Ginom: custom boats from Tula
One can surely say that Ginom is a boutique shipyard – thanks to its low production volumes, highly personalized approach and special attention to every client that only a small family company can afford
We first met Maxim Dubinin, the founder of Ginom shipyard, several years ago at the boat exhibition in Samara, where he and his son Kirill had brought their first boat – a model now known as the Ginom Day Cruiser-730.
With its silvery-blue finish and elegant, flowing hull lines, the boat seemed strikingly different from everything else on display. And after a few minutes talking to Maxim and getting to know the boat’s unique design solutions and features, you begin to understand why it is so.
Maxim is ready to talk about his boats and production processes for hours. An engineer by training, he had long enjoyed success in a different field, but at some point, he realized he had hit a ceiling and stopped growing.
“I couldn't fully realize my potential. Here, I can do what I find necessary and do it the way I consider right. That is why in 2022 I decided to focus on boatbuilding," he comments.
The desire to enter the shipbuilding business did not come out of nowhere. Back in 2020, the future founder of Ginom shipyard began looking for a boat for his family. He visited several boat shows but failed to find what he was looking for. The boats available at the time did not meet his criteria: they were cramped and had poor hydrodynamic performance, to say nothing of comfort. So he decided to build one himself.
Maxim believes that planing boats are the most complex type, and there are few companies capable of building them in the world. It was crucial for him to find a highly skilled designer, and he did find one, but not in Russia.
“Our first joint project was an 8-metre cabin cruiser. We fully designed it but had to put the project on hold because I couldn't source some materials, one of which was tempered glass capable of bending in two planes. "If I had launched that boat in 2022, we would have caused a minor revolution in Russian shipbuilding," Maxim says. By the way, the project was later redesigned and its hull has already been built.
Maxim says he spent a long time thinking about a name for his future shipyard. He hired several companies and even held a contest, but nothing felt right. In the end, the unique and memorable brand name "Ginom" came to him spontaneously while he was driving. There was a similar story with the logo that his younger son Ilya came up with.
The first boat to emerge from Ginom shipyard in Tula in 2024 was the Day Cruiser-730 that Maxim had first showcased in Samara. He explains his decision to produce this particular model in the following way:
“If you look at the global industry, center-console boats are among the most popular. They are good both for leisure and fishing, allowing for easy movement from bow to stern even underway. They enable a flexible interior layout without compromising comfort and can be configured in a way that is impossible for other kinds of boats, not to mention their technical characteristics”.
The choice of material was obvious from the start. “The best choice for building vessels is aluminium”, Maxim believes. “It allows you to build lightweight but robust hulls with good hydrodynamic characteristics. All the boats are made from alloy 1561, because it is strong and corrosion-resistant. Today, it is the best alloy in the world and it is produced in Russia”.
It was important for the shipyard to refine its technologies, to consider numerous nuances and gain experience. "The primary design criterion was to achieve excellent hydrodynamic performance and comfort. However, once speeds exceed 80 km/h, aerodynamic characteristics must also be taken into account. We have achieved this. Our vessels are designed to withstand extreme loads at speeds over 100 km/h and can handle the resulting vibrations. This is accomplished through complex geometry and the right choice of welding technology. Requirements for the vessels not intended to operate at speeds above 60 km/h are far less stringent. By incorporating complex curved shapes, we not only increased the hull's rigidity but also reduced its weight. The amount of filler dropped to as little as 60 kg. However, there is a catch, which is an immense amount of labor, as 40% of the parts are manufactured by hand because they simply don't fit the mathematical model," Maxim said.
Ginom’s production facility is located in Tula and is capable of building vessels up to 13 meters in length. The model range starts at 6.7 meters. As Maxim explains, the shipyard’s philosophy focuses on comfort, speed and quality, and the 6.7-meter mark is the minimum size at which the yard can ensure the expected level of comfort. The maximum length limit is dictated by the length-to-beam ratios required for planing hulls and by the shipyard’s own production capabilities. Ginom’s largest vessel is the recently developed Expedition-1250, which is a 12.5-meter model featuring a displacement hull.
Ginom’s approach differs drastically from what one can usually find at other shipyards. Each new vessel is not simply built in the image and likeness of the previous one but is born anew, ensuring that even units of the same model differ from one another. Rigorous quality control is applied at every stage, alongside the careful selection and development of hardware and moving parts. Even the plaques and the Ginom logo are crafted from silver to underscore the unique character and value of every boat.
“We are going to grow slowly. Rapid growth is a pipe dream that comes at the cost of quality. Given my attitude, I am well aware that we are unlikely to produce a large number of hulls per year. If we ramped up production, it would turn into a mass-manufacturing process and everything would have to be geared towards quick assembly. There would be errors and the final product would no longer be a Ginom. That is why we produce limited-edition, handcrafted vessels, no more than five hulls a year, often fewer. Yet, these are superb, top-tier boats tailored to a specific individual. And what matters most to me is the gratitude of clients receiving a truly unique, bespoke vessel. I end up becoming friends with almost every one of them during the сonstruction process," Maxim concludes.
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