Why visit a shipyard if you make a decision to buy a yacht?

Most shipyards welcome customers to their production sites and organize excursions for them

You can arrange a visit with your dealer or a broker or on your own. And you should certainly beware of those who refuse to give you this opportunity for some reason.

According to Kirill Shabalov, West Nautical managing partner, shipyards are most frequently visited by the customers who tend to buy a yacht from a particular brand and those who have already made their choice and just want to see the construction culture and understand the shipbuilder’s mentality better. Coming to the production site one can see the quality of assembly, who the workers are and how they work, get to know the technologies and understand how hulls are molded, how they work with GRP,  wiring, etc.  

Most often shipyard tours are given by a project manager and start with a workshop where hulls are molded and built. Then they go on to the workshops, where they deal with metal and plastic, wood and locksmith works. The tour normally finishes with the final outfitting, where  everything is numbered and labeled for particular models, and it is out of this place that almost finished yachts are launched into the water. When you come to a shipyard, get ready for a really intense excursion that may sometimes take all day.

You can visit a shipyard any time that is convenient for you, but the date has got to be agreed on in advance, because sometimes there may be some overlaps and the project manager may not be able to spare the time. For smaller hulls under 20 meters the customer normally comes to the shipyard once to see the production process, the finished hulls and make a note of some interior, engineering and optional solutions. For larger hulls customers come to the shipyard a few times, and it is common practice.

First, customers visit different shipyards, delve into their features and nuances. Then they come again to approve a particular model’s specification at the shipyard of choice, and later they come to the sea trials to make sure that the model suits them fine. It is also a good idea to come at the stage of interior specification and the delivery of the finished hull.  Depending on the size of the boat you can visit the shipyard one to four times or more, and a good shipyard will never limit the number of your visits.

“Based on my experience, it is the interior that is most difficult in terms of choice, as it is not always possible to understand what particular furniture will look like on a finished yacht,” Kirill Shabalov shares. You can take a few samples of wood, finish materials, take them to the finished boat and see what you like and what you don’t. You can also go on board, open some drawers, see how well the sealant is applied, check how the doors move, what sound insulation there is on the cabin doors, what sound insulation there is on the bulkheads, how well the fridge is fixed, how carefully the hidden internal panels are processed.

The way the wood and metal are processed is also really telling. One does not have to be an expert in some subtleties, but anyone is capable of seeing how well a particular part is finished.

Experienced owners often ask to start the engines to hear them work and choose the most comfortable option (usually the least noisy one). As the master’s cabin is located in the central part of the hull of 66–76-foot boats, many customers want to check how comfortable it is to be in the master’s with the engines running. Sometimes they ask to start the generator and see ​what it is like in the cabin. Based on the results of these tests, you can ask to preinstall additional sound insulation or some other additional equipment.

As a rule, the customers who come to a shipyard gain a lot of useful knowledge. And this knowledge does not only help them to choose and build a yacht that will meet all their expectations and keep them happy for a long time, but will also come in handy when they build their future boats.