Sunreef’s choice to stage its twentieth Anniversary Celebration on the Yacht Membership de Monaco (YCM) throughout this 12 months’s Monaco Yacht Show appeared becoming. In spite of everything, final 12 months, YCM had hosted a signing ceremony between Sunreef’s President Francis Lapp and Fernando Alonso because the latter commissioned a brand new 60 Sunreef Eco, earlier than Rafa Nadal and Nico Rosberg had a table-tennis showdown for the Sunreef Ambassadors’ Cup on the 2021 Monaco Yacht Show.
The Polish builder’s relationships with high-profile house owners and ambassadors seems to have advanced fairly naturally, though their appointments have been steadily unveiled and highlighted the builder’s fast growth and evolution in recent times.
Nadal, who gained his twenty second Grand Slam at this 12 months’s French Open, had seen the Sunreef 80 sailing catamaran on the 2018 Cannes Yachting Competition, which impressed the tennis famous person to purchase an 80 Sunreef Energy, a mannequin solely unveiled the next 12 months. In the summertime of 2019, his order was introduced by Sunreef earlier than he joined the yard for a celebration on the Cannes Yachting Competition and the next summer time, he obtained Nice White in his native Mallorca.
Rosberg, a sustainability entrepreneur since retiring from F1 after profitable the 2016 world title, was introduced in 2020 because the ambassador for Sunreef Yachts’ Eco range of solar-power catamarans, with a selected concentrate on the crusing fashions, having examined the Sunreef 60’s ‘E’ electrical model in Monaco and, extra not too long ago, the primary Sunreef 80 Eco in Dubai.
Alonso — a two-time F1 world champion and at present driving for Alpine — adopted in 2021 when he ordered the primary 60 Sunreef Energy Eco, which might be among the many first motor yacht fashions within the Eco vary. And as if the movie star roll name wasn’t lengthy sufficient, skilled explorer Mike Horn was introduced this 12 months because the ambassador of the builder’s new Explorer line of yachts, with designs already revealed for 40M and 50M fashions.
“We wish to work carefully with our ambassadors. Most of them discovered their approach to Sunreef Yachts by merely searching for a ship that will meet their wants. The synergy we discovered with Fernando Alonso or Rafael Nadal is one thing that lets us specific our model spirit — we like competitors, we’re a dynamic firm,” says Lapp, who was born in France and holds two passports, having obtained Polish citizenship in 2014.
“With Nico Rosberg we discover the potential of inexperienced applied sciences and spotlight the significance of the electrical revolution in yachting. Mike Horn helps us promote the Explorer vary and encourages individuals to find new locations, as he’s the very best particular person to voice that sort of message. It’s all about discovering the best synergies.”
A Frenchman in Gdansk
Following notably fast progress previously 4 years, Lapp now oversees an organization with 2,000 workers break up fairly evenly throughout the corporate’s authentic facility within the historic Gdansk Shipyard and its new website additional east alongside the Martwa Wisla river. As well as, Sunreef is at present growing a 3rd website within the United Arab Emirates.
{An electrical} engineer, motorsport fan and eager rally driver, Lapp first visited Poland in 1991 to compete in an off-road championship earlier than transferring to Warsaw the next 12 months to additional his profession.
“Submit-communist Poland was a rustic stuffed with nice alternatives,” says Lapp, now 64. “After I moved to Warsaw, my associates in France have been shocked. They couldn’t perceive my choice, however I knew this was my probability to evolve as Poland supplied a recent, dynamic enterprise setting with loads of room for progress and gifted workforce.”
Lapp’s firm developed electrical tools for world manufacturers, and later designed and put in electrical, sanitary and air-conditioning programs for big industrial services. He additionally developed an curiosity in crusing, first with racing catamarans, earlier than growing a facet enterprise chartering cruising catamarans within the Indian Ocean.
As shoppers requested for bigger, extra luxurious catamarans, Lapp couldn’t discover what he was searching for, so determined to construct his personal after recognising a niche within the pleasure boating market.
“Again then, pleasure catamarans have been very fundamental. After I purchased my first energy catamarans for my constitution enterprise, I realised their high quality and end might be improved. I began to ask round and looked for shipyards that might construct me a customized multihull, however no person needed to do it, so I made a decision to construct alone,” he says.
“The thought from the beginning was to inject superyacht DNA into twin-hull yachts. I discovered my very own market hole and launched a brand new sort of boat — a luxurious catamaran. We began a pattern.”
Lapp based Sunreef in 2002 after discovering an acceptable manufacturing facility on the historic Gdansk Shipyard, the place Lech Walesa — additionally an electrician — famously led a strike then negotiations between staff and the federal government in 1980, resulting in the Solidarity motion and the autumn of communism by 1989 earlier than he was elected President the next 12 months. Walesa has been an excellent supporter of Sunreef, showing on the model’s occasions on a number of events.
“After the political adjustments in Poland, the Gdansk Shipyard was in a tough place with many staff being laid off,” Lapp says. “The place wanted new power and I wish to assume we breathed new life into the docks.”
Lapp admits constructing there may be each ‘a privilege and a problem’, because the delight in setting up yachts in such an historic shipyard is balanced by restrictions on modernising or upgrading the services as a result of website’s heritage standing.
“Many buildings are monuments, so we now have to adapt to the present infrastructure,” says Lapp, who determined to develop and construct a brand new shipyard just a few years in the past after exhausting capability on the Gdansk Shipyard.
First After First
In 2003, Sunreef launched its first yacht, the Sunreef 74 Che, which was the primary luxurious oceangoing catamaran of that dimension with a flybridge. Lapp proudly confirmed the 74-footer on the Monaco Yacht Present, the place each catamarans and Polish-built luxurious yachts have been an unfamiliar sight.
“Launching the primary Sunreef 74 was clearly an enormous second,” he says. “On the time, boat constructing was a sort of pastime for me, nevertheless it shortly grew right into a enterprise as soon as I realised the potential. The Sunreef 74 was the world’s first luxurious sail cat and on prime of that, she had a flybridge – an industry-first on the planet of multihulls.”
Extra world firsts adopted. In 2008, the corporate launched the 70ft energy catamaran Jambo, the world’s first double-deck powercat.
Having developed 25m-plus carbon masts, Sunreef unveiled two large fashions in 2010: the Sunreef 102 Ipharra, the world’s first double-deck crusing cat, and the Sunreef 114 Che, the world’s greatest sloop-rigged catamaran and what Lapp calls the corporate’s entry into the ‘monohull-dominated world of superyachts’.
“Sunreef’s key has at all times been the progressive mindset. We began out by principally inventing a brand new sort of yacht and stored innovating all the way in which. We have been the primary to give you double-deck cats, aft garages, folding masts and so many different options. I believe that is what distinguishes us essentially the most.”
For a couple of decade from 2008-2017, Sunreef’s hottest crusing and powercat fashions have been within the 58-74ft vary, with gross sales to Asia together with the Sunreef 70 Feng to China in 2013 and the Supreme 68 Eagle Wings and Sunreef 62 Annette delivered to Singapore in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The builder’s launches in 2017 additionally included the one-off Sunreef 88 Double Deck.
New Beginnings
Launched below the ‘New Beginnings’ banner, the corporate’s present vary of crusing fashions was first seen in 2018 with the Sunreef 60 and Sunreef 80, earlier than the primary models of the 50 and 70 adopted in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Remarkably, the Sunreef 80 has proved the preferred of the 4 fashions, underlining Lapp’s concentrate on giant catamarans. Likewise, the 80 Sunreef Power — which premiered at Cannes in 2019 — is the preferred of the present vary of powercats, which additionally consists of 60 and 70 fashions. A blue-hulled, three-cabin 80 Sunreef Energy for a China-based shopper was launched in 2020.
“I felt we would have liked to reassess our provide and create a complete new vary of energy and sail yachts, which have proved bestsellers and led to our additional progress,” Lapp says. “These fashions are additionally the bottom of our Eco vary of electrical photo voltaic cats, which has been one other large step ahead for us.”
It’s additionally price emphasising that Sunreef’s powercats are constructed on completely different hulls to the crusing fashions, and are notably wider. For instance, the 80 Sunreef Energy is 23.95m lengthy with a 12m beam, whereas the Sunreef 80 crusing mannequin is 24.4m lengthy and has a 11.5m beam.
Eco Future
At Cannes in 2019, the builder revealed the Sunreef 60 E electrical crusing cat, because the fully-fledged Eco vary was being developed behind the scenes. This groundbreaking sequence presents a variety of inexperienced expertise and supplies that may be carried out on the present ‘New Beginnings’ fashions.
The obvious and arguably most progressive expertise is the photo voltaic panels, which have been developed in-house, are lower than a millimetre thick and may be curved to wrap round elements of the yacht.
In addition to getting used on flat surfaces like a tough prime, this ‘photo voltaic pores and skin’ may also be built-in into the hull sides, superstructure and even the mast of crusing yachts, as proven on the primary Sunreef 80 Eco, Marie-Joseph, that appeared at this 12 months’s Cannes Yachting Competition and Monaco Yacht Present. The primary Sunreef 60 Eco was additionally launched earlier this 12 months and commenced cruising this summer time.
Elective power-generating inexperienced tech consists of hydrogeneration, wind generators and high-performance kites, whereas the Eco vary’s different highlights embody lithium battery packs described by Sunreef because the lightest within the {industry}, an ultra-economic air-conditioning system and sensible power administration. The result’s silent, emission-free cruising and lowered working prices and upkeep.
The Eco vary additionally presents the choice to make use of sustainable supplies not just for the décor and ending supplies however, with the likes of basalt fibre and linen fibre, additionally within the hulls, superstructures and furnishings. Lapp has been overwhelmed by the response to the vary.
“A lot of the enquiries we get right now are for Eco yachts. Folks realise they provide so many benefits. The environmental facet is apparent, however Eco yachts additionally symbolize a brand new philosophy of having fun with time at sea. When you attempt an electrical yacht, you in all probability gained’t return to diesel engines,” he says.
“The silence and the absence of fumes and vibrations take the cruising expertise to a different stage. If you’re in a quiet bay, the very last thing you wish to hear is your genset working. Within the coming years, I anticipate much more curiosity. Electrical boats will grow to be a brand new commonplace.”
Large Is Stunning
Sunreef has additionally been difficult itself with the dimensions of its boats, launching the primary 100 Sunreef Energy late final 12 months, with the yacht that includes on the duvet of Yacht Style Issue 65, this year’s ‘Multihulls Issue’.
Earlier this 12 months, the builder introduced the sale of a second hull that can even function twin 1,300hp engines however might be a bespoke model distinguished by a white hull and superstructure that features an enclosed flybridge. The corporate desires to go larger and may, as evidenced by the actual fact it may match the hull of the 49M Energy on the builder’s new purpose-built facility, which has devoted halls for superyachts.
The corporate has launched designs for the Sunreef 100 crusing mannequin — based mostly on a barely slimmer hull than the 100 Sunreef Power — and a 150ft Sunreef MM 460 Cat designed with Malcolm McKeon. More moderen ideas embody the Sunreef 43M in addition to an Eco model of the 140ft crusing mannequin, whose interesting options embody a 50ft-plus beam and beautiful three-sided ‘ocean lounge’ seaside membership.
All the time wanting forward, Sunreef has this 12 months revealed its plans to develop an Explorer line, following the discharge of 40M Explorer and 50M Explorer ideas. Billed because the ‘subsequent era of expedition superyachts’, Sunreef’s new Explorer sequence of powercats will function a shallow draft, huge storage capability and huge leisure areas.
“These days, luxurious is about discovering that quiet spot, someplace distant from all of the crowds. It’s about actually attending to know the place you’re visiting,” Lapp says.
“To do that, you want a protected, well-equipped yacht that can by no means fail, and catamarans appear to be the right alternative for exploration. They provide inherent stability, nice storage capability and large aft decks. Moreover, each system is doubled due to the twin-hull construction. That’s why we got here up with a complete sequence of Explorer yachts.”
New Amenities
Lapp says Sunreef’s in-house management over all points of a yacht’s manufacturing has enabled the corporate to shortly construct and ship its new fashions and subsequent manufacturing, which has helped retain shoppers and appeal to new prospects.
“As a result of we depend on in-house work, we’re quick, so the time to market is pretty brief with us,” Lapp says. “We stock out each stage of the method ourselves, so have the means to craft our concepts into actuality on time and in sync with buyer expectations. That is how we preserve pole place.”
Sunreef has managed to accommodate its astonishing rising demand due to its new 80,000sqm riverside website that has enabled them to design and develop a purpose-built facility, a world away from the red-brick halls within the Gdansk Shipyard.
Design, engineering, manufacturing, ending and carpentry are all dealt with within the brand-new facility, with the workplace constructing and the coated manufacturing services already protecting 15,000sqm.
In addition to superyacht halls large enough to construct fashions as much as 50m, the high-tech manufacturing services embody a powerful carpentry and CNC workshop, plus an enormous, brand-new paint store with superior expertise together with mild, humidity and temperature management.
In the meantime, the workplaces on the entrance to the shipyard neighbour one line of manufacturing halls and are a brief stroll to the opposite. The three-storey workplace constructing has nearly a Google workplace vibe, with younger employees in informal clothes working and conversing in an open-plan design, with large home windows, sleep pods and even free fruit.
“The brand new facility is solely a unique world. We nonetheless depend on inhouse manufacturing, however now we’ve taken it to a different stage with new equipment, manufacturing halls and bridge cranes. As well as, our workplaces and manufacturing website are interconnected, which suggests our engineers and designers have quick access to the manufacturing,” Lapp says.
“For the workplaces, we needed to create open areas the place individuals can really feel comfy. On the identical time, there are lots of spots within the workplace the place individuals can concentrate on duties requiring silence and focus. I imagine we created an excellent setting the place all of the departments can talk and work together simply.”
Sunreef does have the continuing problem of sourcing staff and has needed to recruit from neighbouring nations for a number of years. Lapp says the 2 shipyards are on a continuing seek for extra employees, whereas there are plans to amass extra land to complement the brand new Gdansk website and supply extra manufacturing halls and a warehouse.
In the meantime, Sunreef not too long ago added Singapore-based Hong Seh Marine to its vendor community and is investing over US$27 million in its Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) website in northern UAE, its first abroad manufacturing facility and one with good entry to the Gulf and Asia-Pacific nations.
“We’ve a rising variety of enquiries coming from the Center East, Asia and Australia,” Lapp says. “Increasing to RAK will assist us construct a stronger bond with these markets. In an extended perspective, we plan to construct each mannequin of the Sunreef vary there, together with the Eco sequence.”
This text first appeared on Yacht Style.
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