feadship CEO Jan-Bart Verkuyl told IBI.

Feadship plans to open a fourth yard in the Port of Amsterdam soon. There, it will be able to build to 160m. It will also have easy access to the North Sea through a 100m x 70m lock, the world’s largest, currently under construction.

Verkuyl, however, does not expect Feadship to build to 160m soon. “That length is still outside our comfort zone,” he said, adding that logistics, technical infrastructure and sufficient staffing levels were as of now still challenges.

Most of Feadship’s clients are Americans, followed by Europeans, according to Verkuyl. “Then there is a third group of clients from Russia, the Middle East and Asia,” he adds.

Verkuyl says that neither US and EU sanctions against Russia nor the US threat of import taxes on steel and aluminium, are impacting on Feadship’s business. “Most of our clients are not Russians and the steel for our yachts is made here in the Netherlands,” he says.

The push for larger Feadships is evident in the tall, 74m Sherpa the company will soon launch. It is its second expedition yacht that could not be completed inside Feadship’s giant construction hall at De Kaag.

Feadship’s Faith was named ‘Superyacht of the Year’ this month. The company is 169 years’ old. It has been owned by Louis Vuitton, the French luxury products company, since 2008.