Imagine sitting at your desk, receiving an email regarding your in-build yacht. Still in the planning stages, there are some layouts your designer would like you to review. Strapping on your Oculus Quest goggles, you breeze through the saloon and up to the flybridge. Pleased with what you see, there are a couple of things you’d like to change. You discuss modifications, come to a decision, and magically, that very day, perhaps even within the hour, you’re walking through the changes in the virtual world, and they are just as you’d hoped. Without delay, your yacht continues its progress.
Had you been working with images and either online or paper plans, that process might have eaten up days, if not weeks. Vripack, whose recent creation Al Waab was built by Alia Yachts, has been using Virtual Reality technology for about six years. On most builds, they have found it saves time. It saves money. It delivers yachts that owners love. And most of all, it connects yacht owners to the process, keeping them engaged and excited about the build. SF Yachts’ Francesco Pitea acted as the owner’s representative during the build.
Vripack Yachts: Unique Designs that Work
Located on Watersport Boulevard in Sneek, The Netherlands, Vripack Yachts was founded by Dick Boon. Self-described as progressive, precise, and easygoing, he has been drawing boats from his imagination since primary school. He taught himself to sail at a very young age. At 16, he began work with the Amsterdam Drydock Company, discovering he had a talent for design. Boon moved to Friesland at 21, working as a sailing instructor in the summer and designing new boats for the sailing school during the cold winter months, helping to build the boats as well.
In 1961, at 23 years of age, Boon launched his independent business. A very important client was interested in building boats, and put faith in the young designer, hence the name was derived from the DeVries Consultancy for Packaging Materials, shortened to Vripack. To simplify the complex history, Boon built, showed, and sold yachts of all types, sailing, motor, catamaran, motor sailors, commercial vessels, and fishing boats of all sizes, capitalizing on the versatility of his yard as one of its strong points.
Known for attending to all of the details as opposed to just supplying a pretty design and leaving the rest to the shipyard, Boon ensures there are plenty of boats to point to as a source of pride. The Doggersbank, a very seaworthy yacht, is such a fabulous plan it has been built some 500 times. Turmoil, a research vessel, won a prize for the most innovative ship. Vripack designs won four categories at the 2020 Boat International Design & Innovations Awards, and earned two spots on the panel at Monaco Ocean Week at the Yacht Club of Monaco on “Sustainability and added value of a Zero Emission Goal.” The Vripack portfolio of more than 7,500 projects offers insight into the versatility, quality, and innovation that make a Vripack unique.
Alia Yachts: A Premium Bespoke Shipyard
In the beautiful port of Antalya, along the Turkish Riviera, Alia Yachts began production of yachts in 2008. Founded by two yachting industry veterans, Ömer Koray and Gokhan Celik, Alia takes great pride in applying top technology and construction techniques to deliver finished yachts above and beyond all expectations. Building yachts to become legacies, Alia is committed to transforming drawings from the world’s top yacht designers, like Vripack, into stunning, award-winning, completed yachts.
Alia takes great pride in craftsmanship, employing in-house engineers, shipwrights, technicians, electricians, mechanics, welders, and laminators. The in-house interior atelier team of 80 specifies, creates, and fits luxury interiors, expertly sourcing and handling materials like exotic leathers, marble, quartz, natural stone, glass, and hard metals. They also work to include rare or antique materials, finishing with ecological and sustainable solutions that graciously speak to luxury.
Al Waab: Four Decks, Six Staterooms, and a Spacious Home at Sea
The name Al Waab loosely translates to “a great space in which to put things.” In this case, that would be quite a lot of things. There is some magic working here, as the yacht is the longest steel and aluminum displacement vessel below 500 GT, yet has 42 percent more space outdoor plus 8 percent more indoors than her peers. To be fair, the recessed bow yacht tender storage, covered by a grate, is not considered in the closed interior space area, but Al Waab shines as a magician of space. She also uses about 35 percent less fuel than comparable yachts due to her well-crafted hull lines, giving her greater range.
Two years in construction, she was delivered in March of 2022. The owner’s brief described a fresh, modern yacht with lots of space, and stability at sea, that would host family gatherings with lots of outdoor areas and gathering spaces. This floating family apartment was constructed in Alia Yachts’ 25,000 square meters indoor build facility. In addition, Alia has dedicated 4,000 square meters to their interior joinery factory, operated by an award-winning team.
